The Founder of Project Litup goes beyond the school textbook to help kids foster a deeper connection with their Chinese culture and mother tongue.
“To start things off, I need to clarify that I was not that kid who was naturally good at Mandarin. In primary school, I was above average but never really outstanding – oftentimes struggling and confused during lessons. I’ve failed Chinese essays before.
Luckily, I met a passionate and nurturing teacher at Nanyang Girls’ High School during my lower secondary years. Her lines of encouraging words after each essay, poem or song I submitted consistently motivated me to put in more effort in the learning of the language.
Day after day of reading, writing and learning new vocab, I gradually fell in love with my mother tongue. It developed into a special type of connection that I never knew I missed or needed,and now it’s become an essential part of who I am today.
As I progressed to upper secondary, I wanted to do more for a language that I truly enjoyed. There was limited fulfillment in continuing to read and study on my own. This sentiment eventually led to my friends and I founding Project Litup.
Project Litup is a random idea I had while I was in the shower. It’s a youth-led organisation aimed at inspiring younger children to love their mother tongue – Mandarin, in this case – by showing them the beauty behind the language.
It started out as a passion project, but as we did more research, we realised the severity of the issue. In Singapore, English overtook Mandarin as the most used language in Chinese homes, jumping from 32.6 percent in 2010 to 47.6 percent in 2020.
It was also then that we realised there was a severe lack of youth-led efforts in promoting mother tongue appreciation. Many approaches currently are top down and do not truly meet the needs of young students.
As odd as it may sound, we actually did have many deep conversations into the night – via Google Meet, of course – about the direction of the project. We thought about why current measures by related agencies were not sufficient in piquing interest.
We also thought about how we as youths could play a special role in supporting the efforts that are already on-going in the market. In the end, we decided to do what we would enjoy as children ourselves – games, arts and storytelling.
Today, through weekly sessions at community centres, we expose children to the different facets of the Chinese language, be it through songwriting, poetry appreciation or even fan painting.
We want them to see that there is so much more to Mandarin than writing about a random boy going to school and buying fishball noodles. We believe that language is so much more than a practical tool, and we want to help them see the beauty of it.
As youths ourselves, we know how boring the school syllabus can be, and we want them to see Chinese beyond the confines of the textbook. It is and will always be a language that is alive with history, culture and tradition. At the end of the day, language should be a way for us to connect with people, nature and ourselves.
With our 70-strong team, we have carried out around 60 lessons across more than seven community centres till date. Looking back upon our humble beginnings, this is something that I never thought would be possible.
It’s never an easy journey – sometimes we rush proposals till the early 4ams and wonder what we are even doing. But what keeps us going are the occasional, ‘Thank you for doing what you do’ or ‘I believe in your cause too!’
It reminds us of the community that has supported Project Litup along the way, and why we even decided to do what we do in the first place; to allow students to appreciate the beauty of the language.
As we step into JC life and handle new commitments, Project Litup will always have a soft place in my heart; for it is so much more than just another Service Learning Project. It represents the youth my friends and I spent together, and what it means to work hard for a cause you actually believe in.
Just like what we named our project after, we believe in the following: 星星之火，可以燎原. It means, a small spark can ignite a blazing fire, and a small passion can ignite a big dream.” – Kelly Chng, Project Litup Co-Founder
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What a thoughtful and inspiring read. I love how Kelly speaks so honestly about her own journey with the language — it makes what she’s doing with Project Litup feel all the more real and grounded. There’s something really moving about young people giving back in such a creative and meaningful way. Thank you for sharing her story. Justine and Michael. x