Interesting video mixing Cantonese and Shanghainese

一个叫KAHO的日本小姐姐模仿上海和潮汕口音，太好玩了。不但口音学得像，表情和面相都会跟着一起变 pic.twitter.com/Ye1IN9BVDK

— iPaul (@iPaulCanada) April 29, 2026

The speaker is a Japanese girl named Kaho.

Comment from Xinyi Ye, who is living and working in the area where some of the languages in the video are spoken:

Oh wow that’s super impressive! Her Chaoshan accent sounds exactly like my colleagues from this area speaking!

The words she use are also very accurate: Shanghai aunties call young ladies 小姑娘 and Chaoshan merchants use the word 檔口 while Shanghainese don’t use this (they probably say 攤位).

It’s also impressive that she imitated Chaoshan accented mandarin. It is different from a Cantonese accented mandarin, which applies to people from Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Though most people I know from 潮州 and 汕頭 speak both Teochew and Cantonese.

I’ve watched a lot of videos from this Shanghainese vlogger recently.

Xinyi adds this fascinating observation:

On the internet w sometimes write 上海长宁区方言*, which refers to Japanese. It’s a joke because there are many Japanese people living there, and also because of the stereotype that young people in Shanghai speak better Japanese than Shanghainese these days (which is true to some extent!) *VHM:  Shànghǎi Zhǎngníng qū fāngyán 上海长宁区方言 (Shanghai Changning District Topolect)

As for the Shanghainese vlogger Xinyi mentions, I warmly recommend that anyone who is interested in Shanghainese watch it carefully.  After listening to this and similar videos, I have come to the conclusion that vlogging in topolects will be their salvation.  Apparently, the central government is as yet unwilling or unable to shut down these beacons of local language.

Selected readings

• "Shanghainese" (5/16/13)
• "A recent Shanghainese movie" (12/27/21)
• "A Potpourri of Materials on Shanghainese" (5/15/09)
• "Writing Shanghainese, part 2" (7/22/16)
• "Language in Shanghai during World War II and now" (4/15/19)

In the past, relative to Cantonese, we have paid little attention to Shanghainese, so I'm trying to make up for it a bit here.