Thirty years ago, the PAPzis foresaw the massive influx of immigrants from China and began the process of assimilating us into them rather than the other way around. This happened in two ways:
- the Speak Mandarin Campaign; and more sinisterly
- the pinyinisation of Chinese names.
School children had
hanyu pinyin names forced on them, i.e., their pinyin names took precedence over what their parents gave to them in all school documents such as books, exam records, class registers, school certificates, etc.
There were plans to extend this to adults as well. The late Goh Keng Swee notoriously threatened to withdraw National Day Awards from anyone who insisted on not using their
pinyin names. I recall pledging to myself then that they could keep my award if ever I was considered for one.
The PAPzis also tried to pinyinise our place names:
- Tekka became Zhujiao (we called it 'Pig's Leg';
- Nee Soon became Yishun; and
- Bukit Panjang was sinicised into Zhenghua.
And then they went for our foods:
- char kway teow - chao guo tiao;
- chai tao kuay - cai tou guo, etc.
The flavour of these foods also went out with their old names which told of their origins.
But most interestingly, we never saw 'Li Guangyao' or 'Wu Qingrui'. Even Dear Leeder's name was spelt in the Wade Giles system rather than the
pinyin system. The PAPzis knew that names give us identities and refused to give theirs up even as they suppressed ours.
There was a quiet uproar. People avoided the
pinyin names. Some even gave their children and themselves Christian names because they did not want to be called by their
pinyin names. And as far as I know, the SAF never adopted it.
About 15 years after the administratively wasteful
pinyinisation policy began, it was moderated and then dropped.
The PAPzis said it was a rethink but I know that the passive resistance of the populace played a part in making their policy manifestly meaningless.
