Faculty of Arts in the Media: Professor Stephen Matthews Discusses Why the Plan to Rename Pikachu has Made Hong Kong Angry

Source: BBC

Professor Stephen Matthews from the Department of Linguistics was interviewed by BBC on the decision of Japanese game-maker Nintendo to use only Mandarin Chinese names for the characters in the two new games in its hugely popular Pokemon series.

The BBC's Juliana Liu in Hong Kong says the dispute taps into growing local fears that Cantonese - along with local culture and tradition - is being supplanted by Mandarin.

Prof Stephen Matthews of the School of Humanities, University of Hong Kong, agrees.

"It's seen in the current climate as creeping 'mainlandisation'," he said.

"In the last few years people have felt that what makes Hong Kong special is disappearing bit by bit and what is an issue of Pokemon which is fairly trivial, becomes a big one because it's very sensitive."

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