Like many places, language is a very sensitive issue.

I tend to talk to people in their native language. It is really inconvenient (to put it politely) when westerners struggle to speak broken Chinese to me. I just reply in English. I guess it might not make them feel good though ("Is my Chinese that bad?")

In Taiwan, a lot of it is political but there are still people who honestly don't understand Mandarin. To compensate for the "discrimination" (depending on whom you ask) during the old days, no one dares to reduce any Taiwanese language presence. The Hakkas, who are very powerful, say "wait, if Taiwanese gets it, then Hakka should too". They have been teaching Taiwanese in school for the last many years - a huge departure from the old days when you were not even allowed to speak Taiwanese.

On EVA, for example, I think they switched the order around at one point. If my memory serves me right, it was originally "Taiwanese->Mandarin->English" but switched to "Mandarin->Taiwanese->English".

I remember there was a huge discussion during the Prodigy days (early 90s) whether CX treated Cauasians better than Asians. The impression seemed to be CX treated people who spoke Catonese better and the Cauasians were complaining.

My own impression is that in the early days, China/Taiwan was weak and we did not have much pride. We felt we were looked down by westerners and HK people. (That used to be the complain of Taiwanese tourists to HK.)

Now, there is a lot more pride. Overseas Chinese know the importance of teaching their children Chinese and the Mandarin speaking tourists expect service providers to speak their language. (The common thought is - why can't we have Chinese everywhere like they have Japanese.)

The Chinese (like many minorities) feel offended when the only signs in their languages are those prohibiting bad behavior, feeling targeted. In light of the EWR incident...that selfish idiot has shamed us all

When I went to HK in the 90s, I spoke English. Now I proudly speak Mandarin and I do not think they would treat me better because I speak English. I do think they would treat me better if I spoke Cantonese I think some societies treat their own better, others treat their guests better. I think HK is the former and Taiwan is the latter.

Mandarin is now taught in schools in HK so I think with time, most people will speak Mandarin well. Still, I don't expect Catonese (or any Chinese dialect) to be gone from HK or the overseas Chinese communities. I suppose there is a decent amount of sensitivity on this Mandarin vs. Cantonese issue in HK now. Looking at Canton, Shanghai...you see where it is going (or not going)...