Can Singapore’s dialects survive or are they becoming history? | Deep Dive

The release of Chinese film Dear You has reignited the debate over dialects in Singapore after the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) approved limited screenings of its Teochew original version. Has the time come to rethink Singapore's approach to dialects, or are they destined to fade away in the next generation? In this week's Deep Dive, Steven Chia and Tiffany Ang speak with assistant professor Luke Lu from Nanyang Technological University and Hokkien content creator Ong Yi Ting (@yitinggoyt) to explore whether dialects are worth preserving or are they fast becoming relics of Singapore's past.

Highlights:
00:00 Intro
03:57 Yi Ting's Hokkien journey
06:00 Dialects are "between severely endangered and critically endangered"
08:27 What gets lost in translation?
10:49 Should Singapore reviews its language policies?
12:39 Nuances in the language
14:59 Being exposed to dialects online vs in traditional media
17:55 What do Singaporeans value in terms of cultural heritage?
20:49 "Knowing your dialect is a superpower"

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