What kind of country is Singapore? Language? History?

Before independence

Malays lived mainly in early Singapore, and its earliest literature records originated from China in the 3rd century. /kloc-In the 4th century, the Ming Dynasty called Singapore Temasek. 1819 65438+1On October 29th, Stanford Raffles, an employee of the British East India Company, landed in Singapore and took charge of the area. 1824, Singapore officially became a British colony, which was originally under the jurisdiction of British and Indian colonial authorities. 1867 was upgraded to a strait colony, juxtaposed with Penang and Malacca.

194 1 During the Pacific War, Singapore was occupied by the Japanese for three years and six months, and it was renamed as "Zhaonan Special City" (the word "Zhao Nan" can also guide Fang Zhiguang). 1In August, 945, Britain recovered its jurisdiction over Singapore and restored its name to "Singapore". 1959, Singapore gained autonomy. 1963, Singapore, together with the then Malayan Federation, Sarawak and North Borneo (now Sabah), established the Malaysian Federation, thus completely escaping from British rule. 1On August 9, 965, due to the differences in power distribution between Lee Kuan Yew and the then Malaysian federal government, Singapore was expelled from Malaysia and forced to become an independent sovereign country.

After the founding of

After entering the1970s, although Singapore's political freedom was gradually suppressed, its economy developed rapidly, and it soon became an important financial and entrepot trade center in Southeast Asia, and it was one of the "four little dragons of Asia" at that time. At the same time, the living standards of Singaporeans have been greatly improved, and problems such as housing, education and transportation have been solved. 1990, when lee Kuan yew announced his resignation as prime minister, Singapore had become a model of economic development in the region and even in Asia as a whole. Under the leadership of its second Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, this small Southeast Asian country successfully survived the Asian financial crisis that broke out in 1997. However, when the third Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took over from 265438 to the beginning of the 20th century, Singapore once again faced the new problem of how to face the rise of other economies in the region.

Chinese appellation

In the past, Singapore used "Singapore" as its Chinese name in the early days of independence. Later, influenced by the dialect habits brought by local overseas Chinese, some country names such as "Xingjiapo" or "Xingjiapo" appeared. It is also commonly referred to as "Xingzhou", "Lion City" or "Xingguo", and some are also called "Shilai", "Laibu" and "Shilaibu".

The origin of national flower

1893, Ennis Jin Zhuo, a Spanish female gardener living in Singapore, successfully cultivated a new orchid variety. In memory of her, the Singapore Botanical Garden named her "Jin Zhuo Vandelan", which has outstanding beauty and immortal meaning from generation to generation. This beautiful lilac orchid has four petals, symbolizing all ethnic groups and four major language families: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil. The elegant and exquisite flowers symbolize the simple temperament and vigorous vitality of Singaporeans, and even symbolize the spirit of hard work and brave struggle of Singaporeans.

Origin of country name: Singapore is a city country, which originally meant lion city. According to Malay historical records, around 1 150, the prince of the kingdom of srivastava in Sumatra arrived on the island by boat and saw a black beast. The locals told him it was a lion, hence the name "Lion City". Singapore is the homonym of the Sanskrit "Lion City". Because local residents are deeply influenced by Indian culture, they like to use Sanskrit as their place names. The lion is brave and vigorous, so it is natural to use it as a place name. In the past, many overseas Chinese called it "Silla", which means "Strait" in Malay, and some people called it "Sin Chau" and "Sing Tao" because of its small area.

Independence Day: August 9th (1965) According to the statistics of the Singapore government in 2008, the current permanent population of Singapore has reached 4.84 million, of which 3.84 million are citizens or permanent residents (collectively referred to as "local residents"). Among the local residents, Chinese Singaporeans account for 75.2%, Malays account for 13.6%, and Indians (mostly Tamils) account for 8%. Therefore, Singapore is not only the country or region with the highest population density in the world except Macau and Monaco, but also the country or region with the largest Chinese population in the world except Chinese mainland and Taiwan Province Province.

Chinese Singaporeans mainly come from Chinese mainland, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan, with Fujian as the majority, followed by chaozhou people, Guangfu, Hakka and Hainan. Coupled with the increasing number of new immigrants from China in recent years, the cultural composition of Chinese people is becoming more and more complicated. Since more than half of the Chinese in Singapore use Fujian Minnan, Singapore has become another region where Minnan is widely used after Chinese mainland, Fujian Minnan and Taiwan Province Province.

The Constitution of Singapore lists Malay as the national language, but the official languages also include English, Chinese and Tamil. English is the common language between government agencies and communities, and English is also the main teaching language in schools. Most of the early Chinese in Singapore used different dialects according to the origin of immigrants.

After the "Speak Chinese Campaign" led by the Singapore government in the1980s (similar to the "Promotion of Chinese Campaign" in China), a new generation of Chinese Singaporeans have become accustomed to using Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia. In addition, the Singapore government has very strict restrictions on Chinese programs on TV and radio stations. For example, many Taiwanese TV dramas imported from Taiwan Province Province and Cantonese TV dramas imported from Hong Kong have to be dubbed in Chinese before they can be broadcast, and all Hong Kong films have to be dubbed in Chinese before they can be released.

Although English is the common language of Singapore, Singlish is very common. Therefore, the Singapore government launched the "Speak Correct English Campaign" to encourage people to speak standard English based on British English and American English.

In 2008, the Singapore government designated "Chinese Year" to encourage Singaporeans to talk more in Chinese, hoping that "Chinese" can be widely used in business and trade exchanges. "In the future, if you can only speak English but not Chinese, you will definitely suffer, because the world is changing." From the remarks of the above-mentioned government officials, we can see that the Singapore government attaches importance to the Chinese language.