A Chinese box office hit sparks a debate about identity in Singapore

Here is the latest breaking news from around the world: A Chinese box office hit sparks a debate about identity in SingaporeImage source, Golden VillageImage caption, The Chinese movie Dear You was filmed almost entirely in Teochew, a dialect from China's Chaoshan regionByKoh EweReporting fromSingaporePublished11 minutes agoA nostalgic tale about family, hope and hardship, Dear You has swept the box office in China this summer - and opened an unexpected conversation about identity thousands of miles away in Singapore. The sleeper hit was filmed almost entirely in Teochew, a language from China's Chaoshan region which is still spoken among older generations of Chinese in South East Asia. But when the movie hit Singaporean cinemas this month, many were dismayed to learn that most of the screenings would be dubbed into Mandarin - the lingua franca of China and one of Singapore's four official languages, along with English.

"Being Teochew, watching it in Teochew makes it even more special," says Wu Silin, a church worker. She and her mother watched Dear You last week, after snagging tickets to one of just eight special Teochew screenings. The tickets reportedly sold out in less than two hours.

The Details

When the film is being screened in its original language in China, why not in Singapore, where Teochew is still spoken by many among the older generation of ethnic Chinese? That's what many locals are asking. The film has inadvertently sparked a debate over the government's long-standing push for Chinese Singaporeans to speak Mandarin instead of other languages, or what they call dialects, from China.

What began as an attempt to unify the Chinese community in Singapore has proven so effective that, some argue, it has driven dialects like Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese and Hakka into an irreversible decline. Authorities have responded to the impassioned calls for the movie to be screened in Teochew. "We hear the calls for dialect films to be more freely screened in cinemas," Singapore's information ministry said in a statement on Monday, promising to "take a more flexible approach".

As people commiserate online, some have shared plans to travel to neighbouring Malaysia to catch Dear You in Teochew. Another eight shows - nearly 5,000 tickets - went on sale on Monday, and sold out within two hours, local media reported. On Thursday, 50 more screenings were approved in Teochew.

What Experts Say

To many Singaporeans, Dear You is a bittersweet journey into their own past, told in a tongue that has crossed the seas and entered a new era. Image source, Golden VillageImage caption, Dear You is set against the backdrop of a historical wave of Chinese migration to South East AsiaBut even those who don't understand Teochew have been seeking out the movie in its original form. "I think sometimes it's just the vibe," says Anna Zhang, a 35-year-old from Beijing who moved to Singapore for work.

She watched it in Teochew with subtitles, she says, as she would any foreign film.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.