SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Gerald Giam (Aljunied) will be raising a question for the July 7, 2026, sitting regarding the Chinese film Dear You, which caused consternation among some Singaporeans when it was released in Mandarin instead of in its original Teochew.
Mr Giam wrote in a June 28 (Sunday) post that he had caught a showing of the film together with some friends and residents after the momentous special cadres conference and biennial election, which he had chaired.
“I found it a really touching story of two very strong and independent women, raising their families and doing their best with the cards life dealt them,” he wrote, adding that the “overwhelming” demand among Singaporeans for the film to be shown in Teochew “shows that the appetite to reconnect with our roots remains strong.”
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said that showing Dear You in Mandarin is aligned with its current approach, in which full-dialect movies are shown at festivals or niche events for viewers who want to see them in their original language, because this supports the bilingual policy aimed at promoting Mandarin as the main language for Chinese Singaporeans.
However, due to many in Singapore clamouring for the movie to be shown in Teochew, an additional 40 public screenings were announced for the film. Within a few hours after they went on sale on June 28, almost 14,000 tickets for the film were snapped up, according to reporting from Lianhe Zaobao.
Next week, Mr Giam will be asking the Ministry for Digital Development and Information (MDDI), which oversees IMDA, if the government will be reviewing the current Film Classification Guidelines to allow general commercial releases for dialect films in their original language, and whether the historical rationale for films to be dubbed in Mandarin is still relevant to Singaporeans.
Mr Giam is not the only WP MP who has filed a Parliamentary question on the topic. His fellow Aljunied MP, Kenneth Tiong, who joined the successful WP slate at Aljunied for GE 2025, will similarly ask whether the MDDI will do away with the guideline that says Chinese films on general release must be dubbed in Mandarin, but allow them instead to be released in their original dialect with subtitles. /TISG
Read also: Ex-NMP Anthea Ong on Dear You controversy: Perhaps we have been underestimating Teochew all along
