Old tongues, new voices

Old words, new tools

Beyond teaching, Hu is also exploring how technology might help preserve the dialect. In recent years, she has collaborated with iFlytek, a leading Chinese company in AI and speech technology, to develop AI-generated Suzhou dialect speech.

"Teaching a machine to speak the dialect means annotating every sentence," Hu explained. "The tonal variations make the process even more complex."

Although the product has yet to reach the market, similar efforts are already underway elsewhere. One notable example is Wang Mubin, a project manager at Guangdong Qunyu Interactive Technology, based in Chenghai district of Shantou, South China's Guangdong province.

Wang and his team developed an AI-powered toy named Dingguagua, designed to recognize the Chaoshan dialect. Modeled after the local lion-headed goose mascot, its name comes from a Chaoshan phrase meaning "excellent".

"Chenghai is known as a hub for toy manufacturing," Wang said. "With this toy, we aimed to create something that could both translate the Chaoshan dialect and help children learn it, while also strengthening their sense of cultural identity."

The project grew out of a common challenge faced by many local families: older generations often speak only the dialect, while children are raised using Mandarin, making communication increasingly difficult.

"The Chaoshan dialect has no standardized writing system and depends entirely on oral transmission. As fewer people use it today, it could quickly become endangered without technological support," Wang said.

After more than a year of work, the team collected over 2 million voice samples across different age groups and everyday scenarios. The AI-powered toy can now recognize Chaoshan speech with about 90 percent accuracy — surpassing many comparable products — and comes preloaded with 40 children's songs in the dialect.

"I hope AI can inspire young creators to produce content in the dialect," Wang said."These materials can then be shared and appreciated, giving the language a real chance to thrive."

The emergence of projects like this reflects a broader shift in attitudes toward dialect preservation in China.

Hu recalled that more than a decade ago, her efforts to promote the Suzhou dialect were often dismissed as unnecessary.

"People would ask, 'Why protect it? Isn't everyone still speaking it?'" she said.

Today, however, a growing number of learners recognize that dialects are in decline and that their cultural space is shrinking.

"For young people, awareness is only the first step. They need to understand that dialects matter — not as something optional, but as something worth holding on to," Hu said.

Meng Shuyan contributed to this story.