Posted by ACB on July 26, 2002 at 22:39:35 from 213.210.19.85 user ACB.
In Reply to: Missee Lee posted by John Lambert on June 05, 2002 at 01:50:12:
after years in Hong Kong and Beijing!
I am sure that in the 1930's use of Mandarin was restricted to the upper levels of society; it was the Communists, who needed a national spoken language for radio propaganda, who simplified it, renamed it Putonghua and made it a national language (quite an achievement!)
If Missee Lee was Mme Sun Yat-Sen, then she would have spoken Mandarin and Shanghainese, the latter probably more often.
If Missee Lee was Aleco Lilius's pirate queen, then she probably spoke Hakka and understood Cantonese.
Since we understand that she was both, we have a problem!