It is HOT in Scotland! Okay, not by Singapore standards—and the temperatures aren't as high as they are down south—but I'm not used to being warm in Scotland, and so I'm taking part in the British (and Singaporean) past-time of complaining about the weather. Unbelievable, what is this world coming to, etc. etc.
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Today in Singapore, one can easily watch a film in Korean, Japanese, French... but not Teochew? Dear You, a low-budget family drama directed by Lan Hongchun, went gangbusters at the Chinese box office, and is now making waves in Singapore, too. But conversations in Singapore aren't so much about how good the film is, but about the language that it's been mainly screening in.
With a cast of mostly non-professional actors, Dear You is a film that touches on family, the historical migration of people from southern China to Southeast Asia, and the remittance letters they would send home. The film's dialogue is primarily in Teochew, but the version of Dear You the arrived in Singaporean cinemas was the version dubbed in Mandarin.
On the one hand, this shouldn't have been a surprise. It's part of the government's long-standing commitment to prioritise Mandarin over other Chinese languages, ostensibly to unite Chinese Singaporeans into a single community, rather than being split into Teochew, Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Hainanese groups. This is why Mandarin is the designated "mother tongue" for Chinese Singaporean students, even though most Chinese Singaporeans are descendants of migrants from southern China who would not have spoken Mandarin. Broadcast restrictions meant that other Chinese languages essentially disappeared from the airwaves—hence, Mandarin-dubbed screenings of Dear You.
WHY LIDDAT? is the question here. In letter to The Straits Times forum, filmmakers Eric Khoo and Jack Neo argued for a relaxation of the policy of dubbing films in Mandarin. At a time when fluency in non-Mandarin Chinese varieties has been more or less decimated among younger generations of Chinese Singaporeans—and, let's face it, we're not so great at Mandarin, either—it does seem absurd to worry that consuming media content in Teochew, Cantonese, Hokkien, etc. will erode the Chinese Singaporean identity.
But there's a more controversial, even more political take: is Dear You an instance of subtle, yet effective, propaganda for China's United Front efforts? Does the film invoke a heartfelt nostalgia that will give members of the Chinese diaspora the warm fuzzies for China, to China's political gain? It doesn't help that, amid the debate about what language Dear You should be screened in, mis/disinformation started circulating online trying to exploit racial tensions by claiming that traditional Chinese culture was being suppressed in Singapore.
We'll probably never get a clear answer to whether this low-budget film about a Teochew family is just really cleverly disguised propaganda. It might not even matter—viewers can come to their own conclusions. The reality is that matters of identity, language, and politics are complex and messy, resisting efforts to simplify or boil things down to a single 'truth'. Chinese Singaporeans can study Mandarin in school while being aware that its "mother tongue" status is a political construct, we can feel deeply Singaporean while also cherishing the immigrant histories of our families, we can appreciate films from China without identifying with the politics and positions of the Chinese Communist Party.
Responding to demand, the authorities have approved more Teochew screenings of Dear You. But why does this have to be a matter of special authorisation? Just let Singaporeans watch films in Teochew and Cantonese and Hokkien, the same way we watch films in any other language.
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The Internal Security Act has been used on two Singaporeans, one of them a 19-year-old boy. The teenager was issued a restriction order; the Internal Security Department says he had self-radicalised with pro-Hamas, anti-LGBTQ, anti-West, and violent incel beliefs. The other individual, a 30-year-old man, was detained under the ISA for supporting Hamas and expressing a willingness to carry out armed violence against Israel or carry out attacks in Singapore, if Hamas wanted him to do so.
As with all such announcements from the ISD, we only have their word for it, with no way for these claims to be independently verified. There is no oversight, no way to independently assess if these state actions are warranted or proportionate. It's also worth thinking about more things we could do to facilitate conversations around tough issues and topics, rather than relying on policing and control.
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Once again, cases of migrant workers not being paid by their employers. Over the past week, 100 workers showed up at the Ministry of Manpower saying that their bosses hadn't paid them for months. The ministry is now looking into these cases, and NTUC has also stepped in. The workers who showed up at MOM clearly weren't the only ones affected, as NTUC has given 400 (!!!) workers who have unpaid wages $200 each in cash and supermarket vouchers. At least some of the workers should be able to get new jobs or seek new employment while on special passes.
Unpaid salaries are an unfortunately common problem, and not all cases get this level of action from the authorities. As it is, $200 in cash and vouchers aren't going to last the workers long if they don't find other work or get the wages they're owed soon.
The Transformative Justice Collective is thrilled to bring 'We Keep Us Safe', a day of activities pulling focus towards the need to build strong communities from the grassroots, allowing us to rely on one another rather than hand power and control to an authoritarian regime.
Thank you for reading! As always, feel free to forward this weekly wrap to anyone you think might be interested, share the web link on social media, or spread the word about this newsletter!
Music for the weekend!