Message from mclancy

[Anonymous]

I was reading about the different languages in China, and it seems as if there are marked differences between them. I read that Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong and Mandarin is spoken in Beijing. Do most people in Hong Kong understand Mandarin because it is the language of the state, or is there a resistance to it? I had a student from Hong Kong last year who talked disparagingly about mainland China – is this a result of the language disconnect? Is this common? Are minority language groups discriminated against? I am very interested in this and found much useful information looking this topic up on wikipedia if anyone is interested.