The discussions surrounding Teochew film Dear You show that Singaporeans care deeply about their roots, said Singapore’s Promote Mandarin Council on Tuesday (June 23).
In a Facebook post, the council pointed out that a shared appreciation of Singapore’s languages, stories, and family memories does not require anyone to pick sides.
“A community engaged with a tale of many generations ago is exactly the kind of community that will keep finding new reasons to speak, use, and pass on our Singaporean Mandarin with pride,” it said.
The council was established in 1979 to champion the Speak Mandarin Campaign and is supported by the National Heritage Board. The campaign is intended to support the bilingual policy that has shaped Singapore’s education system and language since 1959.
It encourages Singaporean Chinese to use Mandarin in daily life and to build an appreciation for the Chinese culture.
The campaign is also responsible for the Singaporean Mandarin database, a multi-year research project which documents distinctively Singaporean Mandarin terms.
It noted that many of these terms have etymological roots in Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew and more.
“In essence, this research project captures Singapore’s multicultural and multilingual facets, and reflects how languages can co-exist and interact to influence each other,” the council said.
Loving Mandarin and cherishing dialect not in competition
Noting that discussions on the screening arrangements for Dear You have mentioned the campaign, the council clarified that it does not direct regulation nor influence media classification and distribution policy decisions.
“The Speak Mandarin Campaign is helmed by the Promote Mandarin Council, who plays an advisory role in campaign awareness and language promotion, outreach through programmes, and supporting partners who create immersive environments for the use of Mandarin in the community.”
Film-makers in Singapore, including Eric Khoo and Jack Neo had, in a letter published in The Straits Times on June 19, voiced out that local operators and distributors should be allowed to convert demand for the dialect film into commercial success.
Khoo and Neo wrote that screening a dialect film is no different from screening a French or Malay film.
“Dialect films are not an issue on home videos and streaming platforms and even on board airplanes, so why should cinemas continue to bear the brunt of this outdated policy?”
Several other film-makers, including Boo Junfeng and Royston Tan, also urged for a better balance to be found between maintaining bilingualism and preserving Singapore’s linguistic heritage.
Meanwhile, several MPs have also weighed in on the issue.
MP Cai Yinzhou (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) said he will be asking the Minister for Education if locally screened dialect films should still be subject to such restrictions given that social media platforms and streaming services are not subject to these rules.
On Monday, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said that it is receptive to facilitating more Teochew-language screenings for the film, if the film distributor wishes to apply for more.
It added that it welcomes the “broader conversation” prompted by the movie around Chinese dialects and cultural identity in Singapore.
While it stressed the national importance of promoting Mandarin as an official language, the regulator also acknowledged the heritage value of dialects and the efforts of various communities in keeping dialects alive.
Cinema operator Golden Village said in a statement the same day that it had submitted a request to IMDA for approval for up to 50 more such sessions.
Summing up the discourse, the council shared its perspective: “Perhaps all the conversations surrounding Dear You show something worth celebrating: that loving Mandarin and cherishing a grandparent’s Teochew are not in competition with each other.”
It also suggested that the discussions show that Singaporeans care deeply about their roots.
“The same warmth that sent people lining-up for Teochew screenings of a story of a grandparent’s journey to Nanyang, is the same fervour that has, and would always, carry Mandarin forward,” the council said.
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