Singapore's speak Mandarin Campaign

Abstract

The Speak Mandarin Campaign aims to persuade the ethnic Chinese of Singapore to use Mandarin as their lingua franca in place of Chinese dialects. The three main arguments are: educational (dialects interfere with the effective learning of Mandarin in schools), cultural (Mandarin, it is claimed, represents a core value of Chinese culture), practical (Mandarin is preferable to a multitude of mutually unintelligible dialects). Some difficulties with these arguments are discussed. Some other aspects of the campaign, such as the paraphernalia, changes in the university's entrance policy and changes in the media, are also reviewed.

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