Introduction
2024 was a milestone year for SCCC as we renewed our leadership, refreshed our strategic priorities, and reaffirmed our commitment to promoting local Chinese culture. In 2024, we welcomed on board Mr Alvin Tan, former Deputy Chief Executive (Policy & Community) from National Heritage Board, as the new CEO of SCCC from June 2024. I would like to take the opportunity to thank outgoing CEO, Mr Low Sze Wee, for his contributions to the Centre during his tenure from 2018 to 2024.
We also held a Board Retreat in September 2024 where we reviewed and refreshed our four key strategic pillars to establish SCCC as the pre-eminent institution on local Chinese culture; promote core values as part of local Chinese culture; provide support for local Chinese arts and cultural groups; and promote Chinese language and embrace dialects as part of local Chinese culture.
SCCC Board Retreat held in September 2024 where SCCC Board members and staff discussed ways to implement SCCC’s new strategic priorities and programming pillars.
Cultivating Relations
In 2024, we continued with our efforts to cultivate relationships with key stakeholders and like-minded partners, to develop offerings as well as capabilities of local Chinese arts and culture groups, and to establish ties and connect with our audiences through our festivals, programmes, and outreach efforts.
As part of SCCC’s stakeholder cultivation efforts, we organised 15 engagement sessions in 2024 involving close to 50 representatives from arts and culture groups and academia to gather their feedback, address challenges and seek opportunities for collaboration. Some of the ideas from these engagement sessions that SCCC is considering include creative camps for the sector, cross-industry collaborations, internationalisation of our local Chinese arts and cultural offerings etc.
Last year, SCCC also strengthened existing partnerships and forged new ones. We established relations with a record 78 partners including with long-term partners like Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations (SFCCA), as well as new ones like Arts House Limited and Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. Under our Visual Arts Partnership, we renewed our agreements with eight local visual arts societies to provide spaces for their annual exhibitions. Following our successful collaboration with Land Transport Authority (LTA) to decorate their trains and buses during the Chinese New Year, we have further inked an agreement to bring festive cheer to commuters for another three years from 2026 to 2028.
SCCC also partnered Singapore Police Force’s Anti-Scam Command and Health Promotion Board to disseminate anti-scam and health-related messages through light-hearted skits to seniors at our popular Happy Sing-Along sessions. For the first time, we participated in Mother Tongue Languages Symposium in September 2024 co-organised by Ministry of Education (MOE), Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL), and other Mother Tongue Committees, to promote mother tongue programmes and reached out to 4,030 families and teachers.
Through both existing and new collaborations with our stakeholders and partners, we hope to work towards our goal of becoming the pinnacle institution for the research, development, presentation and promotion of local Chinese arts, culture, and heritage.
Connecting with Audiences
However, SCCC is not only committed to building connections with our stakeholders and partners but also to providing platforms for local Chinese arts and cultural groups to shine and creating opportunities for Singaporeans to come together to appreciate and celebrate our cultural achievements.
Launched in 2017, the Centre’s annual flagship festival Cultural Extravaganza provides a platform to showcase the best of local Chinese arts and culture. Last year’s festival offered 10 performances and exhibitions by renowned local arts groups such as Nam Hwa Opera and The TENG Company, and attracted nearly 15,000 patrons over a period of two months.
We also continued to co-organise our signature programmes CNY Family FUN and Mid-Autumn Family FUN with Singapore Chinese Orchestra, offering a slew of family-friendly activities for young and old to celebrate both Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival in the heart of the Central Business District.
CEO of SCCC and Mr Ng Siew Quan, Chairman of SCCC dotting the eyes of the LED snake at SCCC’s CNY Family FUN event.
Beyond our Centre, we worked with our long-standing partner SFCCA to co-organise the annual National Day Sing-Along to strengthen participants’ sense of pride and belonging towards the country, and River Hongbao 2025 Singapore Talent Night to showcase an array of song and cultural performances during Chinese New Year. As part of the festivities, we also presented the opening act in the annual Chingay street parade organised by People’s Association to showcase the uniqueness and vibrancy of our multi-culturalism through the arts.
Our travelling exhibition The Good Hood: Where Values Come Home, which showcased 10 universal values across Chinese, Malay and Indian communities, made its way to 18 locations in FY24 including libraries, schools and malls to make culture more accessible. Festivals Unlocked, our other travelling exhibition featuring six festivals celebrated by Chinese Singaporeans, also travelled to 14 locations before making its final stop at our Centre. These various community engagement efforts reached out to more than 3.2 million members of the public, allowing them to learn more about local Chinese culture across the island.
In July 2024, SCCC celebrated a significant achievement in its efforts to promote local Chinese culture and connect with audiences in the digital sphere with the launch of Culturepaedia, a bilingual one-stop online repository by our Research Unit. It is a treasure trove of credible research about our local Chinese culture categorised according to subjects such as literature, music, art, language and education, social practices, popular culture, communities and more.
From left: Mr Chen Hwai Liang, Head of SCCC Research Unit; Ms Low Yen Ling, Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth & Trade and Industry; Mr Edwin Tong, former Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, and Second Minister for Law; and Mr Ng Siew Quan, Chairman of SCCC at the launch of Culturepaedia.
Leveraging on Culturepaedia’s content, SCCC partnered SPH Chinese Media Group to create easily digestible and informational pieces for younger readers on their student-oriented publications and platforms. Two documentary series, jointly produced with Mediacorp, spotlighting our local comedian pioneers Wang Sha and Ye Feng, as well as our pioneer generation singers – Poon Sow Keng, Huang Qing Yuan, Chin Whai and Wu Gang – have also been produced to allow us to reach our audiences in the comfort of their homes.
For the year ahead, SCCC will continue to develop and present programmes that are refreshing to both existing and new audiences. SCCC will also remain committed to cultivating strong and lasting relations with our stakeholders, partners, and local arts and cultural groups, and to creating platforms and opportunities for Singaporeans, new citizens and tourists alike to learn more about and engage with local Chinese culture.
In conclusion, I would like to thank our Board of Directors, donors, partners, the SCCC team, and the local arts and culture community for their support over the past year and I look forward to more creative collaborations in 2025 and 2026 as we work towards SCCC’s 10th anniversary in 2027.