Qualitative Analysis: Views Towards the Speak Mandarin Campaign

Abstract

The semi-structured interview (henceforth SSI) is the main source of qualitative data collection. Its purpose is to investigate the attitudes of individual dialect speakers toward the campaign goals, the continuation of the SMC and their perceptions towards the elimination of Chinese dialects. The SSI was conducted among 19 dialect speakers from different age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. The results of the SSI also showed that a majority of informants supported the official arguments for the implementation of the SMC. A majority of dialect speakers agree that Mandarin is necessary to help Chinese Singaporeans preserve their Chinese culture and identity (the cultural argument). Most dialect speakers also accept the government’s ascription of Mandarin as the official tongue mother tongue of all Chinese in Singapore. More than half of dialect speakers believe that the impact of the campaign has been positive as they observe that more Chinese are speaking Mandarin instead of Chinese dialects in public places such as the hawker centers. This chapter also discusses the restoration of Chinese dialects by young dialect speakers in Singapore.