On the 40th anniversary of the Speak Mandarin Campaign last year (2019), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted that young Chinese Singaporeans are losing their fluency in Chinese, and with it, the bilingual advantage Singaporeans once had.  The loss of language ability is often most obvious when needing to express complex and sophisticated concepts.  Thinking and feeling in a language is harder than doing tasks with it. 

 

The proposed program aims to help younger Chinese Singaporeans gain access to our Chinese forefathers’ understanding of morals and emotions as preserved in myriad common Chinese proverbs.  This will in turn help these young people to tap into their own cultural heritage as a source for expressing and understanding their developing mental and emotional insights. The “stupid questions” posed by the puppets speak with humour to the fear of embarrassment felt by those who lack confidence in their Chinese language proficiency.  Less-fluent speakers are thus invited to set aside their anxieties, reclaim their cultural and linguistic heritage, and to prevent further erosion of our cultural topsoil and the declassification of ourselves. 

 

Non-heritage Chinese learners are welcome to join in the fun.