Forum: Time to allow dialect films to engage audiences in their natural tongues

Singapore will run the film Dear You mostly in Mandarin, not Teochew, though there will be some special screenings.

The policy requiring Chinese-dialect films and media productions to be dubbed into Mandarin stems directly from the Speak Mandarin Campaign launched in 1979. The campaign has achieved what it set out to do – it has established Mandarin as the common language among Chinese Singaporeans and dismantled the dialect landscape.

In this context, it seems counterproductive to maintain this rule strictly on local cinema operators and distributors almost half a century later.

Screening a dialect film is now no different from screening a French or Malay film. Dialect films are not an issue on home videos and streaming platforms and even on board airplanes, so why should cinemas continue to bear the brunt of this outdated policy?

Considering the difficulties cinemas are facing in attracting patrons in a highly competitive entertainment market, the authorities should be looking at all possible avenues to lighten the load on local operators and distributors.

There is demand for Dear You to be screened in Teochew, its original dialect, and local operators and distributors should be allowed to convert this high demand into commercial success.

Finally, what better way to confirm the success of the Speak Mandarin Campaign than to relax this rule completely, to signal a maturity in addressing the diverse cultural roots of our Chinese Singaporean population?

We trust the authorities will set out a new direction that is beneficial to the stakeholders in our film industry.

Eric Khoo, Jack Neo