Heritage Language: Cantonese

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Resources in Toronto

Churches in Canada

An important part of Cantonese society is the Chinese Church. There are at least 6 large Chinese churches and many smaller churches in greater Toronto area (GTA).The Church is an important facilitator to remind people of the importance of their mother language and culture. Because Hongkong used to be colony of England where the church is very important, the language spoken by Chinese church-goers is most often Cantonese.

CCUE.ca

CCUE.ca is a Canadian website for Cantonese or Mandarin speakers living in Toronto and Vancouver. The website includes resources very useful for the local Chinese community such as current newspaper articles, events going on in the city and Cantonese advertisements. It is definitely a must view and great help for visitors as well as both new and old immigrants.
http://www2.ccue.ca/

At U of T

The University of Toronto Library contains a great deal of resources for both those who wish to learn more about the Cantonese language and those who already speak Cantonese. First, there is the Richard Charles Lee Canada Hong Kong Library located on the 8th floor of the Robarts Library where most of the Cantonese publications in Robarts library can be found. The library is named after Richard Charles Lee, a graduate of the University of Toronto who is presently a successful business man and philanthropist. The library provides approximately 50,000 volumes, including 2,500 periodical titles, 1,000 reels of microfilm, 7,000 newspaper clippings, and an expanding collection of audio and visual materials. The library is especially a useful place to look for resources on information about Hong Kong, the biggest Cantonese speaking community, and its relation with Canada and other countries. To find out more you can also contact the library Director Dr. Jack Leong via his email jack.leong@utoronto.ca

Besides in the Richard Charles Lee library, there is also the University of Toronto Library web page, where there are many easily accessible articles, catalogues, and journals about Cantonese. By typing in “Cantonese” in the search bar, you can find 13,072 articles and 276 catalogue records. Of the records, 144 records are written in Chinese and 137 are written in English.

Here is the link to the U of T Library website: http://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca

the University of Toronto Hongkong collection- http://www.library.utoronto.ca/hongkong/

Find out more about the history of Chinatown in Toronto here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Toronto#First_Chinatown