Singapore’s Speak Mandarin Campaign Language ideological debates and the imagining of the nation

SINGAPORE Three major ethnic groups: 1-Chinese – 77.5 % 2-Malays – 14.2 % 3-Indians – 7.1%

Building a Nation: Independence 1965 People’s action party (PAP): Attempted to reduce the linguistic diversity and to homogenize the Chinese community.

PAP’s Action Bilingual education: All students in Malay-Tamil and Mandarin medium schools would learn English as a second language. All those in English medium schools would learn the language associated with their ethnicity as a second language.

English-knowing bilingualism: MALAY-TAMIL AND MANDARIN (MOTHER TONGUE) IDENTITYETHNICITYCULTURE ENGLISH NATIONAL LEVEL INDIVIDUAL LEVEL COMMUNITY LEVEL

The speak Mandarin campaign: Three key official arguments: 1-Educational argument 2-Cultural argument 3-Communicative argument

The Campaign National Campaigns: To direct and influence public awareness of certain issues, to encourage people to behave in specific desired ways, to control the spread of certain ‘undesirable’ practices or values, as an instrument for policy implementation, to consolidate mass support, and ultimately to psychologically build up the citizenry for the task of nation-building.

The Crystallization of Language Meanings S.M.C aims to make Mandarin the mother- tongue for all Chinese Singaporeans. A race = A language = A culture

Heterogeneous community Unable to speak to one another. Common tongue should be Mandarin. Risk of having English as the common language of Chinese Singaporeans.

Language and values With greater use of English, there is a fear that people will loose some aspects of their identity Chinese Singaporeans who do not know Chinese – either Mandarin or dialect run the risk of losing the collective wisdom of the Chinese civilization

A sense of history Singapore’s history is short. If we know Mandarin, we can identify with a 5000 year old civilization Although the official language of the congress was English, the moment someone spoke in Mandarin, the atmosphere changed.

Mandarin vs dialects Speak more Mandarin and less dialect. Many campaigns were held to promote the use of Mandarin.

Mandarin vs English The increasing use of English among Singaporeans were considered to be a problem. Deculturalised. Mandarin is more than a language.

Conclusion Since 1991, dialects no longer appear. The linguistic diversity characterizing the Chinese community has thus been homogenized. The Speak Mandarin Campaign has been the catalyst of this journey, capturing the debates within and over language meanings in the imagining of Singapore.