Speak Mandarin Campaign
   HOME
*





Speak Mandarin Campaign
The Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC; ) is an initiative by the government of Singapore to encourage the Singaporean Chinese population to speak Standard Mandarin Chinese, one of the four official languages of Singapore. Launched on 7 September 1979 by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and organised by the Promote Mandarin Council, the SMC has been an annual event promoting the use of Mandarin. Background In 1966, the Singaporean government implemented a policy of bilingual education, where Singaporean students learn both English and their designated mother tongue, which was Mandarin for all Chinese Singaporeans by default. The ''Goh Report'', an evaluation of Singapore's education system by Goh Keng Swee, showed that less than 40% of the student population managed to attain minimum levels of competency in two languages. It was later determined that the learning of Mandarin among Singaporean Chinese was hindered by home use of native Chinese varieties, such as Hokkien, Teochew, Ca ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Government Of Singapore
The Government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of Singapore to mean the executive branch of the state, which is made up of the president and the Cabinet. Although the president acts in their personal discretion in the exercise of certain functions as a check on the Cabinet and the Parliament, their role is largely ceremonial. It is the Cabinet, composed of the prime minister and other ministers appointed on their advice by the president, that have the general direction and control of the government. The Cabinet is formed by the political party that gains a simple majority in each general election. A statutory board is an autonomous agency of the Government that is established by an Act of Parliament and overseen by a government ministry. Unlike ministries and government departments that are subdivisions of ministries, statutory boards are not staffed by civil servants and have greater independence and flexibility in their operations. There are five Community ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

1991 Singaporean General Election
General elections were held in Singapore on 31 August 1991. President Wee Kim Wee dissolved parliament on 14 August 1991 on the advice of Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. The result was a victory for the People's Action Party, which won 77 of the 81 seats while Worker's Party won Hougang SMC and the Singapore Democratic Party retain Potong Pasir SMC and captured Nee Soon Central SMC and Bukit Gombak SMC making it the largest representation for opposition-elect in Parliament and was marked as a second and third SMC won by the Singapore Democratic Party and the first time an opposition claimed multiple SMCs. Voter turnout was 95.0%, although this figure represents the turnout in the 25 constituencies to be contested, Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II'', p255 with PAP candidates earning walkovers in the other 41; this was the second general election, after the 1968, where PAP returned to power on nomination da ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Singapore Sports Council
Sport Singapore (SportSG) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth of the Government of Singapore. It is the lead agency tasked with developing a holistic sports culture for the nation. History Sport Singapore was founded on 1 October 1973 as the Singapore Sports Council (SSC), through the merger of the National Sports Promotion Board (NSPB) and the National Stadium Corporation (NSC). On 1 April 2014, the SSC was renamed Sport Singapore in a rebranding exercise. Safe Sport Commission In 2019, the SafeSport Commission was set up by Sport Singapore in partnership with the Ministry of Social and Family Development, the Singapore Police Force, and the Singapore Ministry of Education in 2019 to clamp down on the abuse and harassment of athletes in sport. See also * Singapore Sports Hub The Singapore Sports Hub (Chinese: 新加坡体育城; Malay: Hab Sukan Singapura; Tamil: சிங்கப்பூர் விளையாட்டு மை ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

MediaCorp TV
Mediacorp Pte. Ltd., doing business as Mediacorp and stylised as mediacorp, is a media conglomerate in Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the holding company of the Government of Singapore—it owns television, radio, and digital media properties in the country. Mediacorp forms one half of the mass media duopoly in the country, alongside SPH Media Trust. Its logo is the geometric M with rainbow palette. History 1925–1965: Pre-independence era Radio broadcasting The history of radio broadcasting in Singapore began with the formation of the Amateur Wireless Society of Malaya (AWSM) in April 1925, which launched shortwave transmission from a studio in the Union Building at Collyer Quay using a 100-watt transmitter lent by the Marconi Company under callsign 1SE (One Singapore Experimental). The transmissions could be received from as far as Penang, albeit with atmospheric interferences at times. In 1930, Sir Earl from the Singapore Port Authority commenced its short wave bro ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

ComfortDelGro
ComfortDelGro Corporation is a multi-national land transport company listed on the Singapore Exchange, operating about 35,000 vehicles in seven countries. It was formed on 29 March 2003 through a merger of Singapore-based land transport companies Comfort Group and DelGro Corporation. On 17 September 2019, ComfortDelGro announced that it is listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index in recognition of its sustainability efforts, thus becoming the first transport company in Singapore to do so. History Comfort Group Ltd National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Co-operative Commonwealth for Transport (Comfort), was formed in 1970 as a social enterprise together with NTUC Income and NTUC Welcome. It targeted the problem of pirate or "ali baba" taxis which were rampant in Singapore at that time. Its business undertakings were acquired by Comfort Transportation Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Comfort. Comfort was subsequently listed on 6 June 1994. As of its m ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Joi Chua
Joi Chua (, born 3 August 1978) is a Singaporean female pop singer. Her most famous songs are "Waiting for a Sunny Day" (《等一个晴天》), "Watching the Sunrise With Me" (《陪我看日出》), the Chinese version of " Nada Soso" and "Wind Chimes" (《风铃》). She is also well known in Mainland China and Taiwan. Early life Chua was educated at Raffles Girls' Primary School, Clementi Town Secondary School, and Singapore Polytechnic majoring in optometry. Her original major was business administration, but she shifted her major into optometry 3 months later. She was influenced by her elder brother to pick up singing from a young age. She joined and led the choir in her Secondary school and later joined budding singers in The Ark, a café with live performances, which molded the most important part of Chua's singing career. Her mother died when she was 19. Both her mother and one of her aunts died from breast cancer. " 蔡" ("Chua" or "Tsai", pinyin: Cài) is her fam ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Wong Kan Seng
Wong Kan Seng ( zh, s=黄根成, j=Wong4 Gan1 Sing4, poj=N̂g Kun-sêng, p=Huáng Gēnchéng; born 8 September 1946) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore between 2005 and 2011. He has been serving as Chairman of the United Overseas Bank since 2018. A former member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kuo Chuan SMC between 1984 and 1988, the Bishan East division of Thomson GRC between 1991 and 1997, and later Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC between 1997 and 2015. During his political career, Wong had served as Minister for Community Development between 1987 and 1991, Leader of the House between 1987 and 2007, Minister for Foreign Affairs between 1988 and 1994, Minister for Home Affairs between 1994 and 2010, Deputy Prime Minister between 2005 and 2011, and Coordinating Minister for National Security between 2010 and 2011. After his resignation from the Cabinet in 2011, Wong continued to ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. Covering an area of approximately , it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and financial center is Shanghai. Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dyna ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area of , about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Its 4.7 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population. In general terms, Asia is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. The border of Asia with Europe is a historical and cultural construct, as there is no clear physical and geographical separation between them. It is somewhat arbitrary and has moved since its first conception in classical antiquity. The division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East–West cultural, linguistic, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Mah Bow Tan
Mah Bow Tan ( zh, s=马宝山, p=Mǎ Bǎoshān; born 12 September 1948) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Leader of the House between 2007 and 2011, Minister for National Development between 1999 and 2011, Minister for the Environment between 1993 and 1995, and Minister for Communications between 1991 and 1999. A former member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Tampines East ward of Tampines GRC between 1988 and 2015. Education Mah attended St. Michael's School and St. Joseph's Institution before graduating from the University of New South Wales in 1971 with a Bachelor of Engineering with first class honours degree in industrial engineering under the President's Scholarship and Colombo Plan Scholarship. Mah also won the University Medal for being the top student in engineering. He subsequently went on to complete a Master of Engineering degree in operations research at the University of New So ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Xinyao
''Xinyao'' () is a genre of songs that is unique to Singapore. It is a contemporary Mandarin vocal genre that emerged and rose to fame in Singapore between the late 1970s to 1980s. ''Xinyao'' songs are composed and sung by Singaporeans and it is an outlet for them to express their thoughts and feelings around themes like friendships or love stories. ''Xinyao'' is a Chinese noun comprising two words: ''Xīn'' (新) which is an abbreviation for Singapore, and ''yáo'' (谣) for song. The extended form is ''Xīnjiāpō gēyáo'' (新加坡歌谣), which simply means "Singapore songs". Xinyao can be clearly identified by its distinctive style of Mandarin genre, that is conveyed through poetic lyrics with clean acoustic accompaniments. Often, a group of people sing and harmonize together,The changing face of xinyao over the years. (1994, September 2). The Straits Times, p. 28. Retrieved from NewspaperSG accompanied solely by the guitar. As the movement grew and became semi-commercialize ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Lianhe Zaobao
''Nanyang Sin-Chew Lianhe Zaobao'' (; literally "Nanyang Sin-Chew Joint Morning Paper"), commonly abbreviated as ''Lianhe Zaobao'' (; literally "Joint Morning Paper"), is the largest Singaporean Chinese-language newspaper with a daily circulation of about 136,900 (print and digital) as of 2021. Published by SPH Media Trust (formerly Singapore Press Holdings), it was formed on 16 March 1983 as a result of a merger between ''Nanyang Siang Pau'' and '' Sin Chew Jit Poh'', two of Singapore's oldest Chinese newspapers. The paper establishes itself as a broadsheet with local news coverage, while international news tend to be largely centred on the East Asia region, with a section dedicated to China. ''Zaobao'' has an East Asian correspondent network spanning Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul and Tokyo. It is SPH's flagship Chinese daily and the only Chinese-language morning daily in Singapore. ''Lianhe Zaobao'' is the only Chinese-language overseas ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]