Lau Li Ying (U1830335H)

DD0002 Final Essay

The role of Singaporean mass media and creative industries in promoting bilingualism in
Singapore

The bilingual policy was implemented ever since the People’s Action Party was elected
in 1959 (Sim, 2020). English was hence established as the main working language in Singapore,
due to its importance in the international stage. The English language also acted as the common
language to bond the different ethnicities in Singapore. The bilingual policy was implemented by
Mr Lee Kuan Yew, as he knew that Singapore was disadvantaged by a lack of natural resources,
and needed English to link up with the rest of the world (Lee, 2012).

Hence began the daunting task of getting Singaporeans to master both English and their
mother tongue languages, particularly the three main ethnic groups: Mandarin for the Chinese,
Malay for the Malay community and Tamil for the Indians. Together with the Bilingual Policy
also came numerous campaigns and events such as the ‘Speak Mandarin Campaign’ and ‘Malay
Language Month’. Media was used largely to propagate the bilingualism policy in the 1970s. By
the 1990s, the policy was regarded rather successful as the number of Malay and Indian children
using English at home had been on the rise. This paper would like to discuss the roles
Singaporean mass media and creative industries played in supporting the policy.

The broadcast media played an important role in supporting the bilingual policy from the
start. Mass media in Singapore is regulated by the Ministry of Communications and Information.
State owned MediaCorp operates local television and radio channels, and print media are mostly
controlled by Singapore Press Holdings. With the introduction of the policy, mass media was
utilised as a tool to influence viewers and also simulate readers’ interest in both English and the
mother tongue. This could be seen from the appearance of the weekly “Bilingual page” section in
The Straits Times newspaper in the 1970s (Sim, 2020). The then Radio Television Singapore
was able to air telecasts in the 4 official languages as well. The existence of these channels
allowed for the spread of English, and also, the mother tongues respectively. Constant emphasis
on being bilingual led to a shift in the parent’s preference towards English schools, and by 1979,
the Special Assistance plan (SAP) was introduced to nine secondary schools to develop into
bilingual institutions. By the 1990s, the proportion of dialect speaking families decreased, and
the proportion of Malay, Indian, and Chinese children using English at home had increased.
While this method was very effective in the 1970s, this method’s effectiveness would have
decreased when applied to modern society. This is because many viewers are now able to opt for
online sources, and have more control in what they choose to watch and consume in their free
time. One can surf the internet when wanting to read up on the news, and one can also choose to
watch Netflix instead of the good old television and newspapers. As such, focus on bilingualism
is now largely dependent on the self.

Today, the majority of Singaporeans residents are confident in speaking English and their
Mother Tongues. A survey done by the Institute of Policy Studies showed that 78% of the
sample size agreed that they were confident in speaking English well. For Mother Tongue
Languages, 80% of Chinese respondents, 95% of Malay respondents, and 75% ot Tamil
respondents indicated that they were able to speak their Mother Tongue Language well. This is
probably also due to the fact that many of the creative industries are taking bilingualism
seriously and trying to incorporate it into their works. This can be seen in the rise in the number
of bilingual theatre companies like The theatre Practice, Drama Box and Toy Factory
Productions. Despite the financial and emotional toll of the pandemic COVID-19, these veteran
theatre companies continue to forge on, by using online platforms like Zoom to reach the masses
behind their computer screens. Besides just focusing on bilingualism in its usual plays, theatre
companies like Toy Factory Productions’ are also taking this chance to explore incorporating
bilingualism into animations to debut on online platforms (FERN,2020). One example would be
their recent animation, Tang Xianzu, about the life of the Chinese playwright, which is an
English language short film, and it was launched on Singapore International Festival of Arts’
online platforms. The National Arts Council (NAC) has also been helping such companies get
through tough times with a $20,000 Digital Presentation Grant to continue being attractive to the
masses while battling the restrictions that COVID 19 has imposed on them.

It is not all a walk in the park for such bilingual theatres, as English language companies
currently dominate the theatre scene in Singapore, and they have to fight hard for both audiences
and sponsorships. The Theatre Practice recently concluded their online M1 Patch! Theatre
festival and was pleased by the healthy viewership they were receiving digitally. Tickets were
sold out for small shows. The presence of these bilingual theatre offerings has influenced and are
effectively promoting bilingualism through the arts.

IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority) of Singapore has also been crucial in
providing support for the digital content in the local creative industry. In its annual report in
2016, IMDA helped to restore, digitalise and subtitle five films from the 1950s to the 1970s to
give old films a new lease of life. Films like Chuchu Datok Merah (1963), a Malay language
period drama, The Lion City(1960), a chinese-language film, and Ninaithale Inikkum (1979), a
Tmil romantic drama, were presented in a bilingual manner and screened at the Capitol Theatre
in August 2015. These films were met with great response from Singaporeans, leading to more
screenings at libraries and community centres. Besides such efforts, IMDA has also been
actively supporting local Youtubers like Wah!Banana and Night Owl Cinematics (NOC). Sugar
Melon, a wholly owned subsidiary of Night Owl Cinematics, have been producing mainly
chinese videos with english subtitles with the support of IMDA. This is interesting as NOC was a
mainly English speaking youtube channel before. With IMDA’s support, local youtubers are able
to create more bilingual content for their young viewers online.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) has also come out with new ways to support the
integration of the arts and the learning of mother tongue language to encourage equal emphasis
on both the English language and the mother tongue language for young students. Throughout
the period of Circuit Breaker, the Chinese Language Learning and Promotion Committee has
been working with the Chinese Arts Groups to make theatre productions online, and even live
virtual sessions for student interaction with performers ​(Speeches/Interviews, 2020)​. The Malay
Language Learning and Promotion Committee brought their flagship programme, Perkasa
Warisan, to social media. Parents and students were able to go on Instagram to use the provided
templates and activities to have fun while learning their mother tongue language at home. This
provides additional support for the mother tongue language, and lets students know that the
mother tongue language is of equal importance as the English language.
 In conclusion, the Singapore mass media and creative mass media plays a very big part in
helping to promote bilingualism in Singapore, especially during the COVID 19 situation, where
people rely on digital means to receive content at home. By actively promoting the importance of
both English and the Mother Tongue language through various platforms of traditional prints,
social media, etc, the creative industries of Singapore will be able to help Singaporeans find
learning to be bilingual an enjoyable and interesting journey.
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