Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law, Mr Edwin Tong;
Mr Chua Thian Poh, Chairman of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening.
I am happy to see many of us gathered here today for the award ceremony of the 5th Singapore Chinese Cultural Contribution Award. I am glad to see more people celebrate the achievements of the two recipients here this year.
Entering its fifth year, the SCCCA is an award where we recognise outstanding individuals and organisations who have made exceptional contributions to the promotion, transmission, enrichment and development of our Chinese Singaporean culture. The SCCCA has also become a highly-anticipated yearly event by the local Chinese community.
Let me continue in Chinese:
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law, Mr Edwin Tong;
Mr Chua Thian Poh, Chairman of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening.
After two years, I am elated to join everyone here at the Singapore Chinese Cultural Contribution Award ceremony and share in the joy of the recipients. Firstly, let me extend my heartiest congratulations to the two SCCCA recipients this year – Dr Tay Teow Kiat and Young People’s Performing Arts Ensemble for the individual and organisation awards respectively.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the members of the Judging Committee. All of them are distinguished individuals of our local arts and cultural community. The successful selection of the recipients is a result of their dedicated time and professional opinions.
We received 60 nominations this year – the highest number thus far – with 46 nominations for individuals and 14 nominations for organisations. 24 nominations (40%) are new submissions. We are also delighted to see nominations beyond the arts categories, with nominations coming from diverse categories like wushu and design, as well as nominees from other ethnicities.
Over the past five years, I am honoured to see SCCCA recipients from diverse fields gained recognition through this award. This is a reflection of Singapore’s rich and vibrant arts and cultural landscape.
Recipients of the individual award came from various fields. This year’s individual award recipient is Dr Tay Teow Kiat, an internationally renowned conductor. In 1985, he was invited to be a visiting conductor of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, making him the first Singaporean to conduct a professional Chinese orchestra in China. Dr Tay was also invited to guest conduct professional Chinese orchestras in music colleges, and often judged Chinese music competitions in China. In 2007, he was a judge for a Chinese orchestra competition organised by Chinese Central Television.
Although Dr Tay is a reputable figure in the international Chinese orchestral music scene, everyone fondly addresses him as “Teacher Tay” in Singapore. The loved and respected “Teacher Tay” not only established and nurtured several local Chinese orchestras in schools and non-professional groups, he also groomed many young Chinese orchestral talents. Under Dr Tay’s mentorship, these orchestras and musicians have won rave reviews both locally and overseas.
The Organisation award recognises organisations that have made significant efforts in renewing traditions and pushing boundaries. This year, the Organisation award recipient is the Young People’s Performing Arts Ensemble (YPPAE), which has been providing Mandarin drama and performing arts training for the young for many years. Under the leadership of its Artistic Director Ms Ma Gyap Sen, YPPAE has produced over 70 theatre productions and put up more than 200 performances. Since 2001, YPPAE started children’s cross-talk shows, and has launched the “Cross-talk Masters” series. They spared no efforts to develop local cross-talk and clapper-talk, cultivated cross-talk talents and playwrights, and produced many original cross-talk works which showcase the uniqueness of our local culture, thereby laying a strong foundation for our local cross-talk scene.
YPPAE has also integrated Confucian philosophy and Western theories in creative drama in their training framework, to nurture young artistes with a love for Chinese culture. This has contributed greatly to the promotion and development of Chinese traditions and art forms.
For the upcoming 6th edition of the SCCCA, we have amended the nomination guidelines and broadened the nomination criteria. We now welcome both for-profit and non-profit organisations to be nominated to recognise their contributions to Chinese Singaporean culture.
We are accepting nominations for the 6th SCCCA from today. I hope the new guidelines will encourage worthy individuals and organisations to be nominated. I would also like to thank the local Chinese community for showing their support every year by nominating many local arts and cultural practitioners and organisations, and promoting Chinese Singaporean culture together with us.
Thank you!
