utter Dialects
utter DialectsSocial Campaign Project
A3 (42cm × 29.7cm)
Photography and video still printed on paper
April 2009
Icograda World Design Congress 2009 Education Conference
utter Dialects is a campaign to create awareness on the fading traditions of Chinese dialects in Singapore.
This project is dedicated to my grandmother,
Toh Pang (30 August 1924 ~ 24 May 2009).
Research
interviewing my grandmother on information related to dialects
Background
Due to the introduction of "Speak Mandarin Campaign", usage of Chinese dialects was significantly reduced and became a fading tradition in Singapore. Currently, most of the speakers of Chinese dialects are the elderly, the working class and in conversations between family & close friends. Some effects of this fading tradition includes unnatural and unethical language elimination, dissociation with original roots and cultural identity, threaten family ties between the dialects-speaking elders and the Mandarin/English-speaking youth, and influences on individual or place names.
Under the Chinese language family (Sino-Tibetan) are 7 mutually unintelligible dialects, namely Gan, Hakka, Mandarin, Min, Wu, Xiang and Yue. Due to the fact that these dialects are mutually unintelligible (sometimes even among subdivision [i.e. Min]) and speakers shows diverse cultural differences, each dialects fits closer to the category of language than dialect. Therefore there is a need to preserve these Chinese dialects so as to prevent a language from dying.
A vast majority of Chinese Dialects in Singapore are Southern China Dialects, namely Hokkien (Min) [41%], Teochew (Min) [21%], Cantonese (Yue) [15%], Hakka [12%], Hainanese (Min) [5%], Hockchew (Min) [5%] and Other Dialects [1%]. Early settlers from different dialect communities settled in respective quarters of Singapore. Each dialect communities bring along with them specialize skills, food culture and religious practice. As root language is important to cultural identity, enhancement of Chinese dialects would re-establish a tribal sense of belonging between dialect groups.
Objective
The target audience of this project are Chinese Singaporean age 15 to 30, who are born after the "Speak Mandarin Campaign", which was introduced in 1979. The objective is to expose these youth to their root language so as to foster a stronger cultural identity. The project aims to strengthen family ties by encouraging better communication with their grandparents and the elderly. Furthermore, the preservation of Chinese dialects would prevent a language from dying and allows the tradition and culture to be passed down to the future generation.
Concept
My concept is to introduce a series of Flashmobs to create awareness of Chinese dialects. Flashmob is chosen as the media because it is attention-catching, casual, fun and provides an opportunity to unveil the dialect groups among friends. Participants would also get to know more youth from the same dialect group or people who speaks the same dialect, hence increase the opportunity of speaking the dialect in future. As flashmob requires voluntary participation, it is a form of niche marketing that allows targeting of interested learner of dialects.
Six flashmobs, 1 for each dialect, will be conducted at different suburban MRT stations. Stations chosen are of high non-resident traffic volume, near areas where target audience frequent, not dominated by homogeneous dialect group and has ample space. The 6 flashmobs will be held at the same time as an attempt to encourage people to attend flashmob of own dialect group.
utter Dialects flashmob information
utter Dialects flashmob fake mockup
Icograda World Design Congress 2009
Interdisciplinary designer Deborah Lee Alden presented this project in her presentation "A Fading Tradition: Design as a portal to the discovery of one's own cultural heritage" during Icograda World Design Congress 2009 Education Conference. Icograda World Design Congress 2009 Education Conference was held on 29 October 2009 at Beijing.
utter Dialects © Boon Ping (Wenbin) 2024. All rights reserved.