Grassroots leaders, residents and friends

            I am very happy to join you this evening in our Multiracial and Multi-generational celebration of the Lunar New Year in Taman Jurong.

Building Cross Cultural Kinship

2.                         Each of the festivities during the Lunar New Year, at home or in the community, has deep meaning for our Chinese residents.  I am so glad to see also that we have fellow Malay and Indian Taman Jurong grassroots leaders and residents joining in the celebrations this evening. The fact that we have a gathering of residents of different races shows how much we appreciate and enjoy each others’ festivals and culture.     

3.                         Last night, I had the fortune to be at the Chingay Parade at Orchard Road. As many of you know, the closing item of the Parade was performed by the vibrant multi-racial troupe of 34 dancing dragons from Taman Jurong, including students from Yuan Ching Secondary, Jurong Secondary and Lakeside Primary. It was a wonderful spectacle  -  young Singaporeans of all races taking part in a Chinese tradition, taking part as one and feeling as one. Most of them were first timers. They had trained hard. It was not easy to have 34 dragons prancing around in a short segment of Orchard Road, so they had to be very well-coordinated.

4.                         But all the effort was small compared to the reward of taking part in a national event together. The students told me that when I met them at their rehearsal. This year’s Chingay was called Parade of Dreams. For the Malay and Indian students especially, taking part in a Chinese dragon dance on a national stage really was a dream.

5.                         This is how we are strengthening multiracialism all over Singapore. Through our schools, in the community and on the national stage, we are giving our young opportunities to interact, to train and sweat together, to go through successes and setbacks together. We have to step this up, create opportunities wherever we can for people of all races to intermingle and make friends with each other.

Preserving Our Ethnic Cultures As We Build Up Multiracialism

6.                         But our efforts to bind together as Singaporeans do not mean that we should let our ethnic cultures weaken. We must keep the richness within each of our ethnic cultures. This is what makes Singapore special - that we have deep roots in Asian cultures, and we keep each culture alive for future generations.  We do not build multiracialism by diluting our cultures so that they become more like each other. We build it by encouraging Singaporeans of all races, from young, to appreciate each others cultures, feel that all our cultures are part of our unique identity as Singaporeans, and provide them opportunities to take part in each others cultures like the young dragon dancers at the Chingay parade last night. If Chinese Singaporeans ever get to feel just like Chinese in China, or Malay Singaporeans feel just like Malays in Malaysian or Indonesia, or Indian Singaporeans like those in India, we would all lose our special sense of identity. It is our shared identity that gives us pride as Singaporeans, makes us special and distinct from the rest of the world.   

7.                         So we must preserve our ethnic cultures even as we build up opportunities for Singaporeans of all races to interact, appreciate each other and participate in each other’s cultures.

8.                         This is why we are improving the way we teach our mother tongue languages - Chinese, Malay and Tamil in schools. We are making changes to help make sure the mother tongue languages come alive for our students, and that they take pride in being able to speak and use their languages.  

9.                         25 primary schools are off to an exciting start to the new school year, as they pilot the new Chinese Language curriculum in Primary One. These schools will try out the new instructional materials, and the modular approach to cater to pupils from different home language backgrounds.  We are also giving teachers in our schools more room in the Chinese curriculum to introduce their own strategies to help their pupils learn Chinese effectively.

10.                    Many schools have made use of this extra space to introduce their own programmes, for example to strengthen students’ conversational skills. Hougang Primary is an example. Its P1 and P2 pupils are exposed to folk songs, nursery rhymes, tongue twisters and Tang poetry. Students are also taught practical communications skills through role-playing. On top of that, the school started a broadcasting programme in which older students have the opportunity to report on school activities and events. Through these rich and engaging activities, the school hoped to enhance pupils' oral skills as well as their confidence to express themselves confidently in Chinese.

11.                    At some other primary schools (eg Raffles Girls’ Primary and Changkat Primary), that are piloting the new programme at P1, students who speak mainly English at home are getting a feel for the language in a fun way. Their teachers use songs, raps, and clapping instruments to make the lessons fun.

12.                    Our teachers will try different ways to engage and excite our students in the learning of their mother tongues. We will learn from these experiments, and spread the successful examples amongst more schools.

The Bicultural Studies Programme

13.                    As China grows in importance, we want to nurture a core group of students who are not only highly competent in Chinese, but also have a strong understanding of China’s history, culture and contemporary developments. That is why two years ago, we introduced the Bicultural Studies Programme in Chinese – the BSPC – to nurture a group of students in each generation who can understand and engage the Chinese, as well as relate to the West.   

14.                    The four-year programme kicked off at 3 schools last year - Dunman High, Hwa Chong Institute and Nanyang Girls High. Teachers and students have since told us that they have benefited from the programme. They have gained insights and understanding of modern China.           

15.                    The students were sent to different parts of China, to see how China is changing and interact with students in Chinese schools. A group of 38 Dunman High students went to San Fransisco in November last year. They were asked to produce a short documentary on the lifestyles of the Chinese in San Francisco. Overall, the students are finding the programme meaningful. They are learning how China is evolving and the way Chinese anguage and culture is viewed in a wider global context.

River Valley High School to offer Bicultural Studies Programme (Chinese)

16.                    This year, the number of students signing up to enrol in the programme remains high. In fact, more students want to come on board, to enjoy the exposure offered in the BSPC. That is why this evening, I am very pleased to announce that the BSPC will be extended to River Valley High School (RVHS) starting next year.  

17.                    River Valley is well-placed to make the BSPC available to more students, as the school has had a long and strong tradition in Chinese language and cultural studies. Like Dunman High and the Hwa Chong family of schools, RVHS has the resources and experiences of delving into Chinese language and culture, and many links in China. Their BSPC will add not just to numbers, but to the variety of programmes we have to develop a bicultural orientation among students.  

18.                    Let me conclude. Tonight, we have every reason to celebrate the Lunar New Year – as a festival not just for our Singaporean Chinese, but for all Singaporeans.  Our country is certainly off to a prosperous start this New Year – a buoyant economy, high employment rates – and our children having every reason to enjoy and make the most of school experiences as they get into the thick of another year of school.