Singapore Eases Restrictions on “Dialect Film”
As Singapore celebrated its National Day last week, the city state’s prime minister, Lawrence Wong (黄循财), announced in his speech to citizens that the government would loosen restrictions on films and TV shows in Chinese dialects starting next month. The move comes amid growing public interest in Singapore in what is generally called “dialect film” (方言电影), referring to cinematic works in dialects such as Teochew, Hokkien and Cantonese — and not, therefore, in Mandarin.
Growing interest in “dialect film” in multi-ethnic Singapore, where just over one-quarter of total residents speak Mandarin at home, has followed the immense box office success of the Teochew language film “Dear You” (给阿嬷的情书), a 2026 family drama that touches on the challenges facing the Teochew diaspora from the Chaoshan region of China’s southern Guangdong province.
The change to take root next month will bring a loosening of restrictions on dialect content in the media that have been in place for decades in a drive by the government to encourage ethnic cohesion. The government launched its “Speak Mandarin Campaign” in 1979 to more closely intertwine the Chinese-speaking population in Singapore, home to immigrants from many regions of China.
Under the newly-eased regulations on dialect films, there will no longer be caps on the number of screenings. The only hard requirement will be the inclusion of Chinese-language subtitles (华文字幕) on all films shown. Similar measures will apply to paid television, which could encourage the provision of more television series and films in Chinese dialects. At the same time, free-to-air television and radio will continue to broadcast primarily in Mandarin (以华语为主).
This transition, said Prime Minister Wong, was an important matter of cultural survival and continuity for Singaporean citizens, and he urged groups not to lose their linguistic identity and diversity. “We must preserve the essential character of our Asian society,” he said. “We absolutely cannot become a monolingual society.”
