Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law Mr Edwin Tong

Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth & Trade and Industry Ms Low Yen Ling

Board Directors of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

Friends from the academia, arts and culture community

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good evening.

I am happy to welcome you to the official launch of Culturepaedia, SCCC’s online repository on Singapore Chinese culture.

In Singapore, Chinese culture has evolved over time in our multicultural society and has acquired distinctive features. It is thus important to conduct systematic research and documentation of it, so that Singaporeans of current and future generations would understand and appreciate our unique cultural heritage.

To do this, SCCC set up a Research Unit in late 2022, with the support of MCCY, to work with our academics, experts and community to conduct research on our Singapore Chinese culture. We cover areas such as literature, music, art, language and education, social practices, popular culture and media, communities and more.

I am delighted that after the team’s hard work for more than a year, the Culturepaedia website will be officially launched today. The bilingual online repository contains close to 150 articles and caters to both English and Chinese readers. The repository will be updated and enriched with new content on a regular basis.

SCCC’s Culturepaedia website will complement our SINGAPO人 permanent exhibition and expand upon its content by providing in-depth research articles on various topics covered in the exhibition. It will also extend the reach of SCCC’s permanent exhibition and serve as the go-to portal for the public to learn more about our unique Singapore Chinese culture and what makes us SINGAPO人.

With the launch of Culturepaedia, SCCC hopes to continue to build on and consolidate our efforts to document and promote knowledge about Singapore Chinese culture and establish SCCC as the pre-eminent institution on Singapore Chinese culture.

Let me now continue in Mandarin.

大家晚上好。欢迎出席《新加坡华族文化百科》网站启用仪式。

在新加坡，华族文化扎根在多元文化社会，经过多年的演变，经过很多代人的耕耘，如今已经开花结果，并且有了独特的精神面貌。我们现在应该做的，是为我们和我们的下一代，有系统地梳理新加坡华族文化的形成和发展历程。

基于此，在文化、社区及青年部的支持下，新加坡华族文化中心在2022年下旬成立了研究组，为本地华族文化开展研究和推介的工作。我们涵盖的范围包括文学、音乐、美术、语言教育、民俗与信仰、大众文化与媒体、社群等等。

我很高兴宣布，经过一年多的筹备，名为《新加坡华族文化百科》的一站式知识库，今天将正式开通。这是一个免付费的双语平台，目前上载了将近150篇中英双语的文章，每篇文章也附有延伸阅读材料。这将是长期的工作，网站内容也将不断更新与充实。我们希望这个文化百科将是国内外人士探讨新加坡华族文化的重要平台。通过这些文章，《新加坡华族文化百科》也将和中心的《新加坡华人》常设展（SINGAPO人）达到相辅相成的作用，在线上丰富展览的内容。

在这里，我想借这个机会，感谢参与这个项目的近80位学者和文史工作者。谢谢你们对这个项目的热心支持。你们提供的宝贵资料和研究成果，必定会造福公众。

在知识库开通后，我们会与各个社会组织和媒体机构合作，通过不同方式和平台，将《华族文化百科》的内容重新包装，推介给各个背景和年龄层的读者群体。

例如，中心与新报业集团旗下的早报校园团队已展开一项合作，把网站的文章转换成适合学生的内容，在学校里进行推广。这包括在《逗号》《大拇指》《小拇指》和早报校园网的平台，推出相关主题内容，希望《华族文化百科》能成为课堂上的重要学习资源。

今晚的网站启用只是一个起步。中心希望继续结合华社的资源，不断丰富网站内容，大家的持续支持对我们的成功至关重要。

谢谢。