"Dear You," a low-budget Chinese film that has grossed over 1.8 billion yuan in China, is igniting a major dispute over "identity and roots" in Singapore. Viewers have questioned the government after cinemas screened a version dubbed in Mandarin rather than the original Teochew dialect. Special Teochew screenings sold out within two hours, prompting some Singaporeans to book tickets to watch in Malaysia.
The film "Dear You," which tells a story of family bonds, hope, and past hardships, unexpectedly became a summer box office hit in China. However, what no one anticipated was that the film would spark intense debates about "cultural identity" in neighboring Singapore, located thousands of miles away.
The film is unique in that it was almost entirely shot and performed in Teochew, a local dialect from China's Chaoshan region still used among elderly ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. Yet when it premiered in Singapore this month, many locals were disappointed to find that most cinemas showed a version dubbed in Mandarin, the official language of China and one of Singapore's four official languages.
Wu Silin, a religious official of Teochew descent, revealed that she and her mother had to compete for tickets to special screenings in the original Teochew audio, which were initially limited to just eight showings. Nearly 5,000 tickets sold out in under two hours. "As a Teochew person, watching the film in the original dialect made it feel more special and profound," she said.
This situation raised questions among locals: if the film can be shown in the original Teochew in China, why can't Singapore, where many elderly still speak Teochew, do the same?
The film has sparked renewed debate about Singapore's long-term policy promoting Mandarin among ethnic Chinese, replacing other local dialects such as Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, and Hakka. Although the 1980s policy aimed to unify Singapore’s diverse Chinese community, critics argue it succeeded "too well," causing these dialects to decline sharply, possibly beyond recovery.
Statistics show that at the start of the Speak Mandarin Campaign, nearly 70% of Singaporeans spoke local dialects at home. By 2020, that figure had plummeted to just 8.7%. Dialects have been banned from radio and television broadcasts and have long been replaced by dubbing in cinemas.
Associate Professor Lee Cher Leng from the Chinese Studies Department at the National University of Singapore commented, "Dialects are the true roots of Singaporean Chinese, while Mandarin is a language layered on through formal education. It is remarkable that this small film can provoke such a strong emotional response."
"Dear You" tells the story of a young man from a southern Chinese village who travels to Thailand in search of his grandfather, who fled the Chinese Civil War in 1948 and worked as a trishaw driver in 1950s Bangkok. He lived in a dormitory with other Chinese migrant workers, sending letters filled with longing back to his wife and children in his hometown. This historical backdrop aligns with the large waves of Chinese migration to Singapore and Southeast Asia from the 19th to mid-20th centuries.
Demand for the original Teochew version is so high that some Singaporean netizens have shared plans to cross into neighboring Malaysia to watch it. Furthermore, social media pressure and recent critical newspaper articles have extended the debate into the political arena. Opposition Member of Parliament Dennis Tan posted that dialects are a "living treasure trove recording the journeys, customs, and identities of our ancestors."
The strong backlash led Singapore's Ministry of Communications and Information to issue a statement on Monday, 22 Jun 2024 GMT+7, saying "We hear calls to allow greater openness for dialect-language films in cinemas" and pledging to "adopt a more flexible approach," resulting in approval for 50 additional screenings of the Teochew version.
Although younger Singaporeans have started showing interest in learning their grandparents' dialects and visiting ancestral homes in China, experts remain pessimistic.
Associate Professor Tan Ying Ying from Nanyang Technological University, a dialect expert, said, "Young people currently learn dialects like a foreign language for fun, but if no one speaks it daily, it cannot be preserved."
Professor Tan concluded that the public outcry over "Dear You" is not just about watching a film but represents "a collective mourning for something we are losing forever."
/sourceBBC