KLSCCCI AND SOCIETY

SPEAK MANDARIN CAMPAIGN, REFORMING CHINESE PRACTICAL WRITINGS

After the 1969 riots, the Chamber continued to be a champion of Chinese education and Nanyang University. It was a major group which promoted the Speaking Mandarin Campaign and the reform of Chinese practical writings, triggering many Chinese cultural and literary activities in 1980s.

Mr. Khoo Siong Chi, then Head of the Chamber’s Culture and Education Committee, chairing the “Selangor and Kuala Lumpur’s Speaking Mandarin Campaign Committee” and its first meeting in 1980.
In 1980, when Mr. Khoo Siong Chi was the Head of the Culture and Education Committee, the Chamber was a major force in civil society to promote the Speaking Mandarin Campaign. Shown here are some slogans in the early 1980s.

A “speak more Mandarin” poster made by the“Selangor and Kuala Lumpur’s Speaking Mandarin Campaign Committee” in 1980.

The Chamber organized a seminar “How to Promote Speaking Mandarin” on 3 August 1980. Left to right: Fang Bei Fang, Huang Zong Li, Dr Chen Ding Xian, Associate Professor Wu Tian Cai and Lai Guan Fu.
Great turn out at the “How to Promote Speaking Mandarin” seminar.
On 4 May 1980, council member of the Chamber, Xu Zi Jian passed a trophy to the champion of the Eighth Selangor and Federal Territory’s Mandarin Public Speaking Contest which was sponsored by Chamber.

A group photo of the Chamber’s council member Ng Teck Fong (seated fifth from right) and executive secretary Foo Soon Chong (seated fifth from left), together with the winners of the Chamber sponsored “Sixth Selangor’s Secondary School Chinese Debate Competition” held in Ampang on 3 August 1980.

On 22 August 1980, Khoo Siong Chi penned a letter to Mr. Wu Xian Chuan, senior staff of Rediffusion’s Mandarin desk, appealing to the radio company to play the “Speak More Mandarin” song produced by the Selangor and Kuala Lumpur’s Speaking Mandarin Campaign Committee for two months.
In 1980, in response to the invitation of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor’s Speaking Mandarin Campaign Committee, (the late) famous local musician Chan Lok Hung composed a song titled “Speak More Mandarin”.
Nevertheless, the song has long faded out of the community’s memory until recently, when a KLSCCCI staff chanced upon a numbered music notation of the song while preparing for the setting up of this history gallery. After thirty eight years, this song, in its newly renditioned form performed by the Choir of Chong Hwa(KL) Alumni formed by Chan Lok Hung’s students, now proudly reappears.
Khoo Siong Chi (sixth from left), Head of the Chamber’s Culture and Education Committee and Chairman of “Malaysia’s Chinese Practical Writing Reform Working Committee”, announcing the official release of the newly printed “Chinese Practical Writing Reform Outline and Samples” on 12 April 1980.
Khoo Siong Chi (sixth from left), passed a copy of the newly printed “Chinese Practical Writing Reform Outline and Samples” to the Chamber’s Vice President Wong Tok Chai on 12 April 1980.

In the 1950s, KLSCCCI led the Selangor Nanyang University Committee and raised a total of 170,000 dollars for Nanyang University.

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