From: tph@cs.utexas.edu (Pow-Hwee Tan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: Oct 10, Our National Day
Date: 15 Oct 1992 23:43:33 -0500
Organization: U Texas Dept of Computer Sciences, Austin TX
NNTP-Posting-Host: lovelady.cs.utexas.edu

In article <9228600.26712@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> swl@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Samuel Wai Kay LEUNG) writes:
>jlam@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au (Lord Automato) writes:
>
>>Why do Singaporeans do the same? Many of them don't think themselves as Chinese.
>
>Even I don't think THEY are chinese, most of them are only a sort of 
>"RUNNING DOG" who like only to speak English and pretend not understanding
>Chinese.   :(
>
>
>Samuel


    Wrong.  According to a recent survey, about 80% of school-entering
Chinese Singaporean student comes from Mandarin-speaking families. The
other 20% comes from English-speaking families.  However, the general
trend and government policy is for Singaporeans to be bilingual, in
their mother tongue and English.   Today, the top 10 TV programmes
are Mandarin programmes, and Mandarin radio channels enjoy much more
audience than English channels.  (Note: Mandarin refers to Pu3 Tong1
Hua4)

    It should also be noted that most Chinese Singaporeans native
language is not Mandarin (Pu3 Tong1 Hua4), but dialects of Southern
China.  These include Hokkien (Fujian), Teochew (Cao2 Zhou1), Hainan,
Cantonese and Kek (Ke4 Jia1) and several others.  About 10 years ago, 
you can still hear all these languages spoken everywhere in Singapore.
That today most can understand and speak Mandarin is an achievement
of a decade-long "Speak Mandarin Campaign" among Chinese Singaporeans.
The usage of so many dialects had also hindered the study of Chinese
in schools.


    I find that it is also a common mistake for people to think that
Singapore is a purely Chinese society.  The fact is that there are other
races, particularly Malays and Indians in Singapore too.  We 
Singaporeans are very committed to maintaining racial harmony in 
Singapore.  English serves as a 'neutral' and common language  for
our races and is the working language for Singaporeans.  This is 
part of the legacy of British colonial rule; the use of English also
facilitate the continuance of British law, an important framework
for attracting foreign investment to this tiny country.


    There are reasons why some Chinese Singaporeans cannot understand
Chinese.  In the past, there were so called English-streamed and
Chinese-streamed schools.  The former were set up by the colonial
government and only teaches in English.  The latter were usually set
up by wealthy local Chinese or Chinese clans.  Chinese parents, being
a pragmatic lot, wanting their Children to have an easier life than
themselves by finding a job in the Government bureaucracies, prefer
to send their children to English-streamed schools.  These led
to the gradual decline of Chinese education in Singapore.  Furthermore,
pro-China Chinese schools were also prone to Communist infiltration.
Many students of these schools went back to China to join the Cultural
Revolution and never came back.


    Today, there are no longer distinction between these two kinds
of schools.  All schools teaches Mathematics and Science subjects
in English, and Chinese in Mandarin (for Chinese only).  Some schools
also offer Chinese literature subjects. In fact,  some of the Chinese 
secondary schools today produce students who are very good in English 
and Chinese languages and are among the top 20 schools in Singapore.


    Promotion of Chinese language and culture has always been a sensitive
and touchy issue in Singapore and has always generated much debate,
even today.  Some feel strongly for promoting their own culture,
while others feel that this will divide our nation along racial lines.
Older generation Singaporeans will remember the violent racial
tensions in the 60s, which is the primary reason for Singapore separation
from Malaysia.  Recently, Singapore resume diplomatic ties with China
only after Indonesia did so.


    I hope people will understand Chinese Singaporeans in their
social and historical context, and don't make insulting sweeping statements.
And there is really nothing wrong for us to identify ourselves as
Singaporean first.  Chinese Singaporeans feel uneasy in calling 
themselves Zhong1 Guo2 Ren1 because it implies a change of nationality
but they will gladly call themselves Hua2 Ren1.



Chen Baowei
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china,soc.culture.taiwan,soc.culture.hongkong