The mother tongue of Shanghai, the Hu dialect, used to be one of the fastest-developing dialects of Wu Chinese in the 1850s, owing to the growth of the city’s economy. It reached a hiatus in the 1930s, when migrants arrived in Shanghai and immersed themselves in the local tongue.
After 1949, the central government introduced Mandarin as the national language of all China. The influence of Shanghainese began to wane. Especially since  the economic reform began in 1978, Shanghai has become home to a great number of migrants from all over the country.  That consolidated the status of Mandarin as the standard language of business and services. Worse still, as the city’s increasingly opening up to the outside world, English is gradually becoming more popular as well.
From the early 1990s, Shanghainese was banned from the education system, with the result that many of the young residents of Shanghai no longer speak the language fluently, such as my 10-year-old nephew, who understands but totally cannot speak a single Shanghainese word. Or they speak the Shanghainese that is often mixed with Mandarin words and expressions. This type of Shanghainese is quite different from the one that older generations speak, which has created fears that “real Shanghainese” is a dying language.

So to revitalize the language, my first goal is to promote Shanghainese among people around me — at home, in the neighborhood, in the office, etc. Speak as much as possible. Take my nephew for instance. He loves Lego toys, so I may just spare a room at home as the “language lab,” where he can play all the toys only when he speaks Shanghainese with us.
Another idea is to set up Shanghainese courses in schools — from kindergartens to high schools — all over the city, where teachers only teach in Shanghainese. And in universities, there can be certain courses about the Shanghainese language and culture.
 
Last but not least, make Shanghainese reach out to more people, even those outside the city. This is what my friend and I are doing. He’s a ballad singer and songwriter. Recently, he’s starting to write songs in Shanghainese and perform at schools as well as TV and radio programs.
So it’s actually not that difficult to preserve a language, as Nike ad says, just do it — from here and from now.