There are some Shanghainese who look down on people speaking a different dialect, especially one from a poorer region.

These Shanghainese strut about chattering away conspicuously in Shanghai dialect to the befuddlement of whoever cannot speak it.

Some Shanghainese even call anyone from a poorer place axiang or xiang'u'nin, derogatory terms similar to "rube," "bumpkin," (literally, "coming from villages").

But all Shanghainese are not so foolish or vain. Most are warm-hearted.

On February 4, Xinmin Evening News published an excerpt from a book ("The Lives of Ordinary Folks in Shanghai"), in which the author painted a distorted picture in over-broad strokes when he said: "It shows a lack of culture to speak in Shanghainese in Pudong."

This article created an uproar as many Shanghai readers fumed and protested. The newspaper apologized, saying it had failed to explain the excerpt in its proper context and that the excerpt was not chosen to belittle the Shanghai dialect but to promote Mandarin Chinese.

I trust the editors' sincerity in their apology and I do not believe they published the excerpt with the actual malice to enrage their gentle readers. No sane reader would believe the newspaper could see eye-to-eye with the author in his sweeping and biased statement about Shanghainese.

That many Shanghai readers are angry is understandable, but they should not overreact.

Some furious Shanghai readers demanded Xinmin Evening News apologize again on the front page. Some hurled dirty words at those who come from outside the city, calling them "an eyesore" on Shanghai's civilized streets.

That's too much.

(Shanghai Daily February 11, 2009)