The Similarities of Cities

An odd sense of déjà vu struck me today as I read a newspaper article on the disappearing Beijing dialect - wait a minute, doesn't that sound like Singapore?

Indeed, in the 1970s-80s, Singapore clamped down on dialects, launching a series of programmes and initiatives like the Speak Mandarin Campaign and banning of dialect broadcasts on radio. Fast forward 30 years, and a similar situation is playing out in China today, like a strange sort of alternative parallel universe. The Chinese government had apparently waged an all-too-successful genocide war on dialects, resulting in nearly 100 dialects being in danger of dying out.

In the same pattern that all societies behave as they become increasingly affluent, people are now desperately back-pedalling in a WWF-esque movement to preserve and rescue these "endangered" dialects from the brink of extinction. Museums to enshrine relics of the past, counter-campaigns to promote what was once suppressed, a gushing profusion of cultural sentimentality like a haemorrhage of nostalgia.

There seems to be a striking similarity in the development of nations.

Singapore's Speak Mandarin Campaign and clampdown on dialects.
China's promotion of "pure" Mandarin and suppression of dialects.

Singapore's Stop at Two campaign.
China's One Child Policy.

This is not only limited to parallels between Singapore and China, or the progress of developing nations, but also present in mature, developed countries. The classic example is the trend of ageing population - in Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea, and of course, Singapore.

I wonder - are we doomed to follow the same path as our predecessors, like storybook characters in a plot, despite already knowing how it will end? Or can we learn from history to not repeat the same mistakes?