Bilingualism has been the cornerstone of Singapore’s language policy since the People’s Action Party (PAP) was elected to power in 1959. The policy entails an emphasis on using English and the mother tongue languages, particularly that of the three main ethnic ...
On 8 December 1953, the colonial government in Singapore issued a white paper titled Chinese Schools Bilingual Education and Increased Aid. The white paper proposed the introduction of bilingual education in Chinese schools in exchange for increased financial aid ...
Elangovan (b. 1957, Singapore–) is a bilingual poet and playwright known for exploring controversial themes and the grimmer aspects of society. He was a teacher, arts administrator, freelance journalist, screenwriter, literary editor and the artistic director of ...
Li Lienfung (李廉凤) (b. 1923, Shanghai, China–d. 3 August 2011, Singapore) was a chemist and writer. She worked in the Wah Chang group of companies started by her father, Li Kuo Ching, with her huband Ho Ri Hwa, a prominent businessman and former ambassador. As a ...
Catherine Lim Poh Imm (b. 21 March 1942, Penang, Malaysia–) is the doyenne of Singapore stories. Lim is an accomplished and critically acclaimed author who has published a dozen collections of short stories, five novels, two volumes of poems and even a play. She ...
The Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched on 7 September 1979 by the then prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. The campaign was initially started to simplify the language environment, improve communication among Chinese Singaporeans from the various dialect ...
Zhu Xu (朱绪) (b. 15 November 1909, Quanzhou, Fujian, China–d. 19 December 2007, Singapore), real name Choo Kui Chao (朱季灶), was a pioneering figure in the history of Singapore theatre. A renowned playwright and director, Zhu played an instrumental role in the development ...
Joan Hon (b. 1943, Penang, Malaya –) is a writer and former teacher. She wrote and published a fiction book, Star Sapphire, under the pen name Han May in 1985. She is also the author of a number of non-fiction books, including Relatively Speaking – a biography ...
Heng Siok Tian (b. 1963, Singapore–) has published five volumes of poetry. An educator for more than 25 years, she received the National Day Honours for her long service with the Ministry of Education in 2015. She has been a stalwart of the Creative Arts Programme ...
Dennis Bloodworth (b. 24 May 1919, London, England – d. 14 June 2005, Singapore) was a veteran journalist and writer who wrote extensively on the political developments in Southeast Asia and China.
Rebecca Chua (b. 1953, Singapore–) is a poet, writer and playwright whose short stories have been anthologised in a number of collections, published in newspapers and magazines and broadcast internationally. She published a collection of short stories, The Newspaper ...
Tan Teck Soon (b. 1859, Singapore–d. 25 November 1922, Singapore) was a Chinese scholar and writer active in Singapore at the turn of the 20th century. He was a founding member of the influential gentlemen’s debating club known as the Straits Philosophical Society ...
The Special Assistance Plan (SAP) was introduced in 1979 as a long-term scheme to preserve the best Chinese-stream schools so as to develop effectively bilingual students who were inculcated with traditional Chinese values. Nine Chinese-stream secondary schools ...
Janet Lim Chiu Mei (b. 14 July c.1923, Hong Kong–5 August 2014, Brisbane, Australia), born Kwek Chiu Mei, was Singapore’s first Asian hospital matron but is better remembered as its first Asian memoirist. Lim’s bestselling memoir, Sold for Silver, recounts her ...
Ovidia Yu (b. 1961, Singapore–) is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and playwright. She is the recipient of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Singapore Foundation Culture Award (1996), the National Arts Council Young Artist Award (1996) ...
In Singapore, vernacular education refers to education conducted in the native languages of the main resident communities, namely Malay, Chinese and Tamil. From the early 19th to the mid-20th centuries, formal vernacular education was started by philanthropists, ...
Tanya Chua (蔡健雅) (b. 28 January 1975, Singapore–) is a critically acclaimed Singapore Mandopop singer-songwriter who emerged on the music scene in the 1990s. Effectively bilingual in both English and Mandarin, Tanya gained popular success mainly in Taiwan and has ...
Emma Yong Oi-Mun (b. 20 January 1975, Malaysia–d. 2 May 2012, Singapore) was a well-loved stage performer. The versatile bilingual actress performed in a wide range of shows: from pantomimes and comedies to dramas and musicals to experimental theatre. She was a ...
One of Singapore’s most successful local puppet troupes, The Finger Players (TFP) is a non-profit company founded in February 1996 by Tan Beng Tian and Ong Kian Sin as a unit of Kuo Pao Kun’s The Theatre Practice (formerly known as Practice Theatre Ensemble). Other ...
Gan Eng Seng School is one of the oldest schools in Singapore and the first free school to be founded and supported by a Chinese benefactor in the Straits Settlements. First established as the Anglo-Chinese Free School in 1885 and later renamed Gan Eng Seng School ...