Literary arts as a key pillar in cultural development

Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction 

1. I am happy to join you this morning at the Asia Cultural Cooperation Forum. Singapore, like Hong Kong, has long been at the intersection of major international trade routes. Through the years, we established ourselves as an international business and financial centre. At the same time, we recognised the importance of preserving, celebrating and investing in our culture, so that Singapore as a multi-racial society can be a home to people from diverse backgrounds. We believe the arts will create the environment to inspire our people to express their dreams and aspirations, enrich our heritage, and shape our identity as a nation. We also believe that the arts will also promote social dialogue and cultural understanding that transcend geographical boundaries. I also share and agree with our Korean colleagues that the arts and culture can also increase national happiness.

2. Ultimately, we aim not just to be an economic centre but also a cultural capital – a city with character and life. In our tiny island of just over 700 sq km, we already have a busy arts calendar that ranges from the ongoing Singapore Biennale, the Singapore International Festival for the Arts (for the performing arts), the Singapore Heritage Festival and the Singapore Night Festival (for the museums and heritage), as well as the Singapore Writer's Festival, which is our tribute to the literary arts.
   

Literary arts as key pillar in cultural development

3. Indeed, literature is integral to the cultural and intellectual life of any society, and it is also the key pillar for a flourishing cultural scene. In Singapore, we have long recognised the value in literacy and literature, and have made these a key emphasis in our cultural and education policies. We believe in placing literary arts at the heart of the community, so that our people can enjoy a wide range of literature, and develop a lifelong habit of reading.

4. That is why over the years, we have built an extensive network of public libraries all over the island, and kept basic library membership free for our people. Through these efforts, we have progressively nurtured a nation of readers. When Singapore first became independent, reading was a luxury few could afford. Today, our public libraries receive 35 million visitors a year – about 10 times our resident population.
   

Challenges and strategies

5. While we have made progress, we recognise that we cannot afford to be complacent. Like all countries, we are adjusting to the new realities of the digital age. Several ministers and officials mentioned earlier about the challenges and changing realities of digital media, and Singapore faces the same trends. Increasingly sophisticated mobile devices and ubiquitous internet access have changed the habits of our people, especially the young. I recall meeting a young student recently who told me that if I do not have F – I – T I'm not “fit” to hang out with the young. So I asked him what is F – I – T, and he said it is Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Our children are constantly multi-tasking and multi-surfing online – they are saturated with information and visual stimulus. In Singapore, we are sometimes concerned about the reduced attention spans in the youth, especially with multi-tasking and the amount of information available to them. But one thing is clear – the next generation will grow up with a different way of thinking and accessing information. And we have to adapt to these new trends.

6. In some ways, these challenges provide us with new opportunities to make the literary arts even more appealing and relevant. In Singapore, we are doing so through three strategies.

7. First, we are going digital and blurring traditional boundaries. Our libraries are pushing out more content online, through mobile and Facebook apps, as well as e-book titles. We have gone beyond encouraging visits to libraries, to literally taking the libraries to our people through digital media. We are also getting our writers and artists from different disciplines to collaborate together. For example, in one project, we invited visual artists to create new works based on Singapore literary writing. In this way, we promote more artistic exchanges, reach out to new audiences, and also foster greater appreciation for Singapore literature through visual means.

8. Second, we are investing in arts education in schools. Over the past three years, our National Arts Council has been working closely with our Ministry of Education to integrate more Singaporean literature into our syllabus. Not just for literature classes, but also for general language classes. We want our young to encounter Singaporean works early on in life, and to develop a lifelong appreciation for local authors. We also want our students to identify with what they study on the page, and eventually, to find their own creative voices as future authors, poets and thinkers in their own right.

9. Third, we are doing more to support local content. We are constantly looking at new ways to expand the reach of our local literature. We extend our writers a helping hand by providing publishing grants, and cultivating international agents. We help build communities of writers, by supporting artists' residencies and mentorship programmes and inspiring a new generation of creative Singaporean writers.

Singapore Writers Festival

10. Our efforts to promote the literary arts come together in the annual Singapore Writers Festival that I mentioned earlier on. The Festival celebrates the Literary Arts and has become an annual fixture in our cultural calendar. Now into its 16th edition, the Festival remains the only multi-lingual literary arts event in the region. It reflects our diverse cultural heritage and celebrates creativity in our four languages - English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil, with translations too. It has a distinctly Asian focus and has the privilege of welcoming many top writers from your countries.

Conclusion

11.  As a cosmopolitan city that is the meeting point for different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, I believe that Singapore is well-positioned to create content that resonates universally, and yet retains a distinctly Singaporean and Asian tone and texture. In many ways, words are all we have – they have the power to restore, to unite, and to bring positive change. So for a small country like Singapore, our perspective is that the pen is often mightier than the sword.