‘I shouldn’t have told the joke’: David Neo on his quip in Parliament during Dear You exchange
Christine Tan
The Straits Times
July 25, 2026
Reflecting on a joke he told in Parliament that drew criticism, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo said he should not have made it.
“I shouldn’t have told the joke,” he said during an interview with the media on July 20 about his ministry’s wide-ranging plan for Singapore youth.
Neo had quipped in Mandarin that “ministers have no time to watch movies”, during an exchange on Singapore’s restrictions on dialect films at a July 7 Parliament sitting.
His remark had been in response to Workers’ Party MP Kenneth Tiong’s question about whether Neo had watched the film Dear You in its Mandarin-dubbed or Teochew version.
Neo’s response sparked criticism, with some in the arts community calling it dismissive.
Briefly addressing the incident during the hour-long interview on July 20, Neo said he took the criticism in his stride.
The point is to take all feedback positively, he said, “and then ask ourselves how we can improve”.
Neo was promoted to Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Education in the Cabinet reshuffle announced on July 22. His promotion to full minister takes effect from July 27.
Asked about the incident during the press conference on the reshuffle, the former chief of army responded similarly.
“I should just not tell any more jokes,” he said, adding: “But as with all things well-learnt, and every time there’s criticism, I take it positively as feedback.
“It’s just a matter of how things are experienced by different people. We look at it, and then... I ask myself, how can I be better going forward?”
The initial decision by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to limit screenings of Dear You, a Chinese movie that was filmed mostly in the Teochew dialect, had reignited debate over the Speak Mandarin Campaign that was launched in 1979 to encourage Mandarin as the main language among the Chinese community here, as opposed to dialects.
IMDA, which previously said in June that the Mandarin-dubbed version of Dear You would be screened for the general release in Singapore, later approved more screenings in Teochew in batches.
Neo told the House on July 7 that the use of dialects in Singapore has continued to decline. Dialect artistic materials are increasingly not seen as competing against the use of Mandarin, but as part of practices that deepen Singaporeans’ appreciation of cultural heritage, he added then.
During the July 20 interview, Neo was also asked if there was room to support youth who want to do more to promote the learning and preservation of dialects.
Replying, he said Singapore’s approach is to promote Mandarin while expanding space for the use of dialects, noting that the National Arts Council supports young practitioners who protect intangible cultural heritage.
He cited the Young ChangeMakers grant as one avenue through which young people can receive support for initiatives to preserve culture.
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