Singapore — The Singapore Prize prize pool has doubled, while prizes now encompass arts and multimedia as announced by National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences department of history on April 1. This move follows suit with their book competition by expanding to arts and multimedia works that deal deeply with Singapore history – similar to book competition but now including works that explore any discipline related to Singapore history. It aims to stimulate interest and increase understanding about “Singapore Spirit”, defined as equal rights, diversity, religious harmony, meritocracy, pragmatism and resilience – that have played major roles in creating modern Singapore today.
John N Miksic won the inaugural NUS Singapore History Prize on January 11, for his book Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea published by NUS Press with National Museum of Singapore. This prize, the richest in Asia, was established through a gift by former Singapore diplomat Kishore Mahbubani in 2014 as part of his strategy to address what he identified as Singapore’s greatest challenge: creating an understanding of shared history.
This year, the prize offered twelve top awards of up to $10,000 each for works written in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil fiction and nonfiction as well as poetry. Finalist numbers increased dramatically – writers from all four official languages competed against one another for the first time – a major departure from its founding three-language competition that began in 2021 when both fiction and poems competed for one award each.
Consumer-voting panel, which saw increased participation this round (over 4,000 readers took part, double that seen in 2020 contest), selected four shortlisted works as winners by popular vote; these four winners — Ali bin Salim, Daryl Qilin Yam, Pan Zheng Lei and Rma cureess (Rama Suresh) received cash prizes totalling $1400 each while their respective schools also received funds worth $2,500.
2022 Winners include violinists Dmytro Udovychenko and Anna Agafia Egholm who received USD $50,000 and USD $110,000 awards, respectively, to perform concertos with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra during a special event scheduled in February. Other finalists included Jian Zhang, an anthropologist and historian of China and Southeast Asia; biographer Lee Kyung Sun; author Mihaela Martin; all winning entries are now available to purchase at bookstores nationwide. This year’s contest was supported by numerous partners, such as NBC, the National Library Board, Singapore Pools, Nanyang Girls’ High School, and National University of Singapore. The prize serves as an important fundraiser for CWT Foundation – which runs and awards the contest – with part funding coming from National Arts Council grants. A panel composed of artists, curators, writers as well as cultural and educational experts served as judges.