'Save our cultural code'

According to a survey by China Youth Daily in 2009, 62 percent of 5,600 people said they think films and TV programs appear truer to life when the roles have dialects.

Chi adds a knowledge of dialects can help crack crime and says he once helped the police out with a kidnap case by analyzing a 15-minute recording.

But Chi doesn't think dialects are disappearing because of Mandarin.

The same is happening in other countries, Chi says. Promoting Mandarin and protecting dialects is not a zero-sum game. He says that through recording, sorting, and redeveloping dialects, they can be preserved and assist the learning of Mandarin.

Martina Hasse, a German translator and interpreter of Chinese literature, who has stayed in China for years, believes local dialects are important because plurality and individualism is good.

"I think it is a cultural duty, or even a job, and very worthy that parents talk with their children in their mother tongue. No other language as the mother tongue is able to transport the genuine emotional colorfulness of different individuals," Hasse says.

She adds that her country has more than 29 dialects. And in the 1960s, standard German was taught in schools. But now the schools offer courses on local dialects to preserve the richness of its culture.

In 2011, at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, it was made clear the country would continue promoting Mandarin, while protecting dialects and regional languages.

China Audible Database of Language Resources started in Jiangsu province, in 2008, and is an ambitious project to present a gift to future generations.

"The project follows a mode that the government takes the lead, specialists implement, and people are invited to participate in," says Li Weihong, vice-minister of education and director of State Language Commission that heads the project.

It has spread to four cities and provinces, is to start in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and is intended to gradually cover the country.

The Dalian dialect representatives are to record 1,000 common characters, 1,200 common phrases and 50 sentences in the form of dialogues, plus tell a story about the love legend of Niu Lang and Zhi Nu.

All the phonic and video data gathered will be collected and presented on one map of China, with the basic units standing for thousands of counties in the country.

Then, like a science fiction movie, the map will come to life with a click and one will be able to see and listen to how people speak with a dialect. "Isn't that fascinating, no matter how the dialects are changing?" Chi says.

Contact the writers through meijia@chinadaily.com.cn.

Liu Qing contributed to the story.