Stalls in NTU food court told to remove Chinese characters from signboard come August

Stomper Say How alerted Stomp to a recent article on Lianhe Wanbao, which reported on the food stalls in cafeteria at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) that were instructed to remove Chinese characters on their signboards.

According to the article, the etablishment, North Spine Food Court, is managed by Select Group. 

Reporters also received calls from vendors claiming that they received instructions from the management to remove all Chinese characters from their signboard by August end, reports Lianhe Wanbao via Lianhe Zaobao. 

When reporters visited the food court, they found that only two of the 12 stalls did not have Chinese characters on them.

A 40-year-old stall owner complained that many vendors did not comprehend and were dissatisfied with the arrangements but did not dare to voice their opinions for fear of ruining relationships with the management. 

He said:

“NTU has a rich Chinese heritage and background, and yet they want to remove all the Chinese characters.

“This is not acceptable.

“Do we only have english words at the gates as well?”

Say How said:

“I feel that this is a slippery slope.

“What if businesses outside also follow suit.

“One day, we might have stalls that only display Chinese or Tamil characters that majority of Singaporeans can’t read. 

“How do we justify that then?”