To think that in 2014 when Fatshady first participated to CCTV talent show 《中国好歌曲》, the judges, the audience were all very enthusiastic about his sichuanese dialect performance. He was the very first rapper to sing out loud "老子" on national television. https://twitter.com/RadiiChina/status/1298575920404393984

If I remember correctly, Fatshady also received the support of an official from Sichuan local government during the show. Saying this was a great opportunity to promote local dialects as something deeply rooted in chinese identity and culture.

But I personally always perceived the use of dialects in rap music as a way to fight against 普通话 standardization and normalization. Unconsciously or not, rappers succeeded in making their local dialect turn into something very cool and trendy. (Just look at CDC GOSH 滇声气)

Even though most of the time chinese society would rather look down upon those dialects (especially in school and workplaces). It is something associated to uneducated people who lives in rural area. That's an argument I heard a lot when sharing my desire to lean sichuanese.

But I feel like chinese people nowadays tends to forgot that 普通话 itself is a very artificial and constructed language based on Northern dialects that kinda didn't really exist before. So the stigmatisation of other chinese dialects seems really weird and unfounded.

However China is not the only country that went through this dialect and standard language situation. I remember my grandparents telling me that here in France, they had to not speak local "patois" at school. And therefore the next generation didn't talk patois at home neither.

I probably oversimplified things in this tweet, so if you're interested in chinese dialects I recommend the works of @DGTam86 who just finished a new book called "Dialect and Nationalism in China" (hadn't read it yet). Unlike me she is a true specialist on the subject.