Ini Indexs
Temasek (or temasik, in Mandarin is Dan ma xi [淡马锡 or 单马锡]) is the ancient name for Singapore. There are different theories on how the term came about. Some suggest it originated from the Malay word tasik or tasek, meaning lake or sea. Others believe it has its roots in the Sanskrit word for gold, tamarasa. We can find references to “Temasek” and its variations in texts from the 14th to 17th centuries:
The names Long Ya Men (龙牙门), Ling Ya Men (凌牙门) and Long Ya Shan Men (龙牙山门) are other old references to Singapore. They appear in texts such as Zhufan zhi (A Description of Barbarian Nations) from the Southern Song dynasty; Daoyi Zhilüe from the Yuan dynasty; and Zhenghe hanghaitu, Yingya shenglan (The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores) and Yuanshi (History of Yuan)1 from the Ming dynasty.
Long Ya Men can refer to the island or straits. As an island name, it has also been associated with Indonesia’s Lingga Island. In Daoyi Zhilüe, Long Ya Men (“Dragon’s Teeth Gate” in Chinese) refers to two rocky “hills” on either side of a Temasek waterway — near Labrador Park and Fort Siloso today. One of those rocky outcrops was known as Batu Berlayar in Malay, and used by ancient sailors as an aid while navigating the narrow straits.
One of the oldest-known recorded names for Singapore was Pu Luo Zhong (蒲罗中, variously known as Pu Lu Zhong [蒲芦中], or simply Pu Luo [蒲罗]), which appeared in a third century Chinese text. Southeast Asian historian Hsu Yun Tsiao (1905–1981) writes in Malaiya shi (A History of Malaya, 1961) that “Pu Luo” is the Chinese transliteration of the Malay word pulau (island), and “Zhong” is the transliteration of ujong (“end”, or “cape”). This name dating back 1,700 years corresponded to “Pulau Ujong”, meaning “island at the end of the (Malay) peninsula”.
The travelogue Funan tusu (Observations on the customs of Funan), written by Wu State’s Kang Tai after his diplomatic missions to the South Seas during the Three Kingdoms Period (220–280), provides a description that closely corresponds to the geographical location of Pu Luo Zhong, now known as Singapore. Unfortunately, this book has been lost, although some of its contents can be found in the Taiping Yulan (Imperial Reader or Readings of the Taiping Era) and Tongdian (Comprehensive Statutes).
The 1986 text Gudai nanhai diming huishi (A Glossary of Names in the South Seas in Ancient Times) also contains Chinese and foreign records of ancient place names. Besides the ones mentioned earlier in this article, there are numerous other names related to Singapore — Pizong (Pisang), Mohexin zhou (Mahasin), Duomochang, Luoyue (Laut), Maliyu’er (Malayu), Changyao yu (Coney Islet, referring to Pulau Satumu), Xingjilipo (a transliteration of “Singapore”), and many more.
Historians have put considerable effort into studying these ancient names, with scholars such as Hsu Yun Tsiao, Jao Tsung-I (1917–2018), and Tan Yeok Seong (1903–1984) making significant contributions to our understanding of them.
Ini Indexs
The Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched in 1979 by Singapore’s then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. 1 The country’s early immigrants came from all over Asia, and ethnic Chinese from different backgrounds spoke different tongues and had different cultural practices. As a result, the campaign was launched in order to simplify the language environment for Chinese Singaporeans, foster better communication between the Chinese communities, as well as create an environment conducive for the bilingual education policy. It encouraged Chinese Singaporeans to use Mandarin more in their daily lives, and aimed to enhance people’s understanding of Singapore Chinese culture.
The Speak Mandarin Campaign has gone through three major phases of development. The first, from 1979 to 1981, was aimed at the Chinese community at large. The second phase started in 1982, when the campaign began to show results, and it was about encouraging Chinese Singaporeans from all walks of life to speak Mandarin more and, through Mandarin, appreciate the richness of Chinese culture. Later, as more and more Chinese Singaporeans adopted English as their primary language of communication, the Speak Mandarin Campaign reached an important turning point in 1994. It entered its third phase, where it began focusing on encouraging English-educated Chinese Singaporeans to use Mandarin in their daily lives. Today, the Speak Mandarin Campaign continues to evolve. Besides encouraging Singaporeans to make Mandarin a part of their everyday life, it also seeks to preserve the vibrancy and uniqueness of Singapore Mandarin.
The Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched by the government with two main objectives: first, to have a common language of communication for ethnic Chinese people who spoke different dialects; second, to encourage Singaporeans to master their mother tongue and pass on Chinese culture to future generations. At the time, the Chinese in Singapore were still mainly using Chinese dialects in their daily lives. Schools had already implemented a bilingual education policy with English as the first language and Mandarin as the second language. Lee believed that if Chinese Singaporeans continued to speak primarily in dialects, they might not see the need to learn Mandarin, and this would not be conducive to the implementation of the bilingual education policy. With this in mind, the Government launched the Speak Mandarin Campaign on 7 September 1979. The Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Culture at that time, Dr Ow Chin Hock, was appointed as the first Chairman of the Committee to Promote Use of Mandarin (later known as the Promote Mandarin Council).2
The early days of the campaign drew active participation from various Chinese community organisations. Forming the Committee to Promote Use of Mandarin, they furthered the campaign’s goals in an organised way. Government departments introduced various measures too, for example encouraging that civil servants speak in Mandarin rather than dialects during their daily conversations.
The government also started to phase out dialect programmes on radio and television. The first to go were dialect advertisements on television in July 1978. This was followed by the launch of the first Mandarin-dubbed Hong Kong drama series Yi Tian Tu Long Ji (Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre) at the end of October 1979, and a complete ban on dialect television programmes in 1981. Radio also stopped broadcasting dialect programmes from 1 January 1983.
The Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched with a long-term goal in mind: for all Chinese Singaporean students to use dialects less and speak Mandarin more within five years, and for Mandarin to replace Chinese dialects as the language of everyday speech within 10 years. To achieve this, the campaign has focused on different venues and groups each year, for example, encouraging the use of Mandarin in the workplace in 1982, and focusing on hawker centres and wet markets in 1983.
The Speak Mandarin Campaign has also explored different avenues to encourage people to speak Mandarin, for example, organised Mandarin classes at community centres, recorded Chinese courses on cassette tapes for sale, and organised Chinese storytelling and recitation competitions. The Government also regularly broadcasted promotional clips and advertising jingles for the campaign on TV and radio, encouraging people to speak Mandarin more. The TV stations, RTS then later SBC, also produced local TV dramas in Mandarin, providing more options for viewers of Mandarin programmes. From 1 January 1981, Singapore’s Ministry of Education schools started to address ethnic Chinese students by the Hanyu Pinyin versions of the names on their birth certificates. The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority also encouraged companies to use Hanyu Pinyin names when registering.
A survey by the Government 10 years after the launch of the Speak Mandarin Campaign offered indications of success. According to Primary One registration data that year, the proportion of ethnic Chinese students who mainly spoke Mandarin at home had increased from 26% in 1980 to 69% in 1989, while the proportion of primary students from predominantly dialect-speaking families dropped sharply from 64% to 7%.
After 15 years, the Speak Mandarin Campaign reached an important turning point in 1994. As increasingly high numbers of Chinese Singaporeans used English as their primary language of communication, the Government saw the need to target English-educated Chinese Singaporeans in its efforts to promote the use of Mandarin.
Since then, in order to boost the appeal of the campaign among the younger generation, Promote Mandarin Council began to organise a series of activities, such as xinyao (Mandarin songs composed and performed by youths in Singapore) music events, storytelling competitions, concerts, variety shows on television, and made extensive use of online resources and games. In 2004, the Speak Mandarin Campaign launched its first bilingual slogan Huayu Cool (Mandarin Cool). Entering the 21st century, the Speak Mandarin Campaign also started actively employing new media and technologies to create a more favourable environment for the learning of Mandarin.
In recent years, the Speak Mandarin Campaign has been focusing on encouraging Singaporeans to use Mandarin more in their daily lives, as well as enhancing people’s understanding of Singapore Chinese culture. Since 2019, it has used the slogan “Speak Mandarin? Yes, I Can.” to encourage Singaporeans to persevere in learning Mandarin and speaking it.
The linguistic environment of the Chinese community in Singapore has undergone a rapid transformation over the past few decades, with the launch of the Speak Mandarin Campaign, and Mandarin replacing Chinese dialects. However, while the campaign has popularised the use of Mandarin, English has also quickly become the dominant language in Chinese homes in Singapore. This has presented new challenges for the campaign.
In view of this, promoting Mandarin solely through the Speak Mandarin Campaign is not enough. In recent years, the government has also encouraged parents to take an active role in helping their children master their mother tongue, so that Mandarin continues to be a part of the daily lives of Chinese Singaporeans — including those from the younger generation.
Ini Indexs
In the early days, live performances were the main form of entertainment for the Chinese community in Singapore, though they were subject to the constraints of time and space. After American scientist Thomas Alva Edision (1847–1931) invented the cylinder phonograph in 1887, many others continued to study and develop it, before German-American inventor Emile Berliner (1851–1929) eventually improved it into the modern gramophone that we know today. This development completely revolutionised the transmission of sound in human history. Combined with modern recording technology, songs and music that were once transient in nature could now be preserved and even mass-produced for sale.
The arrival of gramophones and music records in the early 1900s brought the Chinese community in Singapore unprecedented auditory experiences and a brand-new mode of entertainment. Over the next few decades, records became popular music products and found their way into the homes of ordinary people. As such, tracing the history of gramophones and records in Singapore is one way of looking into the cultural life of the local Chinese community in the last century.
Music records made in different languages were available in Singapore since the early 20th century. Given the diverse composition of the local Chinese community – which included many different dialect groups such as Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hainanese, and Hakka – it made sense for record companies to produce a variety of traditional music or popular songs in various dialects to cater to as many communities as possible to maximise sales. Mandarin records, specifically, came into dominance only after Singapore’s independence, as Mandarin gradually became the standardised language of the Chinese community. At the same time, records made in other Chinese dialects dwindled.
In the first half of the 20th century, gramophones and records distributed in Singapore were mainly from international record companies in America and Europe, such as the Gramophone Company from the United Kingdom and Beka Records from Germany. By the 1920s and 1930s, two Chinese-owned companies – Hong Kong’s New Moon Gramophone Company and Shanghai’s Great China Records – also started distributing their records to Singapore. Even though Singapore had no record companies of its own in this period, many local professional opera troupes and amateur groups were already making records by invitation from these foreign companies.1
The outbreak of World War II sparked the ethnic consciousness of Chinese communities around the world. In response, Singapore also began selling Chinese records with anti-war sentiments. During the Japanese Occupation, imports of records into Singapore were halted. While entertainment was not at the top of people’s minds, the Japanese army decided to fill the gap in the market anyway by using unreleased recordings previously made in Shanghai to produce and sell records under the Sun label.2
The post-war 1950s was when Singapore’s homegrown record industry began to sprout. Record companies of all sizes, such as Ngee Fat Gramophone House, sprung up across the island. Many local singers, professional and amateur ones alike, also involved themselves in the business of producing records. The local record industry gradually transitioned from relying on imported records and acting as agents to becoming independent players. It was now capable of recording, producing, and packaging its own products.3
The 1950s and 1960s were an important, thriving period in the development of Chinese popular culture in Singapore. As a major form of media, music records interacted with other cultural forms such as Chinese opera, movies, and getai performances. For example, the market for Chinese opera film soundtracks saw a boom when a “Chinese opera film wave” was sparked by a series of Chinese opera movies imported from Hong Kong, including Butterfly Lovers (1954) and Sixth Madam Su (1960). At the same time, many artists and performance groups who were making records — including Seong Koon Low Won (1922–2002), Eng Yean Opera Troupe,4 and Wang Sha and Ye Feng5— frequently gave live performances in venues like amusement parks, cabarets, and theatres too.
In 1963, Television Singapura, Singapore’s first television station, was officially launched. The advent of the television era did not merely change Singapore’s entertainment ecosystem – it also opened a new chapter in the development of the local record industry. Televised Chinese opera performances and singing competitions organised by the television station often boosted sales of related records and promoted growth in the industry.
Cantonese vinyl record Yueyu xiaoqu (Cantonese folk tunes) produced by Horse Brand Records, 1965. National Museum of Singapore Collection, courtesy of National Heritage Board.
The development of the record industry and recording technology since the early 20th century has had a significant impact on the transmission of sound and the entertainment landscape. However, the local recording industry gradually lost its steam by the 1970s as music preferences shifted, pirated records proliferated, and new entertainment venues emerged, all affecting the record market and entertainment ecosystem in profound ways. Many recording artists responded to the changing times by transitioning to other fields, such as television and getai, to sustain their career in entertainment and continue contributing to the development of pop culture in Singapore.
Ini Indexs
In addition to Mandarin, various dialects are commonly spoken by Chinese Singaporeans. These are different from Mandarin, having developed in different regions in China.
The dialects of Singapore’s Chinese community are diverse and complex, with the five main dialects and their respective dialect groups (Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, Hainan) being the most prominent, alongside other dialects such as Henghua (Henghwa, Hinghwa) and Shanghainese. In the early years, Chinese immigrants from southern China settled in groups based on their place of origin in China. This led to the formation of various local communities where different dialects were spoken. It has been pointed out that, “From the very beginning, the Chinese population was not a united one. It was divided into disparate groups distinguished not only by the dialects they spoke, but also by the locations where they congregated, worked and lived.”1
For example, the Hokkien people from the Minnan region typically use the Hokkien dialect; Teochew speakers, originating from the eastern part of Guangdong, use Teochew dialect; and Cantonese is spoken by the Cantonese people from the Pearl River Delta area. Sociologists have described this phenomenon as the Dialect Group Classification Rule.2
Colloquial expressions from Hokkien often find their way into everyday conversations in Singapore, making it a prominent dialect that transcends community boundaries.
Using population census data gathered over several years, it is possible to trace the population proportions of various dialect groups (see Table 1). In the early days, despite sharing cultural traditions, Chinese people speaking different dialects often found it hard to communicate effectively with one another. They also observed different customs, which led to strong dialect group identities.
The start of the government’s Speak Mandarin Campaign in 1979, which had slogans such as “Speak more Mandarin and less dialects”, contributed to the decline of dialect usage in Singapore. After the campaign was initiated, the use of dialects in broadcasting was restricted. This, along with the country’s education bilingual policy, weakened the sense of identity within dialect groups. Dialects eventually became something used primarily by the older generation, as younger people lacked a conducive environment to learn them.
Population censuses conducted after 1980 continued to collect data on people’s dialect groups. This data does not necessarily indicate proficiency in a particular dialect.
Table 1: Proportion of Chinese dialect groups in the population from 1881 to 2020 (%)
| Dialect Groups | 1881 | 1931 | 1947 | 1957 | 1970 | 1980 | 2010 | 2020 |
| Hokkien | 28.8 | 43 | 39.6 | 40.6 | 42.2 | 43.1 | 40.0 | 39.3 |
| Teochew | 26.1 | 19.7 | 21.6 | 22.5 | 22.4 | 22.0 | 20.1 | 19.4 |
| Cantonese | 17.1 | 22.5 | 21.6 | 18.9 | 17 | 16.5 | 14.6 | 14.3 |
| Hainan | 9.6 | 4.7 | 7.1 | 7.2 | 7.3 | 7.1 | 6.4 | 6.1 |
| Hakka | 7.1 | 4.6 | 5.5 | 6.7 | 7.0 | 7.4 | 8.3 | 8.6 |
| Others | 11.3 | 5.5 | 4.6 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 10.5 | 12.3 |
| Total | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Total Number of Chinese | 86, 000 | 418, 000 | 729, 000 | 1.09 million | 1.579 million | 1.856 million | 2.793 million | 3.006 million |
Source: Eddie Kuo and Luo Futeng, Diversity and Unity: Language and Society in Singapore, 6.
Dialects are not just tools for communication. They also serve as a bedrock for local Chinese culture and enable that culture to be transmitted. In traditional Chinese opera, folk songs, ditties, and theatrical performances make use of dialects — as do Hokkien gezai opera, Teochew opera, Hakka folk songs, and Cantonese opera.
As dialects decline in prominence, certain aspects of culture run the risk of fading away and being forgotten by younger generations. Members of the local community might have bemoaned the decline of dialects, but policymakers saw the presence of diverse Chinese dialects as an obstacle to forging a common identity among members of the young nation.
By the mid-20th century, as the number of Chinese immigrants swelled, the number of Chinese dialects spoken also increased to at least 12.3 Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) remarked, “Dialects were not only interfering with bilingual education, they were also dividing the Chinese community as those who spoke the same dialect tended to band together.”4
Today, Singapore’s bilingual education system encourages locals to learn a “mother tongue” — such as Mandarin, Malay, Tamil — in addition to mastering English. The government does not prohibit the learning and use of dialects.
Ini Indexs
The earliest Hokkien immigrants in Singapore were descendants of Hokkiens from Minnan, or China’s Southern Fujian province, who had lived in Malacca for decades. These Malaccan Hokkiens arrived in Singapore even before the Hokkien immigrants from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. The Malaccan Hokkiens had a competitive edge as they were among the first to learn about Raffles’ intention to transform Singapore into a free port (which came to pass in 1819). Recognising the immense opportunity at hand, the Malaccan Hokkien community moved swiftly to Singapore under the leadership of pioneer See Hoot Kee (1793–1847), bringing in capital to exploit these new market prospects.
By 1828, they had already founded the Heng San Teng (also known as Heng San Ting or Heng Suah Teng) cemetery temple in Singapore. Modelled after the Cheng Hoon Teng and Poh San Teng cemetery temples in Malacca, the Heng San Teng cemetery temple was more than a place of worship — it was a vital and earliest-established institution that catered to the Hokkien community’s livelihood and welfare. It also led and represented the Hokkien community in Singapore. While Heng San Teng did not officially promote itself as a clan association (also known as huiguan or huay kuan), it fulfilled roles reminiscent of the early clan associations.
In 1839, See Hoot Kee stepped down from his leadership position and returned to Malacca, where he later took charge of the Cheng Hoon Teng cemetery temple. That same year, another figure from Malacca, Tan Tock Seng (1798–1850), rose to prominence as the new leader of the Hokkien community in Singapore. Under his leadership, Hokkien merchants came together to build Thian Hock Keng temple on Telok Ayer Street. Completed in 1842, this temple complex was dedicated to Mazu — the Mother of Heavenly Sage and the Goddess of the Seas. Community leaders aspired to use the worship of Mazu as a unifying force for the diverse Chinese communities in Singapore, and stone steles installed in the temple in 1850 carry inscriptions that document this vision. Tan Tock Seng and other temple directors referred to themselves as “Tang people” (tangren) — a term that applies to the broader Chinese community, transcending individual dialect groups or places of origin. The inscription also suggests that Thian Hock Keng, in addition to being a temple, functioned as a clan association that represented the community and cared for its well-being.
In time, the Hokkien Huay Kuan relocated from Thian Hock Keng temple and established its own building just across the street, where a street opera stage used to be. Until 1929, the Hokkien Huay Kuan was helmed by See Tiong Wah (1886–1940) — a direct descendant of See Hoot Kee — and managed by a handful of Hokkien community leaders. The period from 1929 to 1949 was a transformative time for the Hokkien Huay Kuan. Under the stewardship of Tan Kah Kee (1874–1961), the association enhanced the educational standards and opportunities for the Chinese community in Singapore. There were also significant reforms to the association’s structural organisation. Furthermore, the association expanded the business prospects for the Chinese community, and initiated reforms in funeral rites and traditions. It was also under Tan Kah Kee’s leadership that the association made significant contributions to China’s disaster relief initiatives as well as resistance efforts against Japanese aggression during World War II. This era thus marked the transformation of the Hokkien Huay Kuan from a parochial, clan-based organisation to one with broader objectives. It not only represented and unified the Hokkiens in Singapore, but extended its influence over the various Chinese communities in the Malaya and across Southeast Asia. Through these endeavours, Tan Kah Kee was acknowledged as the preeminent leader of the Chinese communities in Singapore and Malaya.
In the meantime, Hokkien immigrants from different Fujianese counties in China also ventured to Singapore in large numbers. They founded their guilds or clan associations grouped around local or regional identities.
Most of these locality and kinship-based associations were established in Singapore during the British colonial era. They saw close collaboration between regular Hokkien immigrants, as well as their community leaders who shouldered the responsibility of creating jobs, supporting livelihoods, and managing funeral rites. These associations thus came to be the highest body for Hokkien communities in Singapore away from their ancestral homes. They also played the important role of preserving Chinese culture, making Singapore a home with familiar traditions from immigrants’ homelands.
After Singapore gained independence, the new government took over many of the roles once fulfilled by clan associations. The clan associations thus shifted their focus to local concerns, including education and the promotion of Chinese cultural heritage.
Ini Indexs
The term “Hokkien” is commonly used by the Chinese communities in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian regions to refer to the Minnan language. From an academic and linguistic perspective, this term is conceptually inaccurate. It would be more precise to call it the Minnan language or Minnan dialect.
This is because “Hokkien” is the name for Fujian province, which is divided into southern, northern, eastern, and western regions. A multitude of dialects are spoken within its borders. For example, other than the Minnan dialect used in southern Fujian, there are the Minbei and Putian dialects spoken in northern and southeast Fujian respectively, there are also Hakka dialects in western Fujian. To use the name of the province to refer to a dialect only spoken in southern Fujian would be to ignore the existence of those other dialects, creating the misperception that Hokkien refers to all dialects spoken in Fujian. Nevertheless, even though Hokkien is, strictly speaking, not equivalent to Minnan dialect, it has become customary in Singapore to use “Hokkien” to refer to the Minnan dialect.
The Minnan dialect spoken by Chinese Singaporeans came mainly from immigrants who arrived from the southern Fujian regions of Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Xiamen from the second half of the 19th century to the early 20th century. It is notable for its inclusion — and integration — of phonetic components from the Xiamen version (the representative accent of Minnan dialect), as well as the Zhangzhou and Quanzhou versions of Minnan dialect, showcasing a degree of variation and flexibility rarely seen in the respective Minnan dialect-speaking regions of Fujian1.
According to academic research, the phonetic system of the Minnan dialect spoken in Singapore is close to that of the Tong’an dialect, and is primarily a synthesis of Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and Xiamen accents, with 18 initial consonants, 88 vowels, and eight tones. This is very similar to Quanzhou and Xiamen dialects.
In addition, the Minnan dialect spoken locally also retains some ancient phonetic characteristics. For example, Chinese characters that are pronounced in Mandarin with a labiodental initial consonant “f” — such as 分 (pronounced as fen in Mandarin, [pun] in Minnan dialect), 飞 (fei/[pue]), 蜂 (feng/[phaŋ]), and 房 (fang/[paŋ]) — are pronounced with either the bilabial consonants “b” or “p” in Minnan dialect. This is a pre-Tang dynasty phonetic feature and is part of the evolutionary pattern of labial sounds in the history of Chinese phonology.
In another example, Chinese characters pronounced in Mandarin with retroflex initial consonants — such as 直 (zhi/[tit]), 中 (zhong/[tioŋ]), 抽 (chou/[thiu]), and 茶 (cha/[te]) — are pronounced with either the blade-alveolar consonants “d” and “t” in Minnan dialect, which is another phonetic feature preserved from pre-Tang dynasty times2 and is part of the evolutionary pattern of lingual sounds in the history of Chinese phonology.
In terms of vocabulary, the local Minnan dialect shares 85% of its words with the Minnan dialect spoken in Fujian. Some of these have been expressed the same way they had been since ancient times, such as using 沃 [ak] for watering, 囥 [khŋ] for hiding, 晏 [ũã] for night, 行 [kiã] for walking, and 走 [tsau] for running.
At the same time, Minnan dialect in Singapore has absorbed words from other languages, including Malay, English, and Cantonese. For instance, 镭 [lui] is borrowed from the Malay word “duit,” which means money, while 罗弄 [lo lɔŋ] came from the Malay word “lorong,” which means alley.3
In terms of grammar, the personal pronouns 我 [gua], 阮 [gun], 汝 [li], and 伊 [i] in Minnan dialect correspond respectively to 我 (wo, meaning “I” or “me”), 你 (ni, meaning “you”), and 他 (ta, meaning “he” or “him”) in Mandarin. Common negation words include 无 [bo], 袂 [be], 未 [bue], 毋 [m], 免 [biɛn], and 莫 [mai]. In Mandarin, 已经 (yijing), 过 (guo), and 了 (le) — meaning “already”, “past”, and “had”, respectively — are used to express past and perfect tenses, while Minnan dialect mostly adopts 有 [u/iu] (meaning to have or to exist) for the same purposes. For example, 我有吃 [gua u/iu tsiak] means “I had eaten,” and 我有做 [gua u/iu tsou] means “I had done”.
In Singapore, the Minnan dialect has also influenced Mandarin. While Minnan dialect has borrowed words from Malay and English, certain Minnan expressions have also entered the Mandarin system, enriching the Chinese language of this region. For example, terms like 怕输 [khia su], referring to the fear of losing out, 苦力工 [khɔ lɪk kɔŋ], meaning labourers or coolies, are commonly seen in local Chinese publications. Some grammatical structures of Minnan dialect have also infiltrated the Mandarin syntax, such as the common use of 有 (you) in place of 过 (guo) or 了 (le) to express the completion of an action. To give an example, the phrase “I have watched this movie” might be expressed in Singapore Mandarin as 这部电影我有看 (zhe bu dianying wo you kan) rather than the Standard Mandarin version, 这部电影我看过 (zhe bu dianying wo kan guo).
The Hokkien community is the largest Chinese dialect group in Singapore. According to census data, the total local population of Chinese in 1881 was only 86,000, out of which 28.8% spoke Minnan dialect. By 1970, the total number of Chinese people had reached 1.579 million — of which 42.2%, or approximately 666,000 people, spoke the Minnan dialect.4 Survey data from the 1980s even showed that 17% of the Malay community could understand Minnan dialect.5
Many places in Singapore have also been named using Minnan pronunciation and words. For example, 厝 [tshu] — which means home or house — is found in names such as Lim Chu Kang, Yio Chu Kang, and Choa Chu Kang.6
Historically, several regional rhyme books for the Minnan dialect have had considerable influence. These include Hui yin miao wu (Understanding of the Collected Sounds, written and compiled by Huang Qian from Quanzhou, and published in 1796) and Huiji ya su tong shiwu yin (Compilation of the Fifteen Sounds of Refined and Popular Speech, written and compiled by Xie Xiulan from Zhangzhou, and published in 1869).
In short, Singapore’s Minnan dialect is an extension of the Minnan dialect of China’s Fujian province, and they share the same phonetical, lexical, and grammatical system.
Ini Indexs
The Teochews are the second-largest Chinese community in Singapore. They originated mainly from the Chaoshan region in Guangdong province, including Chaozhou, Chao’an, Shantou, Jieyang, and other areas. According to 2020 census data, the local Teochew population makes up approximately 19.4% of the total Chinese population.1 The proportion has remained relatively stable since the census of 1931.
The Teochew dialect is a branch of the Minnan dialect family, and has similarities with the widely-spoken Hokkien (Minnan) dialect. Yet, it has some distinctive features.
According to Chinese linguist Li Yongming’s research, the Teochew phonetic system in Singapore includes 18 initial consonants, 69 vowels, and eight tones.2 These are some of its phonetic characteristics:
Similar to other Minnan family dialects, Teochew retains some single-syllable words from ancient Chinese. Some examples are fù (stomach), suǒ (rope), qǐ (stand), zhuǎn (return).
As with other local dialects, some Teochew words are borrowed from languages such as Malay and English, with the pronunciations modified to align with the Teochew phonetic system. The following are examples of loan words in Teochew:
Teochew grammar, according to the research of linguists such as Lee Cher Ling, contains some distinctive features. There are two basic negative-affirmative formats used in Singapore.3
One format is VP—NEG—VP (VP represents verb phrase; NEG represents negative word):
Another format is ke 可—VP:
Other methods of expression are extensions of these two formats.
There has been much research into local Teochew dialect and culture. Examples of publications include Chaozhou ziyun (Teochew Opera Rhymes, 1990) by Hong Chao, Chaozhou huayu, Chaohua shuangxiang pinyin zihui(Teochew-Mandarin, Mandarin-Teochew Bilingual Pinyin Dictionary, 1990) compiled by Zhang Liangcai, and Chaozhou geyao suan (Selection of Teochew Folk Songs, 1988) by Ma Feng and Hong Chao.
In recent years, enthusiastic educators have developed Teochew dialect textbooks, such as Xueda Chaozhou hua 60 ke (Learning Teochew in 60 Lessons, 2021) by Goh Eng Choon. This textbook contains explanations of commonly used words and idioms, and introduces readers to proverbs and sayings — making it a useful resource for members of the younger generation who are interested in learning Teochew.
Amid the declining usage of Teochew in Singapore, local Teochew community organisations have initiated Teochew dialect classes in an effort to preserve the dialect. The Chui Huay Lim Club and Teochew Heritage Society have organised four consecutive Teochew dialect competitions, attracting Teochew participants across different generations. Similar activities include Teochew conversational classes by Nam Hwa Opera, and the Teochew nursery rhyme classes for parents and children by the Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan.
Ini Indexs
Guangdong hua (Cantonese) is the term commonly used by overseas Chinese for the dialect also known as yueyu or baihua. According to surveys conducted by linguists, Cantonese is mainly spoken in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong, which includes areas such as Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau. Overseas, one can find it spoken in parts of Southeast Asia and North America.
Cantonese is the third most commonly-spoken dialect among the Chinese community in Singapore. As early as 1881, Cantonese-speaking people accounted for 17.1% of the total Chinese population. In 1931, this figure stood at 22.5%, and in 1980, at 16.5%. Cantonese people were not the only ones who spoke Cantonese. Many from other dialect groups, and even Malay and Indian compatriots, could also often understand and speak Cantonese. Thus, the percentage of the population who could speak Cantonese was in reality far higher than the figures mentioned above. The linguistic status of Cantonese has been elevated, not just because Cantonese is one of the dialects used in everyday life, but also because it is one of the official languages of Hong Kong and Macau. In addition, Cantonese popular culture has a wide influence. For instance, Cantonese films, dramas, and pop songs have spread across Southeast Asia. It is therefore natural and inevitable that the Cantonese dialect would have a large influence among the masses and in business circles.
The characteristics of the local Cantonese dialect in Singapore are as follows:
Cantonese is also distinctive for its unique Chinese characters, which are unmatched by other dialects. For example, 哋 (pronounced [tei], is a plural personal suffix, the equivalent of the character “们” or “us”), 嘅 (pronounced [ke], indicating possession, is equivalent to the Chinese character “的”), 冚 (pronounced [kam/ham], meaning “all”), 冇 (pronounced [mou], the equivalent of the Chinese “无” or “没有”, meaning “none”), 睇 (pronounced [tai], meaning “看” or “look”), 瞓 (pronounced [fan], meaning “睡” or “sleep”), 攞 (pronounced [lo], meaning “拿取” or “take”), 揸 (pronounced [tsa], meaning “手持” or “hold”), 曱甴 (pronounced [ka tsa], meaning “蟑螂” or “cockroach”) and so on.
There has been a lot of research on Cantonese pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and related Cantonese culture. This is partly due to the presence of many cities in the Pearl River Delta, such as Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau, which have many universities and research institutions with strong research capabilities. Sun Yat-Sen University, Jinan University, the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the University of Macau all have researchers researching Cantonese, and regularly hold international academic conferences on Cantonese. Additionally, there is a wide distribution of Cantonese speakers overseas. There are Cantonese-speaking communities in Southeast Asia, North America, Western Europe, as well as other regions. Therefore, Cantonese is particularly valued by researchers. Although there are not many scholars studying Cantonese in Singapore, it is still valued by people, especially in local community groups, where it shows few signs of dying out. Many local Cantonese associations often conduct Cantonese conversation classes, singing competitions and other activities, which help to keep the Cantonese dialect alive.
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The Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) was founded in 1996 but only started promoting Nanyang-style music in 2002. Although there were some compositions such as the Legend of the Merlion, which SCO commissioned several years prior, the term “Nanyang style music” was created by then music director and conductor Tsung Yeh in 2002. “Nanyang” (literally “southern seas”) refers to the region south of China. This covers the Malay Archipelago, the Philippines, the Indonesian archipelago, coastal areas of the Indochinese peninsula, and other land areas. Early Chinese immigrants in the 19th century who worked and settled in the region used the term to refer to Southeast Asia. The home culture they brought with them had integrated with the culture of Nanyang to form a distinctive historical and cultural thread.
Chinese orchestral music pieces composed in the Nanyang style have fused traditional Chinese orchestral music with elements from the Nanyang region. They come in a wide range of colourful, melodious tunes, and fluid, rhythmic melodies. Before SCO mooted the idea of Nanyang style Chinese orchestral music, this concept had already been spreading among the community. Many groups such as Siong Leng Musical Association, Nam Hwa Teochew Music Ensemble, City Chinese Orchestra, and Keat Hong Chinese Orchestra had been pondering a “Nanyang style” of music anchored in the local community.
Inspired by the Nanyang style of painting, SCO’s former music director Tsung Yeh developed Nanyang music in phases during his tenure. He learnt about the styles of tunes found in the Nanyang region and the positioning of the Nanyang repertoire, and invited local composers to try their hands at creating Nanyang-style works. Law Wai Lun’s Prince Sang Nila Utama and Singa and Zheng He – Admiral of the Seven Seas, and Wang Chenwei’s The Sisters’ Islands are representative of this style.
The Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Compositions held by the SCO in 2006, 2011, and 2015 paved the way for “Chinese orchestral works with a strong Nanyang flavour”. From compositions that won these competitions to commissioned creations, the orchestra has accumulated a repertoire of more than 60 pieces of Nanyang-style Chinese orchestral music. In addition to promoting the creation of Nanyang-style music, it has also nurtured a group of composers and provided a platform for young local composers.
The orchestra appointed composers-in-residence, including Law Wai Lun, Phoon Yew Tien, Eric Watson, and Wang Chenwei. They organised workshops and lectures on music composition, conducted in-depth field research, and experienced the culture of Nanyang music for themselves. This laid a good foundation for the development of Nanyang-style Chinese orchestral music.
The SCO’s Nanyang-style Chinese orchestral music strives to break free from constraints. It aims to create a completely new style of music that integrates local elements with lessons from Chinese music culture.
Chinese orchestral music has been passed down and developed by many generations since it came to Singapore’s shores. On one hand, it has retained the cultural aspects of traditional Chinese orchestral music. On the other, it has evolved a Nanyang style with a Singaporean flavour that takes into account the island’s geography, climate, and culture.
Nanyang-style Chinese orchestral music is now a mature genre. With its roots firmly planted in the soil of Southeast Asian music culture, it will continue to thrive if efforts to cultivate it continue — giving Singapore’s Chinese orchestral music a uniqueness on the international stage.
Ini Indexs
Hakka is one of the five major Chinese dialects in Singapore. The local Hakka community comes mainly from Meizhou, Dabu, and Fengshun in Guangdong province, as well as Longyan and Yongding in Fujian. According to the Singapore Population Census in 1881, local Hakkas accounted for 7.1% of the total Chinese population. In 1931, they made up 4.6% of the total Chinese population, and as of 2020, they constituted 8.6%, or approximately 259,000 people. The Hakka population in Singapore is smaller than the Hokkien dialect group, Teochew dialect group and Cantonese dialect group, but larger than the Hainan dialect group.1
The Hakka dialect exhibits distinctive features in terms of phonetics, vocabulary, and syntax. These are closely linked to the development, settlement, and interactions of the local Hakka community in Singapore.
The Hakka dialect has some unique phonetic features:
There are notable differences between Hakka and Mandarin vocabulary:
In terms of syntax, there are some differences between Hakka and Mandarin, especially in the use of 过guò in comparative sentences:
Within the Hakka community, there are several differences in how the dialect is spoken. For example, the pronunciation of the character 客ke varies. Hakka speakers from Fengshun, Yongding, and Dabu pronounce it with an aspirated initial [ khak], while those from Meizhou pronounce it with an affricate initial [hak]. Despite these differences, Hakka speakers from various regions can still communicate and understand each other. This can be attributed to the strong sense of unity among Hakka people, who adhere to the ancient principle of “Better to sell ancestral land than to sell ancestral language”, steadfastly preserving Hakka dialect and culture.2
The development of the Hakka dialect is closely tied to the migration history of the Hakka people. According to scholars such as Lo Hsiang-lin (1906–1978), from the turmoil of the Yongjia Rebellion (311) in the Jin dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), there were five significant migration waves of Central Plains Han Chinese. This led to the concentration of Hakka people in the border areas of Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangxi provinces, and their dispersal to regions like Guangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and parts of Southeast Asia such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Hakka people who settled in Singapore formed communities based on dialects, locality, and occupational ties. For example, there was a significant Hakka population living in places such as Beach Road, Bukit Panjang Ten Miles (shi yingli), West Hill Estate in Sembawang, the foot of Bukit Timah Hill, Shuang Long Shan, Lorong 3 Geylang, and Pulau Tekong. Internally, these Hakka community organisations commonly use Hakka dialect as a communication tool.3
In the 1970s, most of the Chinese people who lived on Pulau Tekong were Hakka. Later on, however, several factors contributed to a decline in the use of the Hakka dialect: urban policies which resulted in the Hakkas living alongside people from other ethnic and Chinese dialect groups, bilingual education in English and Mandarin Chinese, and the conversion of Pulau Tekong for military use. As a result, the use of Hakka dialect was restricted to smaller circles, such as families and clans.
In order to preserve the endangered Hakka dialect in Singapore, local Hakka organisations such as the Nanyang Hakka Federation, Ying Fo Fui Kun, Char Yong (Dabu) Association, Char Yong (Dabu) Lee Chee Association, and Foong Shoon Fui Kuan regularly organise events such as Hakka folk song singing sessions and competitions, aiming to retain the Hakka dialect and pass down Hakka culture.