Hi everyone! So sorry if this is not the place to post this. I am half Chinese, living in Canada and am looking for Cantonese language content for my grandmother ( 92) who is recovering from a recent hospitalization. I noticed that Netflix has a few movies in Cantonese, but we’re quickly burning through them. Also the first one I turned on opened with a scene involving scantily clad ladies dancing in a club which she found quite shocking. I am wondering if there are any streaming subscription services that plays cantonese language movies that may be more her style. She’s always loved the Turner Classic Movies channel.
I don’t speak Cantonese and I am not really sure where to start. We live in a province where the Chinese community is very small.
TVB Anywhere might be what you’re looking for. Specially designed for those overseas. They seem to have 2 versions. An ad supported version and a paid version.
In case you’re not aware, TVB is one of the major TV stations in Hong Kong. They have a wide selection available. Things like news, variety shows, and dramas would probably be appealing for your grandmother.
Here’s the free ad supported version. They have the website available in Cantonese, english, and Vietnamese. I’ve included links for the North America version in Cantonese and english below. Note, they also have 2 free live stream channels available. There’s a news channel and a J1 channel for other shows.
NOTE: The Cantonese version of the website seems to have more options and shows immediately available (especially variety shows) so I would recommend using that link even if you can’t read Chinese. FYI, if you’re using a browser like edge, for example, you can just right click on the page and click the “translate to english” option and the entire page will then be translated.
If you’re looking for other 100% free sources with even wider selection, they also exist, but be aware, most are pretty shady websites and will require adblock. You also need to be a little tech savvy to navigate those sites. All in all, those would not provide a good user experience for a grandmother. (unless you’re always at her side to help out)
I’m in a similar situation with my grandma. I’m Chinese American and don’t know Chinese. Youtube has a lot of free Cantonese content. My grandma likes the Hong Kong actor, Stephen Chow, so we watch a lot of his movies. She also watches concerts from Hong Kong singers. Anita Mui is her favorite, and YT recommends similar artists like Andy Lau. If you don’t know where to start, you can just enter terms in the search bar, like “Cantonese movies” or “Cantonese concerts”.
Here are some YT channels she likes:
TVB news - We watch the 7:30 news everyday, which covers what’s happening in Hong Kong and mainland China. We’ve only visited once (she lived in HK between the ages of 12-18), but she still likes to learn what’s happening.
Made with Lau - cooking Cantonese recipes. The dad speaks Cantonese and cooks. His Chinese American son films and add interesting info about the recipes in English.
Disney+ does have Cantonese audio for some movies, but it’s nearly impossible to find from their search bar. I know that we recently watched Canto and the live action Lion King in Cantonese.
Download the Fairchild radio app or get her a regular radio. My parents love to listen to the Cantonese radio programs when it’s on. They have a radio, but the tablet allows then to take the show if they go to appointments, etc. With the app, you can switch cities from Vancouver to Calgary to Toronto. Certain programs post their shows on YouTube and Facebook. I like their cooking shows. Edit: There’s also A1 radio station that has Cantonese radio shows too. Sometimes the DJs and hosts jump between the two for jobs. The cooking show is https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpOIDvvqzN2DmWDby7m2l0RPpMocaxCEv (this host travels a lot, so sometimes other ppl fill her slot if she’s travelling).
There are quite a lot of movies in Cantonese on YouTube, but you have to search by Chinese characters and add the language. So a quick hack is know the English name, wiki that, change the language in Wiki, then copy and paste the Chinese characters into YouTube.
TVB drama and TVB programs are all free on YouTube. I sometimes watch their news broadcast.
I got my parents a tablet and Google Chrome and they just cast YouTube a lot. I initially saved a lot of shows to the library in YouTube, but now they’ve figured things out. It’s important when setting up the tablet to select Chinese as the language. I selected traditional characters (HK) and then add Chinese keyboards, especially the writing one. My parents never learned any romanization, so they handwrite all the characters, so I’m sure it’s similar with your grandmother. There’s also a way to set up the mike so that it listens in Cantonese instead of Mandarin.
If you have an antenna, OMNI TV broadcasts the local news in Cantonese in Canada. It’s from 9-10 p.m. (then, they broadcast the Mandarin version from 10-11). There might be livestreams as well. https://www.omnitv.ca/tv-schedule/
If you want to pay for cable, you can get international and local TV in Cantonese. Fairchild also has TV and there’s TVB you can get on the TV.