“I’m a child of Lee Kuan Yew, cannot help it”: Students’ narratives on language and ethnic planning in Singapore
This article examines the perceptions of young Singaporean university students on their country’s language policies and their own linguistic practices. The central objective of this text is to analyze the somewhat ambivalent discourses that these youths engage in when it comes to discussing the lang...
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| Vydáno v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/archipel, |
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| Médium: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jazyk: | eng |
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Archipel
2021
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| On-line přístup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:archipel_2629 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:archipel_2629 https://doi.org/10.4000/archipel.2629 urn:doi:10.4000/archipel.2629 eng https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/2629 2021-12-14T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/a1zd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ “I’m a child of Lee Kuan Yew, cannot help it”: Students’ narratives on language and ethnic planning in Singapore Archipel Association Archipel info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2104-3655 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0044-8613 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/archipel Forlot, Gilles This article examines the perceptions of young Singaporean university students on their country’s language policies and their own linguistic practices. The central objective of this text is to analyze the somewhat ambivalent discourses that these youths engage in when it comes to discussing the language policies implemented by their elders in Singapore. The discourses analyzed here express feelings that range from legitimization of the choices made by the first rulers of independent Singapore to resentment for creating artificial and essentialist categories which led to language loss, language shift and communicative barriers. Their testimonies also reveal that these students are aware of the ways languages and ethnicities have been commodified and instrumentalized towards both the manufacturing of the state and its national narrative. The article also examines how some Singaporean Chinese students position themselves critically vis-à-vis the homogeneous Chineseness that was imposed onto them via the post-independence Mandarin-only policy. Cet article examine les perceptions de jeunes étudiants universitaires singapouriens sur les politiques linguistiques de leur pays et sur leurs propres pratiques linguistiques. L'objectif central de ce texte est d'analyser les discours quelque peu ambivalents que tiennent ces jeunes lorsqu'il s'agit de discuter des politiques linguistiques mises en œuvre par leurs aînés à Singapour. Les discours analysés ici expriment des sentiments qui vont de la légitimation des choix faits par les premiers dirigeants du Singapour indépendant au ressentiment lié la création de catégories artificielles et essentialistes qui ont conduit à la perte des langues, au changement de langue et aux barrières communicationnelles. Leurs témoignages révèlent également que ces étudiants sont conscients de la façon dont les langues et les ethnicités ont été commodifiées et instrumentalisées pour la fabrication de l'Etat et de son récit national. L'article examine également la manière dont certains étudiants sino-singapouriens se positionnent de manière critique vis-à-vis de la sinité homogène qui leur a été imposée par la politique de priorité absolue au mandarin après l'indépendance. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
eng |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| description |
This article examines the perceptions of young Singaporean university students on their country’s language policies and their own linguistic practices. The central objective of this text is to analyze the somewhat ambivalent discourses that these youths engage in when it comes to discussing the language policies implemented by their elders in Singapore. The discourses analyzed here express feelings that range from legitimization of the choices made by the first rulers of independent Singapore to resentment for creating artificial and essentialist categories which led to language loss, language shift and communicative barriers. Their testimonies also reveal that these students are aware of the ways languages and ethnicities have been commodified and instrumentalized towards both the manufacturing of the state and its national narrative. The article also examines how some Singaporean Chinese students position themselves critically vis-à-vis the homogeneous Chineseness that was imposed onto them via the post-independence Mandarin-only policy. |
| author |
Forlot, Gilles |
| spellingShingle |
Forlot, Gilles “I’m a child of Lee Kuan Yew, cannot help it”: Students’ narratives on language and ethnic planning in Singapore |
| author_facet |
Forlot, Gilles |
| author_sort |
Forlot, Gilles |
| title |
“I’m a child of Lee Kuan Yew, cannot help it”: Students’ narratives on language and ethnic planning in Singapore |
| title_short |
“I’m a child of Lee Kuan Yew, cannot help it”: Students’ narratives on language and ethnic planning in Singapore |
| title_full |
“I’m a child of Lee Kuan Yew, cannot help it”: Students’ narratives on language and ethnic planning in Singapore |
| title_fullStr |
“I’m a child of Lee Kuan Yew, cannot help it”: Students’ narratives on language and ethnic planning in Singapore |
| title_full_unstemmed |
“I’m a child of Lee Kuan Yew, cannot help it”: Students’ narratives on language and ethnic planning in Singapore |
| title_sort |
“i’m a child of lee kuan yew, cannot help it”: students’ narratives on language and ethnic planning in singapore |
| publisher |
Archipel |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/archipel |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/archipel.2629 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/2629 |
| _version_ |
1877293364562362368 |