Reviving lost voices

Mamcu's efforts reflect a broader linguistic reality.

A similar story is unfolding in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, where 38-year-old Hu Shuning has been confronting the gradual disappearance of her local dialect.

After returning from her studies in Spain in 2014, Hu discovered that her 11-year-old cousin could neither speak nor understand the Suzhou dialect.

The realization was striking: even in a family that valued dialect education, fluency was slipping away.

"At that moment, I could see it disappearing before my eyes," she recalled.

Determined to do something about it, Hu began taking classes to refine her pronunciation and earned a teaching certificate in early 2015.

She soon discovered that most existing learning materials were "too academic for ordinary learners". So, drawing on her background as a Spanish teacher, Hu developed her own materials — including free textbooks, exercises, and audio recordings — which she has shared online over the past decade.

What surprised her most was that many of her learners came from outside Suzhou.

"That gave me a real sense of fulfillment," she said. "It showed me that my language is needed."

Building on this momentum, Hu partnered with a local bookstore in 2025 to launch night school classes.

Four sessions have been held so far, attracting participants — mostly aged 20 to 40 — who are eager to reconnect with a fading cultural heritage.

As she worked to promote the dialect, Hu often found herself asking how it could be revitalized. She noted that, in the past, many cultural forms — novels, pingtan (a traditional storytelling and singing art form), and Kunqu Opera — had flourished in it, but its artistic vitality is now fading as fewer people speak it.

"The Suzhou dialect, with its seven tones and subtle tonal shifts, poses a particular challenge for creative expression," Hu explained.

Encouragingly, Hu has seen younger creators begin to experiment with the language. One of her online students, a content creator on the Chinese video platform Bilibili, inputs Suzhou dialect phonetics into a virtual singer, allowing songs to be performed in the local tongue.

"A language can only stay alive through continuous creation," Hu said.