Publications

Publication details [#26210]

Bolton, Kingsley and Christopher Hutton. 1995. Bad and banned language: triad secret societies, the censorship of the Cantonese vernacular, and colonial language policy in Hong Kong. Language in Society 24 (2) : 159–186.

Publication type

Article in journal

Publication language

English

Keywords

colonialism | jargon | language use | secret language

Language as a subject

Chinese, Cantonese

Place, Publisher

Cambridge University Press

ISBN

0047-4045

Journal WWW

journals.cambridge.org/

Annotation

This article examines official Hong Kong policy toward the "triad language" of street gangs and secret societies, banned by the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority. Although the use of triad language may constitute a criminal offense, it also appears to innovate vernacular Cantonese via the popular media.