Uses of Mandarin
When Lee Kwan Yu took over the government of Singapore 45-odd years ago, the Chinese population here was composed of three main groups: Hokkien, Cantonese, and Teochew. The Hokkien were locally known as “pigs,” because if they came to Singapore and did well, they tended to settle down, have eight children and plant firm roots. The Teochew were called “horses,” because whatever they managed to earn they quickly ferried back to their homeland in China. I’m not sure what the Cantonese were called.
Anyway, these three groups were at loggerheads. They all spoke different dialects, made rude comments about each other, and forbade intermarriage among their children. Singapore society had to deal with divisions among the Chinese population as well as Indian and Malayan groups. Race riots were extremely complicated.
So Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yu decided that in school, all their children would learn Mandarin, a dialect that none of them spoke at home! Some taxi drivers complain to me that Hokkien is dying out in Singapore; but on the other hand their kids can make friends with other Mandarin-speaking Singaporeans, to say nothing of mainland Chinese.
So, a case of social engineering that seems to be working!