About The Festival

Festa di Papia Kristang
Kristang Language Festival

Kristang is the critically-endangered heritage language of the Portuguese-Eurasian community in Singapore, with less than 100 elderly fluent speakers today. Since the 1930s, speakers of the language have dwindled and inter-generational transmission has ceased. The first Kristang Language Festival hopes to raise the profile of Kristang and the vibrant Portuguese-Eurasian community in Singapore through workshops, panel discussions, the Eurasian Stories, Languages of Singapore Trail, and more! The Festival is open to all, regardless of heritage, experience, and language.

Ki Kristang sa balor? What is Kristang worth? National history and identity — be it Portuguese-Eurasian, Eurasian, or Singaporean.

Kodrah Kristang
Awaken, Kristang

With less than 50 fluent speakers of the Portuguese-Malay Creole called Kristang left in Singapore, we stand to lose an essential piece of Singapore’s multilingual and multicultural landscape. The Kodrah Kristang (‘Awaken, Kristang’) initiative, founded in early 2016, was the brainchild of Kevin Martens Wong with the hope of revitalising the language in Singapore. With more than 200 learners in beginner’s Kristang classes and freely available resources such as an audio course (Kontah Kristang, ‘Speak, Kristang’) and vocabulary course (Kriseh Kristang, ‘Grow, Kristang’), Kristang shall soon be awakened in the Lion City. Beng papiah kung nus! Come speak with us!

Kodrah Kristang has been featured on the BBC, Channel NewsAsia, The Straits Times, OurSG, The AlumNUS, 新明日报, Sábado, SG Now, 938LIVE, The Independent, Revista Macau, Observatório da Língua Portuguesa, TODAY, and The New Eurasian