branches, one of which being the Cantonese branch. Other notable branches include Taishanese, widely spoken overseas, and Goulou Yue, native to the deep mountains that preserve the oldest features of Yue. The name of Cantonese is a lot more troublesome in Chinese than in English. In daily conversation, Cantonese is most commonly referred as ("Guangdong speech"). Cantonese, being the prestige variety among the Yue languages (), often simply being referred as , though more in written than in spoken. Cantonese speakers in mainland China originally referred their language as ("vernacular speech") but also take up the usage "Guangdong speech" and "Yue language". Chinese linguists referred Cantonese as ("Canton prefecture speech") or ("Canton speech") but these terms are too technical. "Chinese language" () in Hong Kong and some Chinatowns specifically refers to Cantonese rather than other varieties of Chinese. A notable example in Hong Kong occurred at an official press briefing in 2019, when the moderator replied a China Central Television journalist, "this Q&A is conducted in Chinese [Cantonese] and English, if you wish to raise a question in Mandarin, we would still reply in Chinese [Cantonese]". In Canadian Chinatowns, television and radio channels in "Chinese" were Cantonese as of late 2000s, hence, some Mandarin-speaking immigrants, who perceived Chinese language as Standard Beijing Mandarin exclusively, were shocked that Chinese language being represented by other varieties of Chinese on foreign soil. Also during the 18th and 20th century, Cantonese speakers abroad, especially in Chinatowns, referred their language as "Tang speech" (唐話, "Tang" being a historical name of China). An old woman in Chinatown once asked Jiang Menglin, the future Minister of Education of China, "Why someone who couldn't speak Tang speech [Cantonese] can communicate with me in Tang [Chinese] characters?" History During the Southern Song period, Guangzhou became the cultural center of the region. Cantonese emerged as the prestige variety of Yue Chinese when the port city of Guangzhou on the Pearl River Delta became the largest port in China, with a trade network stretching as far as Arabia. Cantonese was also used in the popular Yuè'ōu, Mùyú and Nányīn folksong genres, as well as Cantonese opera. Additionally, a distinct classical literature was developed in Cantonese, with Middle Chinese texts sounding more similar to modern Cantonese than other present-day Chinese varieties, including Mandarin. As Guangzhou became China's key commercial center for foreign trade and exchange in the 1700s, Cantonese became the variety