Singapore's local Chinese community is becoming more diverse and the population of nine dialect groups is growing

　　China News Service, June 18. According to Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao, the population of Chinese residents in Singapore reached 3,006,769 in 2020, an increase of 7.6% over 10 years ago.

Singaporeans of Chinese descent rank in the top five according to their native place, Fujian, Chaozhou, Guangdong, Hakka, and Hainan, accounting for about 87.7% of the Chinese resident population.

At the same time, the local Chinese community has become increasingly diversified.

　　The "other Chinese" group that does not belong to the traditional Chinese origin of Singapore, accounted for 8.1% of the Chinese population last year, an increase of nearly 2 percentage points over 10 years ago, and surpassed the Hainan group, which accounted for about 6.1% of the Chinese population.

　　According to the first batch of "2020 National Census" data released by the Singapore Bureau of Statistics a few days ago, in the past 10 years, the nine main dialect groups in Singapore are: Fujian, Chaozhou, Guangdong, Hakka, Hainan, Fuzhou, Xinghua, Shanghai, Fuqing, The population has grown, with an increase ranging from 2.0% to 11.3%.

　　Fujianese, the largest dialect group, increased by 5.5% in 2020 to 1,180,599.

　　Residents of Chinese origin outside the nine dialects mentioned above are classified as "other Chinese."

This group has the most significant increase among all ethnic groups of Chinese origin, with a total of 244,529 people last year, an increase of 39.2% over 10 years ago.

　　The latest census also collected data on the birthplace of residents of different races.

For Chinese residents, 68,3,304 people were born overseas in 2020, with the largest number of people born in Malaysia, with a total of 415,594; followed by Mainland China (16, 8,670) and Indonesia (4, 3,973).

　　The historian Ke Mulin said that the data show that the traditional source of local Chinese immigrants has remained largely unchanged, but in terms of the native place of Chinese residents, it is more diverse.

　　According to his observations, many of the new generation of Chinese immigrants from China are from northern China, unlike the early Chinese ancestors who mainly came from southern China.

　　He pointed out that Chinese immigrants of diverse origins have further enriched Singapore’s Chinese culture. They may not always organize fellow villagers, some will form business associations or interest groups. Singapore can have more like the Singapore Clan Association Federation and Singapore Chinese. Cultural centers and other platforms promote interaction and understanding between Chinese communities of different origins.

(Xu Xiangyu)