Support Online Petition to "remove ban on dialects media"

yhjow SG

Hi all,

I'm a language activist trying to revive Hokkien in Singapore, after witnessing a sharp decline in the dialects over the past 30 years.

Action is more important than words.

I've launched an online petition campaign directed to Prime Minister Lee Hsien loong (Singapore government) to ask him to remove all ban on dialects media in Singapore's TV and radio.

This is the first step towards reviving these local dialects.

Please support us by signing our petition.

https://www.change.org/p/singapore-government-singapore-media-development-authority-abolish-the-ban-on-chinese-dialects-media-in-singapore-s-media

You can use an anonymous name if needed.

Ee Hoe Hean Club SG

yhjow, let us show some respect for Harry Lee Kuan Yew, he is not yet cremated, this week is a week of national mourning, if we attack him now, people will say that we are petty.

Wait until next week, don't be so eager. Now that he is dead, we have all the time in the world to attack his policies.

The Death of Dialects in Singapore

http://lionraw.com/2012/04/17/the-death-of-dialects-in-singapore/

http://everythingalsocomplain.com/2013/08/11/lky-antagonising-an-entire-generation-of-chinese/

Dialects have no value, neither culturally nor economically; Mandarin is linked to a 5000-year old history, rich in culture and bears immense economic potential with the opening up of China’s market. Lee Kwan Yew stressed that unlike Mandarin which “has cultural value and will also have economic value twenty years later,” dialects “have no economic value in Singapore. Their cultural value is also very low” (ST, 17 October 1980).

Dialects are a burden on the young, forcing them to learn two languages when they go to school; Mandarin facilitates academic success. Lee Kuan Yew argued that “dialect will hinder the learning of the child if he uses dialect … to speak dialect with your child is to ruin his future” (ST, 17 November 1980).

Dialects represent the past and are primitive; Mandarin is the future. Lee Kwan Yew in a television forum argued, “Mandarin is a developing language; on the other hand, dialect is a stagnant language” (ST, 10 January 1980).

http://www.oocities.org/eugene_esther/section4.htm

SJS6638 SG

yhjow, let us show some respect for Harry Lee Kuan Yew, he is not yet cremated, this week is a week of national mourning, if we attack him now, people will say that we are petty.

Wait until next week, don't be so eager. Now that he is dead, we have all the time in the world to attack his policies.

The Death of Dialects in Singapore

http://lionraw.com/2012/04/17/the-death-of-dialects-in-singapore/

http://everythingalsocomplain.com/2013/08/11/lky-antagonising-an-entire-generation-of-chinese/

http://www.oocities.org/eugene_esther/section4.htm

O, really has newspapers articles to support.

dialect is our root. Mandarin is common chinese dialect for communication among chinese.

yhjow SG

Taiwan has already proven that dialects can be taught and exist without affecting the promotion of Mandarin. Taiwan already has Hokkien, Hakka, aborigine languages being implemented in its education. That prevents the Taiwanese from losing their own roots.

LKY's policy of promoting Mandarin is done at the expense of uprooting and eliminating the dialect cultural roots of Singaporean Chinese, making Singaporeans forget their own dialect culture, through banning the dialect in its media. It's done politically to reinforce "Chinese identity", but at the same time, it also serves the political purpose of make you forget that you're also Hokkien, Teochew,Cantonese, Hakka, Hainanese etc.

When you lose the command of these languages, "dialect" cultural identity is gone. Differences do exist in the past and might possibly lead to clashes in different Chinese groups, but on the whole, in the past, many Chinese in Singapore can speak different dialects, which helps to bridge the gap for communication.

Now, it's time to liberalize the policy. Reinforcing dialects culture helps Singaporean Chinese educate their roots and culture, instead of trying to eliminate this cultural heritage of Singapore.

Ee Hoe Hean Club SG

When Harry Lee died, there was a lot of propaganda on state media saying that Harry Lee wanted to protect mother tongue of Singaporeans. Actually that was a complete lie.

The mother tongue of chinese Singaporeans is dialect, not mandarin. Mandarin is an alien language from northern China imposed on southern chinese.

It is complete garbage to say that Harry Lee protected mother tongue of chinese Singaporeans. He suppressed and destroyed our mother tongue. We are the only people in Singapore to have our mother tongue disrespected and wiped out.

PAP keep on repeat the lie over and over on state propaganda TV that mandarin is mother tongue of chinese singaporeans. I think this lie must be exposed, it is a total lie, it is Harry Lee's lies.

Hong Kong activists will rally on Sunday against China’s bid to champion Mandarin over Cantonese, following a rare protest for the same cause in southern China.

Organizers have called on supporters via Facebook to help protect their mother tongue, after hundreds protested in support of Cantonese in Guangzhou last weekend, defying government orders.

The demonstrations follow official advice issued to southern Chinese TV stations proposing they switch key shows into Mandarin from Cantonese.

Choi Suk-fong (蔡淑芳), one of the organizers of the Hong Kong protest, said Beijing’s moves to promote Mandarin were a form of suppression of the rights of minorities in the country.

“Cantonese was often portrayed as a second-class language when Hong Kong was under British colonial rule,” she said. “Sadly, the use of our mother tongue is now being attacked again, only this time the perpetrator is our Chinese government.”

The People’s Political Consultative Conference wrote this month to Guangzhou Province’s bureaucrats proposing that local TV stations broadcast their prime-time shows in Mandarin instead of Cantonese ahead of the Asian Games in November.

Officials were quoted as saying that adopting Mandarin would promote unity, “forge a good language environment” and cater to non-Cantonese-speaking Chinese visitors at the huge sporting event.

Rally organizers wrote on the event’s Facebook page: “I believe we can gather 100,000 people to stop China’s evil act of promoting Mandarin and destroying Cantonese!!!”

More than 150 visitors to the Facebook page had signed up for the protest by yesterday afternoon, including some from Guangzhou.

Many of the demonstrators in Guangzhou were young people wearing T-shirts reading, “I love Guangzhou” — written in Cantonese — shouting “Protect Cantonese, Love Guangzhou” and singing popular Cantonese songs, the Global Times reported.

Su Zhijia, a deputy Chinese Communist Party secretary in Guangzhou, was quoted in theGlobal Times as saying there were no plans to dilute Cantonese, adding: “The city government has never had such a plan to abandon or weaken Cantonese.”

Guangzhou TV has responded by saying it would refuse to change its mix of Cantonese and Mandarin programming, the Yangcheng Evening News said last week.

However, many Cantonese speakers still worry about the future of a language that is the mother tongue for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong Province, and is widely spoken in overseas Chinese communities.

Beijing made Mandarin the country’s official language in 1982, leading to bans on other dialects at many radio and TV stations.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2010/07/28/2003479016

wsy1234 SG

i agreed with this ----> LKY's policy of promoting Mandarin is done at the expense of uprooting and eliminating the dialect cultural roots of Singaporean Chinese, making Singaporeans forget their own dialect culture, through banning the dialect in its media. It's done politically to reinforce "Chinese identity", but at the same time, it also serves the political purpose of make you forget that you're also Hokkien, Teochew,Cantonese, Hakka, Hainanese etc.

hopefully the next election opposition party can use this to campaign and try to win to take over or to prevent PAP complete control of singapore. Singapore can do business with China but can never be a China.

SJS6638 SG

Hakka in china are scattered, no place of their own. Wanna continue to ban ..... continue to ban hakka Only. Lky hakka peranankan.

erode our root.

Ee Hoe Hean Club SG

I don't think Lee Hsien Loong is as hostile to dialect mother tongue as his father Harry Lee.

Lee Hsien Loong at least had some form of chinese education, he is not a banana like his father. He knows how to speak mandarin.

Lee Hsien Loong is a peranakan baba, but that doesn't mean that he will continue his father's policies of suppressing the mother tongue of chinese Singaporeans.

yhjow SG

Just written an article today. Feel free to read it.

Dialects as True Mother Tongue of Singaporean Chinese

SJS6638 SG

Lau quA loong won't give a damn about dialect.s. All ah loong cares about is dollars and cents.

SJS6638 SG

Just written an article today. Feel free to read it.

Dialects as True Mother Tongue of Singaporean Chinese

Can't access.

yhjow SG

Can't access.

Sorry, you can now access my article which is published at the Real Singapore:

http://therealsingapore.com/content/dialects-are-true-mother-tongue-singaporean-chinese