We Love Bilingualism Too now uses 3D animation to get kids to love Mandarin
SINGAPORE — Everyone knows that singing is a good way for kids to pick up new words and even a whole new language. And Richard Wan Kum Wah, songwriter and producer, has made a sequel to his popular videos We Love Bilingualism, called We Love Bilingualism Too. The project, which is funded by the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism, features 12 new songs to promote Mandarin using three-dimensional (3D) animations.
SINGAPORE — Everyone knows that singing is a good way for kids to pick up new words and even a whole new language. And Richard Wan Kum Wah, songwriter and producer, has made a sequel to his popular videos We Love Bilingualism, called We Love Bilingualism Too. The project, which is funded by the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism, features 12 new songs to promote Mandarin using three-dimensional (3D) animations.
“We went through several details and found that pre-school children, in particular enjoy 3D images.” He continued: “3D animation genres like Frozen, Finding Dory and even My Little Pony have already proven successful among children which is why I took a different approach (3D animation) this time.”
The 54-year-old said he was driven to create something fun for his two children, aged three and seven. “As a local children’s songwriter, I want to bring out good songs with exciting themes for them.”
He was further motivated to work on a sequel as the response to the first released in 2014 was “phenomenal”.
Songs such as Let Us Sing A Song Of Colours, Fun With Shapes and We Have Good Manners received up to 23,000 views on YouTube, he said.
Unlike the first project, only Mandarin is used this time around in We Love Bilingualism Too. “I hope that through these songs, it will raise the quality of teaching and learning of our Mother Tongue,” he explained, adding that he wants these songs to prepare children in Singapore as they get plugged into a globalised world and to strengthen ties to their heritage.
On top of that, We Love Bilingualism Too will stray away from the “music slideshow MTV” style. The characters in the videos are three-dimensional. For instance, the song My Friends shows a video of four characters with the backdrop of the Singapore skyline with iconic attractions — Marina Bay Sands and Singapore Flyer. The videos also see a diverse range of themes covered from transportation to family and growing up. “It could be about anything to do with children.” Wan explained.
We Love Bilingualism Too took more than 14 months to complete. Besides the animations and visual effects, which were done by IT experts and animators, Wan handled the production and the writing of the script, research and storyboard for each song.
Of course, a good song would need a good vocalist. Wan held auditions at schools to find potential vocalists. The response was overwhelming. “The sheer number of school auditions (20 rounds of auditions were held) to get these vocalist goes to show that there is strong interest among our national talent pool.”
Wan himself has strict criteria for the vocals used in his songs. “These vocals must sound like they are sung by children and not sung by young adult superstars. About 30 students were finally selected and they hail from Geylang Methodist School, Yangzheng Primary School and Angsana Primary School.
And even though Wan created his videos for kids in Singapore, they have piqued the interest of viewers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the Philippines and United States. One of his song My Friends has even been placed on popular Japanese blogging and social networking website Ameba.
Even more astonishing to Wan is that kids here are asking to buy the CDs for We Love Bilingualism Too in an age of music downloads and streaming. The first print of CDs released in March were well received, according to Wan, although he declined to reveal actual numbers. Wan feels this is a silver lining at a time when the concept of children’s albums is dying, since one can cherry-pick any individual track one likes through YouTube. And this has definitely spurred him on to produce even more videos. He quipped, “I’m even looking to collaborate with international film-makers next!”
We Love Bilingualism Too CDs is available at all CD-RAMA stores (Popular) for S$8.50.