{"id":63272,"date":"2026-06-24T05:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63272"},"modified":"2026-06-24T05:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:40:08","slug":"forum-time-to-let-mature-singapore-audience-celebrate-heritage-authentically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63272","title":{"rendered":"Forum: Time to let mature Singapore audience celebrate heritage authentically"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/life\/entertainment\/chinese-film-dear-you-to-be-dubbed-in-mandarin-here-4800-tickets-for-teochew-version-sold-out?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">mandated a Mandarin dub for regular screenings of the film Dear You<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">This reminded me of the controversy surrounding the mural of a smoking samsui woman in Chinatown, when the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) initially prioritised anti-smoking guidelines over the mural\u2019s historical context.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In both cases, policies were rigidly applied at the expense of our authentic cultural heritage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">IMDA\u2019s citing of the 1979 Speak Mandarin Campaign to restrict the Teochew screening of Dear You feels not only anachronistic but also out of touch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The fact that<a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/all-additional-screenings-of-teochew-movie-dear-you-sold-out-within-hour-of-sales-starting?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\"> 4,800 tickets for the Teochew screenings of Dear You were snapped up<\/span><\/a> in two hours shows that Singaporeans are starved of authentic connections to their roots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">I paid a premium on Carousell just to secure two Dear You tickets for my elderly aunt and myself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Sitting in that GVMax theatre was a profoundly moving experience. It was filled with people like me, taking our parents and relatives to see a film that literally spoke their language.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">My aunt, who is Hokkien, could follow the Teochew dialogue effortlessly. I had to rely on the subtitles.\u00a0She, like many others, teared up watching this movie.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">After the movie, she reminisced about her childhood and memories of her grandmother.\u00a0\u00a0I felt more connected to her and was grateful we watched the Teochew version together, as it bridged a linguistic gap that a Mandarin dub would not.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">For many Singaporeans, this is not just about a movie.\u00a0We want to share this authentic piece of history with our parents and relatives who have raised us.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Many of my friends are crossing the border just to\u00a0make that connection.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">To URA\u2019s credit, it eventually showed flexibility by allowing the samsui woman mural to remain, recognising that art and history cannot always be sanitised to fit into our administrative boxes.\u00a0I  hope IMDA can exercise the same grace and let the general screening of Dear You be in the original Teochew. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Isn\u2019t it time for our regulatory approach to reflect the mature, confident society Singapore is today, where our heritage can be celebrated authentically, rather than be dubbed over?<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\"><b>Evelyn Ng<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/opinion\/forum\/forum-time-to-let-mature-singapore-audience-celebrate-heritage-authentically\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) recently mandated a Mandarin dub for regular screenings of the film Dear You.\u00a0 This reminded me of the controversy&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}