Signs of the Times: Early Sign Language and Deaf Education in Singapore
Librarian Nathaniel Chew delves into the history of deaf education in Singapore and finds out more about pioneering deaf educator Peng Tsu Ying.
As a librarian interested in promoting accessibility, I started taking online classes in Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) back in those socially-distant weeks in early 2021. Organised by the Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf), SgSL was unlike any other language class that I had experienced. While our novice signs were fumbled (and often mirrored, thanks to Zoom), there were many “oh” moments when a sign just made intuitive sense or conveyed something complex in a simple gesture.
As we learned to sign words like “kaypoh”¹ and “Marina Bay Sands”,² I marvelled at how Singaporean SgSL is. Just as you might recognise a fellow Singaporean from their use of Singlish, SgSL is a language unique to our country, with its own vocabulary and grammar.
How did SgSL become the language of the deaf community in Singapore? I turned to the library for answers, and learned that the story of early sign language in Singapore is intertwined with the story of one pioneering deaf educator, Peng Tsu Ying.
Peng was born in Shanghai in 1926 and lost his hearing at the age of five. He was educated in Deaf schools in Hong Kong and Shanghai before moving to Singapore in 1948, joining his father who was running a greeting card business here.³
Noticing the absence of schools for the Deaf in Singapore and hoping to put his teaching experience to work, Peng advertised his services in a local Chinese newspaper. When several parents of Deaf children expressed interest, he started teaching them privately in his parents’ home. This was the first “school” for the Deaf in Singapore.⁴
As enrolment grew, Peng went door to door to raise funds for a school building, single-handedly collecting over $3,000 for his cause. His determination garnered support from the public, including a group of prominent Chinese merchants, who formed a committee to help establish the school.⁵ In 1954, the Singapore Chinese School for the Deaf was set up in a shabby, unpainted attap house on Charlton Road in Upper Serangoon.⁶
In 1953, shortly before Peng’s school was officially established, the British Red Cross Society opened the Singapore Oral School for the Deaf. While both schools served the Deaf community, their pedagogies were starkly different. The Oral School used English instruction and instead of sign language, used a spoken approach, which involved what is commonly known as lip-reading and focusing on residual hearing through amplification and visual cues.
For a time, some of the Chinese School staff voiced resentment at the government’s perceived one-sided support of the Oral School. Lim Chio Leow, secretary of the Chinese School’s management committee, likened their school to an “unwanted child” and protested its “Cinderella-like treatment”, believing that the government favoured the oral approach.⁷
However, in 1963, the government supported the merger of both schools into a single Singapore School for the Deaf at a permanent Mountbatten Road campus. The school came under the purview of the newly formed Singapore Association for the Deaf and Dumb (now known as SADeaf), and had both oral and sign sections. Peng was made principal of the sign section.⁸
Peng and his wife, Ho Mei Soo, a Deaf teacher from Hong Kong, were the sign school’s first teachers, using Shanghai Sign Language to teach primary-level Chinese and other subjects.⁹ More advanced classes also learned the sign language used in Europe and America based on the letters of the alphabet – what would become known as Signing Exact English (SEE).¹⁰
Modern day SgSL traces its roots to the sign languages taught in these classrooms, which evolved as they mixed with American Sign Language and locally developed signs. This unique Singaporean patois was called Native Sign Language for many years before the term “Singapore Sign Language” was officially coined in 2007.¹¹
Today, the conversation has turned to whether SgSL should be made Singapore’s official national sign language, an ongoing subject of review by the Ministry of Social and Family Development. Many in the Deaf community welcome the recognition of SgSL as a major step toward enhancing accessibility nationwide.¹²
At the same time, there are calls from educators to maintain the use of both SgSL and SEE in the classroom, and the Ministry of Education supports different approaches for different students’ learning needs. For example, SEE is often used as a tool to teach English, with its one-to-one mapping to English words. Far from a one-size-fits-all solution, there is room for multiple sign languages in Singapore.¹³
After more than 50 years of supporting the Deaf community, the Singapore School for the Deaf closed in 2017 due to dwindling enrolment, as medical advances in screening and the development of assistive devices saw a drop in the rate of children with serious hearing loss.¹⁴ In its place, support for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students has been integrated into two mainstream schools, Mayflower Primary School and Beatty Secondary School, which offer accessible resources and SgSL-trained staff.¹⁵ SgSL language classes are also offered by SADeaf and other organisations for anyone who is interested to learn.
As I trawled through newspaper archives to learn about Peng, I was surprised to find pages of headlines on his achievements as a racing driver. Peng began taking part in motor sports in 1958, setting out to “prove to the hearing world that being deaf is no handicap to being skilful”.¹⁷
He certainly made his point, racking up 36 trophies in his Lotus Super 7, including his crowning achievement of placing third in the 1965 Malaysia Grand Prix as the only Deaf driver in the field. His official observer even called him the best driver he had ever seen. Peng even brought sign language to the racetrack – his brother, Peng Tsu Ann, sat with him and served as his navigator, communicating their progress in the race through signs.¹⁸ Peng remained an avid fan of motor sports long after his retirement from racing.
Peng once said that his goal was to develop a standardised Singapore sign language that could be used as a better tool for teaching Deaf children. Today I see firsthand the legacy of his efforts in my Zoom classroom full of hearing students learning a new language, growing resources like the SgSL Sign Bank, and the support for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students in mainstream schools and the national curriculum.
If you’re interested in learning more about sign language and Deaf culture, check out NLB’s collection of resources, several of which are cited here. I also recommend taking an SgSL class! It’s a fun and meaningful way to connect with people – and less hazardous than driving a racecar.
Nathaniel Chew is a Librarian at the National Library, Singapore, with an interest in language, inclusive placemaking, and perpetually beginning things.
[1] “Kaypoh” in SgSL: Fingerspell the letters K and P.
[2] “Marina Bay Sands” in SgSL: Hold up three fingers on one hand, and with your other hand lay your index finger horizontally across the top – doesn’t that shape look familiar?
[3] Carl A. Argila, “An Interview With: Peng Tsu Ying–Singapore’s ‘Man For All Seasons’,” The Deaf American, December 1975, 9.
[4] Carl A. Argila, “An Interview With: Peng Tsu Ying–Singapore’s ‘Man For All Seasons’” The Deaf American, December 1975, 10.
[5] “Founder Raises $3,000 For Start.” Singapore Standard, 15 October 1951, 2. (From NewspaperSG)
[6] “The Best Is Still Pitifully Shabby,” Sunday Standard, 18 May 1958, 4. (From NewspaperSG)
[7] “‘Cinderella’ School of S’pore,” Singapore Standard, 6 Aug 1956, 2. (From NewspaperSG)
[8] “Modern facilities for teaching deaf children,” Straits Times, 24 November 1963, 14. (From NewspaperSG)
[9] Sign for Singapore (Singapore: Times Books International, 1990), 4. (Call no. 419 SIG)
[10] Sources of Information and Schools, Singapore Association for the Deaf and Dumb, 27 October 1955. Access provided by National Archives of Singapore.
[11] Phoebe Tay and Ng Bee Chin, “Revisiting the past to understand the present: the linguistic ecology of the Singapore deaf community and the historical evolution of Singapore sign language (SgSL),” (Nanyang Technological University, 2022), 5.
[12] Darrelle Ng, “Deaf community welcomes study on an official sign language in Singapore, but educational challenges remain,” Channel News Asia, 2 February 2024.
[13] Darrelle Ng, “Deaf community welcomes study on an official sign language in Singapore, but educational challenges remain,” Channel News Asia, 2 February 2024.
[14] Amelia Teng, “Singapore School for the Deaf to close due to dwindling enrolment,” Straits Times, 17 September 2017.
[15] Darrelle Ng, “Deaf community welcomes study on an official sign language in Singapore, but educational challenges remain,” Channel News Asia, 2 February 2024.
[16] The Signal (Singapore: The Singapore Association for the Deaf, August 2012), 7. (Call no. 362.42 SADN)
[17] Carl A. Argila, “An Interview With: Peng Tsu Ying–Singapore’s ‘Man For All Seasons’,” The Deaf American, December 1975, 9.
[18] “Su Ying — The Deaf and Dumb Driver,” Singapore Free Press, 3 April 1958, 13. (From NewspaperSG)
