The idea of setting up the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre was proposed by Mr Chua Thian Poh, then-Chairman of the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations (SFCCA), and supported by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The Centre was intended to:

• Promote Chinese culture and the arts.
• Support the local community to celebrate our shared culture, strengthen the bond between all groups and forge a strong national identity.
• Hub for high quality performances, exhibitions, and cultural activities.
• Inclusive platform that welcomes all Singaporeans.

A taskforce, chaired by Professor Eddie Kuo and supported by Mr Choo Thiam Siew, was set up to propose the future direction and functions of the Centre. A separate committee led by Mr Seow Choke Meng was set up to oversee the construction of the Centre.

A retreat was held with more than 40 representatives from various social organisations and arts and cultural groups to discuss the Centre’s strategy, positioning, and programming. The name “Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre” was decided then.

Incorporation of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre by SFCCA.

Mr Chua Thian Poh was appointed the Chairman of the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre.

Mr Choo Thiam Siew, President of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), was appointed as the Centre’s Chief Executive Officer. The Centre’s temporary office was located at SFCCA’s headquarters in Toa Payoh.

A ground-breaking ceremony, officiated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, was held to commence construction work. DP Architects was appointed to design the building.

A topping-out ceremony, officiated by Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, was held to celebrate the completion of the main structure.

The Centre presented its inaugural cultural exhibition, Blooms of Vitality, Colours of Life, which showcased various elements of local Chinese culture across literature, arts, culture, festivals, food, home furnishing, and medicine. This is the first official event organised by Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre.

The opening of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre was officiated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The building’s construction cost was primarily funded by the government, and more than $29 million was raised from clan associations, foundations, companies and individuals. The donation was topped up by another $15 million by the government’s Cultural Matching Fund.

The Centre launched its first cultural festival Cultural Extravaganza with Voyage, a specially commissioned multi-media musical by Royston Tan. As part of the festival, the Centre commissioned Singapore’s first-ever dialect film anthology 667, comprising five dialect short films by five young local filmmakers. The anthology was screened at the Busan International Film Festival in 2017. One of the short films Ke directed by Jun Chong, won the Best Asian Short at the 13th Sapporo Short Film Festival in 2018.

Two other signature events of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre were launched along with Cultural Extravaganza 2017.

The Singapore Chinese Cultural Contribution Award (SCCCA) was set up to give recognition to individuals and organisations who made significant contributions to Chinese Singaporean culture. Mr Han Lao Da (Individual category) and Siong Leng Musical Association (Organisation category) were the recipients of the inaugural SCCCA.

Sing·浪 concert was a highlight and grand finale to Cultural Extravaganza. It boasted a line-up of Singaporean artistes, including xinyao icons and the next generation of rising stars.

TGIF Music Station was launched in 2018. This is a series of Mandarin pop music performances featuring Singapore’s favourite performing artistes and rising stars. In February 2020, TGIF Music Station adopted a hybrid format and garnered 41,000 online viewership.

The Centre ushered in the Year of the Dog with its first Lunar New Year Carnival and Concert.

The Centre held a three-month-long Tian Tian @ SCCC exhibition which was co-presented with Zuni lcasahedron, a Hong Kong based international experimental theatre company. It featured over 120 figurines, showcasing the artistic inspirations of many individuals in the local arts and cultural scene.

Mr Low Sze Wee, Director (Curatorial, Collections and Education) of the National Gallery Singapore was appointed as the Centre’s second Chief Executive Officer.

The Centre commissioned TOY Factory to produce the theatrical production Masters of Comedy to pay tribute to Singapore’s iconic comedians over the years.

The Centre commissioned its first singing red packet with an original artwork by local illustrator Ah Guo and a song by local composer-pianist Peng Chi Sheng. The Centre was also invited to a New Year event in Shanghai Crystal Galleria to introduce Singapore’s lohei culture with the singing red packet.

The Arts Support Framework was launched to support the local arts and cultural sector with the Arts Housing Programme, Visual Arts Partnership, and Artspace@SCCC. The first three arts tenants in the Centre are Drum Feng, Nam Hwa Opera and TENG Ensemble. SCCC also signed Memorandum of Understanding with eight local visual arts organisations to provide venue support for their annual exhibitions.

In commemoration of Singapore’s Bicentennial, the Centre commissioned its first original dance-drama, Whispers from the Dragon’s Teeth Gate, produced by Dance Ensemble Singapore (DES Arts) in collaboration with Sri Warisan Som Said Performing Arts.

The Centre jointly organised its first Diversity and Singapore Ethnic Chinese Communities International Conference with the Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore. It brought together over twenty Singaporean academics from local and overseas tertiary institutions to examine and discuss different aspects of the Singapore Chinese community.

The Centre commissioned the recipient of the inaugural Singapore Chinese Cultural Contribution Award, Siong Leng Musical Association, to create a cross-cultural musical performance Memoirs of Nanyang which highlighted a bold fusion of traditional nanyin music with contemporary Malay and Mandarin pop tunes.

To cater to a larger audience, the Sing·浪 Concert was held at an external venue for the first time. The event at the National Stadium drew a crowd of 5,000, and garnered 278,000 viewers during its delayed telecast on MediaCorp Channel 8.

Nine Years Theatre and Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre jointly presented First Fleet, an immersive theatre experience which placed the audience on stage with the performers. This production won the Production of the Year award at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2020.

The Centre launched its first youth cultural festival RE•MIX. A festival for youths by youths, RE•MIX brought together youths to experience Chinese culture through pop music, street dance, technology and more.

In collaboration with MeshMinds, the Centre launched Asia’s first augmented reality (AR) red packet for Chinese New Year. Through AR effects, the illustrations on the red packet came to life, and provided information on the origins of popular local festive customs.

The opening of the Centre’s permanent exhibition SINGAPO人: Discovering Chinese Singaporean Culture was officiated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The exhibition was supported generously by Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho (Temple). 

“There are plenty of ingenuity in the exhibition. There is a surprise in every opened drawer, and the interpretation of ‘Chinese Singaporean’ is also unconventional. The answer to ‘What is Chinese Singaporean’ can be effortless, but the curator delved deep into the cultural reasons and angles such as culture, language, practices, dialect groups etc. to the formation of Chinese Singaporean, and did not simply explain it from the aspect of historical account. The exhibition is more than just exhibits, and uses interactive technology to capture attention.” – Excerpt from “张承尧：新加坡华人” on Zaobao.com.sg

To engage online audiences, SCCC launched many short videos including the animated series Kaki Says which introduced the origins and lesser-known stories behind Chinese festivals in a light-hearted way. For the Keeping Traditions Alive and Try Leh, Singaporean video series, viewers were encouraged to try their hands at traditional dishes and crafts. These videos, each attracting about 35,000 views, received many positive comments.

“What a cute and fun way to share the meaning of the festival! 讚啦！” – Yeo Shu Yin on Kaki Says: Duanwu Festival

“Thanks for bringing this knowledge in a light hearted way!” – Woo Hong Ling on Kaki Says: Chinese New Year

View more videos here.

SCCC was awarded the SG Clean quality mark, having met the benchmark for arts and cultural premises. This reflects the Centre’s commitment to uphold high standards of sanitation and environmental public hygiene.

The Centre piloted a range of online school programmes for the exhibition, SINGAPO人: Discovering Chinese Singaporean Culture. These provided educators with alternative teaching methods for students to learn about identity, history and language.

Music At Monuments – National Heritage Board x Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (NHB x SCCC) is a series of four music videos featuring Singapore artistes, performing at our national monuments. The videos provided a different perspective of Singapore’s built heritage, while showcasing the diverse talents of local musicians. Watch the video series here.

SCCC collaborated with JangandFox to create a series of comics that promoted values cherished by the Chinese community. View the comics here.

For the first time, the Centre’s annual youth festival, RE•MIX, was held in a hybrid format, with physical and online activities held over two weekends.

The festival also included the first RE•MIX fashion design competition that invited youths aged 15 to 25 years old to draw inspiration from our cultural identity to create innovative fashion pieces. 10 finalists were selected from 37 submissions. The first session of this competition was livestreamed on our Facebook on 16 January, followed by a runway show and award presentation ceremony livestreamed on 24 January. The onsite exhibition attracted 270 visitors and our two livestreams garnered over 15,000 views.

Amidst the constraints of COVID19 safe management measures, the Centre transformed its carpark into Moo Moo PARK, Asia’s first drive-through exhibition. Visitors rode in electric vehicles to enjoy installations by eight young artists who were inspired by the Year of the Ox and sustainability issues. The artworks were enhanced by special AR effects, also designed by the artists. A special scent “Mandarin Moo-ments” using the fragrance of mandarin tea added to the multi-sensorial experience of Moo Moo PARK.

Following the drive-through exhibition, the installation also travelled to 10 external venues such as shopping malls till January 2022. More than 1.2 million people have visited this exhibition, and there were nearly 83,000 online views of the AR artworks!

Co-organised with Singapore Chinese Orchestra, SCO X SCCC talk series — Wednesday Waltz: Three-Way Music Conversations  was a series of intercultural dialogues conducted over four livestream sessions. The programmes compared different musical traditions, and garnered about 15,000 views per session. Watch the series here.

SCCC introduced its “talking” red packet which included audio recordings of Chinese New Year greetings in Mandarin and the five major dialects (Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, and Hainanese). These packets encouraged the young to learn how to greet their elders in dialect during the festive season. Click here to find out how the red packet works!

SCCC presented Flames of Resilience in this year’s Chingay special webcast. The programme combined the Chinese traditional art forms of lion dance, dragon dance and pole acts with digital elements. We also co-produced the Chingay Mini-Series Episode Our Traditional Art. Our Heritage, which featured host Naomi Yeo who learnt from Shaun Choh, SCCC’s curator, on how our traditional lion dance performances had evolved over time. Watch the video here.

To widen their reach, SCCC’s temporary exhibitions travelled to external venues and were also made available on SCCC’s website. Poetic Strokes and Afterwords may be seen online, and Afterwords was on display in local libraries.

In collaboration with GroundZ-0 and official radio station partner 96.3 Hao FM, we launched the inaugural GIMME TEN 2021 radio playwriting competition to cultivate local playwriting talents and promote the use of Chinese language. The competition received 76 submissions from participants aged 24 to 71 years old.

The Centre was inducted as a member of the National Heritage Board’s Museum Roundtable.

Cultural Extravaganza returned in 2021 after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival offered events in hybrid format including ticketed physical events, online streams, and pay-as-you-wish activities. Visit the microsite for more details!

The Centre’s permanent exhibition SINGAPO人: Discovering Chinese Singaporean Culture received Design Business Chamber Singapore’s Singapore Good Design Awards under the “Experience Design” category.

In collaboration with local tour operators, SCCC offered physical and online walking trails such as the Inside the Chinese Singaporean – The Evolution of our Culture and Heritage and UNESCO Hawker Food Tour: Boiled and Braised.  These enabled the public to discover the different aspects of Chinese Singaporean culture in the heritage-rich precinct around SCCC.

For more similar events, visit here.

One of the many works commissioned by SCCC, T.H.E Dance Company’s Pán was invited to be part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world.

Two new online series based on the Centre’s SINGAPO人exhibition were introduced. The video series One of Us, on local dialect cultures, was highly popular. The Centre also launched Intermission, its first podcast series on different aspects of Chinese Singaporean culture such as food, language, values and festivals. Listen to the podcast series here.

The Centre held its second international conference Boundaries and Bonds. It was co-organised with the Nanyang Technological University. The online format made the event more accessible to a wider audience locally and internationally. Watch it here.

SCCC conducted virtual tours of the SINGAPO人 exhibition for nursing homes and other charitable organisations such as MINDS (Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore) to explore aspects of Chinese Singaporean culture such as food and festivals.