Singapore Prize for History 2021 Winners Announced
The Singapore prize is a literary award that recognises local fiction and non-fiction works. It is the richest book award in Singapore, and was started through a donation from Confucian scholar Alan Chan. The award aims to promote the writing of books that champion mindsets and values important in shaping Singapore. These include equality, diversity, religious harmony, meritocracy, pragmatism and an emphasis on education, innovation, and community.
A book that is nominated must be a work of at least 25,000 words, or its equivalent in another media form, and should be published in Singapore between January 2017 and November 2020. Nominees may be individuals, teams, or organisations. Nominees must submit their books for consideration by submitting a nomination form, a synopsis and a copy of the book. The judging panel will select a winning entry for each of the three year cycles. The panel will be composed of academics and experts in the field of Singapore history.
NUS has announced the 2021 winners of the Singapore Prize for History, a literary award that recognises non-fiction and fiction works with a strong historical theme. Professor John Miksic’s Leluhur: Singapore Kampong Gelam was awarded the top prize of $50,000. The book explores the development of Singapore from pre-history through to its modern identity as a city-state.
This is the fourth year that the Singapore Prize has been given out, and the NUS Department of History has broadened the criteria to encourage submissions from a wider range of authors and topics. The prize aims to make the complexities and nuances of Singapore’s history more accessible to the general public, as well as stimulate engagement with Singapore’s unique history. The citation for the winner’s book describes it as both a synthesis of historical evidence and primary sources, thanks to Ms Hidayah’s extensive personal inputs.
The inaugural Dr Alan HJ Chan Spirit of Singapore Book Prize was launched on April 18, with 12 top prizes in Chinese, English and Malay and Tamil, the most for a Singapore book award. The prize was initiated through a $1 million donation from Confucian scholar Alan Chan, and is based at the University of Singapore’s School of Social Sciences (SUSS). The prize will recognise books that champion mindsets and values important in the shaping of Singapore, including equality, diversity, religious harmony, meritocracy, resilience and an emphasis on education, innovation and community.
During the final round of the Singapore International Violin Competition, Ukrainian violinist Dmytro Udovychenko won the top prize, worth $50,000. He competed against runner-up Danish violinist Anna Agafia Egholm and Hong Kong/Chinese violinist Angela Sin Ying Chan in front of an audience of over 2,000. Other finalists included violinists from Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Denmark. The event was broadcast by the National Arts Council of Singapore and Radio Television Singapore. This was the first time that the contest had been held at the SOTA venue in Singapore. The organisers hope to bring the contest to other parts of Asia in the future.
