I am honoured to take over the role of Chairman from Founding Chairman Mr Chua Thian Poh in October 2022. It is heartening to see SCCC grow through the years to where it is today and I am humbled to be able to lead the organisation in its next phase of growth. This is made possible by the good foundation laid by our past Boards, and I thank Mr Chua as well as all Directors for their contributions.

SCCC celebrated its 5^th anniversary in 2022. Fortunately, we saw the easing of COVID-19 measures and were able to resume our signature events in full-fledged physical formats. Cultural Extravaganza, our annual signature festival, offered 14 cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary and cross-generational programmes, attracting 30,000 visitors to SCCC and 160,000 online views. Our Mandopop concert, Sing•浪, wrapped up our year-long anniversary celebrations with nearly 6,500 attendees at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The Board embarked on a fundraising campaign in conjunction with the 5^th  anniversary and managed to achieve our target of $5 million. We thank our donors for their unwavering support. These funds will further our mission to provide arts, cultural and educational programmes for free or at a nominal fee for the public. 

We have also worked with partners from the local arts and cultural sector to  co-organise more than 30 events and original productions such as Mark Chan’s Email and Eternity, The Warlords produced by Ding Yi Music Company and A Soulful Night by Reverberance. The Treasures of the Clans exhibition, co-organised by SCCC and the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations featured more than 80 paintings from 16 clan associations in Singapore. We have also provided venue support for 30 events organised by local arts groups such as The Society of Chinese Artists, Siaw-Tao Chinese Seal-Carving Calligraphy & Painting Society and the Choral Association (Singapore). We look forward to deepening such meaningful relationships with our strategic partners.

While COVID-19 brought physical events to a standstill, we remained resilient and devoted resources to expand and curate our library of online content. Branching out from our permanent exhibition SINGAPO人, we launched Ways of Being, a video series focusing on 10 values treasured by the Chinese. It has achieved more than 1 million views across our online platforms till date. Our online content was also featured on new platforms such as the Singapore Airlines inflight entertainment system to reach out to international audiences. We were delighted to collaborate with new partners such as Science Centre Singapore to create the Food CSI video series which investigates the science behind our popular hawker dishes.

This has been a milestone year for us and I am heartened to see the organisation grow to where it is today. As we journey ahead, our next phase is to further strengthen SCCC as a knowledge hub by building on our existing content in the SINGAPO人 exhibition. We have set  up  a research unit to document the development of local Chinese culture through arts, popular culture, literature and other key areas. The team will be working closely with key cultural entities and academics to develop an online repository which will be made available in mid-2024.

We look forward to your continued support to bring SCCC to greater heights.