Cantonese called white language by mainland chinese Often when I interact with chinese folks coming from mainland China, they called cantonese "white language" (Ba Hua).

Maybe my understanding is incorrect.

Can anyone let me know if I'm mistaken and if not, why is it called White language?
Standard Cantonese speakers like myself sometimes call '广东话' as '白话', which literally means &quot;plain speech&quot;,  in contrast to all other regional dialects (方言) and local dialects (鄉下話) within Canton province.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese
in Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, the language is referred to as &quot;Guangdong speech&quot; (广东话; 廣東話; Gwóngdūng wá)

&quot;Guangdong speech&quot; (广东话; 廣東話) is &quot;plain speech&quot;(白话) to us.