Speeches
SG50 - our heritage, our culture, our future
Sectors
Arts & Heritage
12 March 2015
Speech 1 by Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth at the 2015 Committee of Supply debate
Mdm Chair, I thank Members for their questions on MCCY's work.
Celebrating SG50
Our Ministry has been very busy with our SG50 celebrations. “SG50” is now a buzzword all over Singapore. I believe many Singaporeans are excited about what's in store for the year ahead.
But SG50 is more than a once-off celebration. Our objective goes beyond that.
It's like a family holding a party. You spend time and effort to decorate your home. When the day arrives, you have a wonderful celebration.
When the party is over and you wake up in the morning, you are still the same family – living in the same home, with the same responsibilities, the same hopes and anxieties about the future.
But because you have spent time together, you have grown closer. You have reconnected with one another and talked about your plans for the future.
That's what SG50 is about. It's a time to reflect on what makes us Singaporean; to bond as a people, and build confidence for our future.
Three themes shine through in our celebrations: our heritage, our culture and our future. Let me share a little more on each one of them.
Our heritage
First, we embrace our heritage as Singaporeans. It forms the core of our national identity. One way to strengthen this is to build up spaces where people can be immersed in history; where they can explore and develop an emotional connection to the city.
For Singapore, one important area is our Civic District – the birthplace of modern Singapore, containing many institutions that have witnessed important turning points in history.
We've been doing a lot to preserve this sense of heritage and identity in the Civic District. We recently restored the iconic Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall (VTVCH). And just next door, the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is undergoing a major revamp. There will be new Museum galleries, and a new entrance opening onto the Singapore River. Madam, with your permission, I would like to show some slides on the screens.
What we are doing is not just piecemeal, but really an overall transformation of the Civic District. We've been working closely with URA and NParks to make this happen. By July, the portion of Empress Place between ACM and VTVCH will be paved over to connect these buildings seamlessly, so it will be pedestrianised. A spacious lawn will be created that can be used for concerts and events.
The whole area will be made more pedestrian friendly. Buildings will connect more smoothly to the waterfront. And we will spruce everything up with beautiful public artworks, like the ones you see on the screen, commissioned specially for the Jubilee Walk.
The new jewel of the Civic District will be the National Gallery Singapore, housed in the former Supreme Court and City Hall. This will be the largest visual arts centre in the region. In fact, the art extends beyond the Gallery.
We also have local artists and architects designing a new Art Connector to link the Gallery with City Hall MRT Station. This Connector includes a community mural of self-portraits by Singaporeans. So even walking to the Gallery will be an experience in the arts, from the moment you exit the MRT.
The Gallery buildings themselves are national icons. City Hall Chambers witnessed the World War II surrender of the Japanese. It is also where the first Singapore Cabinet was sworn into office in 1959.
The Gallery team has carefully restored the buildings and the items found in them. One company that worked on this is a family business run by one of our pioneer craftsman, Mr Cheng.
Mr Cheng started as an apprentice in his line of work at the age of 13 years. In 1963, as a young man of only about 22 years old, he opened his own furniture factory. He specialises in the repair and restoration of antiques.
For this project, Mr Cheng and his workers had to dismantle the buildings' furniture into smaller parts, transport them out, and then carefully work on the furniture with traditional tools.
They worked on many interesting pieces, including a table specially designed in the 1920s for the former Supreme Court building, which has been used by seven Chief Justices throughout Singapore history.
This is hard work that takes great patience and dedication. It's a skill that Mr Cheng has spent a lifetime honing. And he can now take pride in having played a key role in restoring these national treasures to their former glory.
The Gallery's artworks are not yet ready, but we will have special sneak previews in April and May. This will allow Singaporeans to appreciate the Gallery's architectural and historical significance.
And when the Gallery opens in November this year, we will all get a chance to see some of the best visual art from Singaporean and Southeast Asian masters.
We are not just building new cultural institutions in the Civic District, but also updating existing ones. Ms Irene Ng asked for an update on the Esplanade's refurbishment, which is on track for 2015.
The Esplanade will be upgrading its Forecourt, which will re-open in August this year. It will be a garden landscape with shaded areas and seating for families and friends to gather, and to enjoy performances throughout the year. And it will provide better connections to the Esplanade MRT Station, Esplanade Park and the new Jubilee Bridge.
Beyond 2015, we are exploring the possibility of developing mid-sized theatres at the Esplanade to better support the needs of our arts scene. We will consult the public on these plans in due course.
Near to the Civic District is the Bras Basah precinct, where we also have thriving plans.
We have medium term plans to enhance the Singapore Art Museum so that it is properly conserved, and at the same time a fitting showcase for contemporary art in Singapore and Southeast Asia. This will complement the National Gallery which focuses on 19th century to modern art.
More immediately, by September, we will complete the updates to the National Museum of Singapore. This is the first major revamp of the Museum since it re-opened in 2006.
The Museum will be transformed by multimedia experiences, public art and interactive spaces.
The displays will be refreshed to include artefacts spanning 700-odd years of history, and especially from our post-1965 years.
The refreshed displays will also celebrate our “everyday” heritage – like the iconic Setron TV, which was the first TV set to be locally assembled.
Or take for example the National Service (NS) uniform on the right, which is the earliest version of the SAF uniform.
This was donated by Mr William Oh, who was among the first cohorts of Singaporeans enlisted into NS. He was so proud of his uniform that he made sure to wash and iron it himself with a charcoal iron.
Mr Oh was motivated by his passion to serve the nation. He learned this from his father, who would take turns with fellow villagers to patrol the kampong during the days of Konfrontasi. This instilled in Mr Oh a deep desire to defend Singapore.
Mr Oh's uniform will join other artefacts to tell the Singapore Story in a more personal way. We hope that this will help to keep the Museum appealing and accessible to all Singaporeans – and not to forget, it will be free of charge for all Singaporeans as well.
By the end of the year, we will have a vibrant network of cultural icons within and around the Civic District. Winding around these nodes will be a new 8-km commemorative trail called the Jubilee Walk, which we will launch this November. There will be clear markers to mark out the historic points along the trail, and I hope this can be one of the lasting physical legacies of our Jubilee Year.
All of these are significant investments. Including the National Gallery, we are putting a total of $740M into our cultural institutions and SG50 landmarks in the Civic District alone. It's an important investment in our heritage, in our history, to remind us of the common history that unites us as a nation.
Of course, our heritage extends across other parts of Singapore as well. NHB has been working closely with the community to uncover these rich pockets of history.
We created quite a buzz last year, when we uncovered a “forgotten reservoir” in Mount Faber. We are also supporting an ongoing archaeological dig at Empress Place, which has yielded some interesting artefacts.
All this work needs to be done more systematically, to build up a rigorous assessment of Singapore heritage across the entire island. That's why we have indeed been steadily investing into heritage research and assessment.
Both Professor Tan Tai Yong and Mr Chen Show Mao spoke about this and I would like to assure them and members that we have been stepping up our investments into heritage research and assessments, and we plan to do more.
If you look at what's being done for the environment today, we have a systematic process to consider environmental impact in the planning and implementation of new infrastructure projects. We believe that a similar approach can and should be applied to heritage.
So we will be initiating a nation-wide survey of our heritage. The aim is to get a more complete understanding of historical sites and their heritage value across the island.
We will consider factors like the age of the buildings; the places where significant historical events took place; architectural merits; and the social and cultural value of certain landmarks to the community.
We will pull information from the archives; conduct field visits and research; we will work closely with the community and stakeholders, to pool our collective knowledge and expertise and put out key findings, and share them with the public.
In addition, we will set up a Heritage Research Grant which will fund research from institutes of higher learning and NGOs. This research will complement the national survey, and will be incorporated into the overall survey.
With these findings, NHB will work with URA to enhance heritage considerations at each stage of the planning process, be it in the 10-year Concept Plan or the 5-year Masterplan.
We will also find creative ways to remember our heritage. Ms Tin Pei Ling talked about allowing old neighbourhoods to re-imagine themselves while preserving their defining heritage.
There are already upgrading plans programmes by MND that deal with the infrastructure, and we can certainly look at how these can be enhanced. What we would like to focus on in MCCY is to enhance the software – to bring arts and heritage programmes to more estates, including old estates. So we will do more to link professional artists and curators with the different communities, and support programmes that bring out the distinct heritage and identity of our neighbourhoods.
To help oversee all of this work, we will form a Heritage Advisory Panel which will include participation from the NGOs and experts across different disciplines. They will guide us in the upcoming heritage survey, the research initiatives I talked about, and advise us on best practices, including the best practice from other countries and how they can be adapted to our local context.
While the work is ongoing, there are certain gems of national heritage that we already know about. And here, I would like to update on our national monuments, which testify to our diverse communities and national development.
We have set up the National Monuments Fund to provide funding support to non-profit monument owners for restoration and repair. This has been well received.
So we will more than double our existing support to about $12M over the next five years. This includes a new maintenance grant for non-profit monument owners that will alleviate some of the costs of upkeep, and prevent deterioration to the monuments.
Of course, among our monuments and cherished historic sites, one of the most important is the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which we have nominated for inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It is not easy to qualify for the UNESCO mark. Nominated sites must prove themselves to be of “outstanding universal value”, which means that they must occupy a unique position not only in the history of their local communities, but of the entire world.
We believe that the Gardens have a solid case. They were instrumental in transforming Southeast Asian history. The most significant example is how research and experimentation conducted at the Gardens introduced rubber to the region, where none had been grown before. And in so doing transformed the entire region and indeed, the world.
More importantly, our nomination signals our commitment to heritage conservation. We are making a collective stand as a nation to preserve this green oasis in the heart of our city. This will forever be a special place for all Singaporeans, and indeed, for all of humanity.
The process for the UNESCO bid is on its way, we will not know the outcome until June, or early July. I will be going to Bonn where the World Heritage Committee meeting will be held, and the decision will be made by the Committee. I hope to return after the meeting with a Jubilee present for Singapore and for all Singaporeans.
Our culture
Besides celebrating our heritage, our Jubilee Year is also a year to celebrate our culture, our distinctively Singaporean culture.
As a young multi-cultural nation, this idea of a distinctive Singaporean culture is still relatively new and it's still evolving. Theatre pioneer Kuo Pao Kun once said that Singaporeans have the mentality of “cultural orphans” – we have a sense of anxiety in the search for self.
He said this many years ago but over the years, I believe we have strengthened our Singaporean identity. We have forged bonds that bring us together.
Mr Baey Yam Keng and Ms Kuik Shiao Yin spoke about this and the also spoke about food as an example. We all have fond memories of home-cooked meals and eating out at hawker centres with friends and family. When we go overseas, we miss the food at home. It's an integral part of our identity.
So I agree with members that it is important to preserve our food and hawker heritage, and we are doing this in various ways.
We are giving more spotlight and recognition to our master hawkers. For many of them, cooking is second nature. They might not have written it down, but it's in their head and they have the skill and craft to cook some of the best food.
Take the example of Hainanese chicken rice. If you look at the recipe, you will often find the recipe saying cook the chicken, then soak it in ice water, and that's to get the meat tender. It's a common recipe. But in fact, the real Hainanese do not soak chicken in ice water, and the real Hainanese do not soak the chicken in cold water. It's more difficult to cook it that way – it takes more skill, it takes more experience, to ensure that you cook it without soaking the chicken in ice water, and to ensure that the meat is still tender and good to eat.
How do I know all these? Because I'm a Hainanese, and my grandfather came from Hainan island years ago and he worked as a chef and steward in a British Club where he was reputedly one of the best cooks there. Unfortunately, the recipe didn't pass down to my father, who relied mostly on my mum to cook, and it certainly didn't pass down to me. Which is why we must continue to do more to preserve our food heritage.
So we are commissioning research and documentaries for Singaporeans to learn about signature dishes from our master chefs, our master hawkers, and to practice the recipes at home. We will recognise many of these hawkers at the World Street Food Congress that Singapore will host next month.
We are also increasing community outreach on our food heritage. We are incorporating food into the Singapore Heritage Festival and our community trails. In the year ahead, we can look forward to programmes like community cook-out sessions, travelling demonstrations and food carnivals.
Besides food, we are also seeing clearer expressions of what Singapore culture and identity is all about, through the different art forms.
For example, when the Singapore Chinese Orchestra performs, they sound very different from a China-based orchestra. You can immediately hear the difference. They have a unique sound, blending traditional Chinese music with Southeast Asian influences.
Likewise in visual art, we have the pioneers of the Nanyang Style; and a younger generation of contemporary artists who are experimenting with different mediums and traditions to bring distinctively Singaporean characteristics to their art.
That's why it's so meaningful to celebrate the arts in our Jubilee year. It's about providing meaningful outlets for self-expression and discovery. It's about discovering who we are, and who we want to be.
So we will celebrate across different genres of the arts. In the area of dance, for example, NAC will be launching a new nationwide Dance carnival in October. It will encompass dance from all our cultural traditions – Chinese, Malay and Indian – as well as newer forms of contemporary dance.
Another example is the Sing50 concert that will be held just before National Day. It will celebrate the rich tapestry of Singapore music, from pop yeh-yeh in the 60s to the Xīnyáo movement in the 80s. We will hear from veterans like Vernon Cornelius from The Quests. Incidentally, I think they are the only Singapore band that topped the charts such that they kicked out the Beatles, ranking higher than the Beatles in the billboards in the 60s. We will also hear from Ramli Sarip and Dick Lee, and hopefully we'll be able to find Anita Sarawak, whom the organisers are trying to locate, and have her join in the concert too.
Our artists not only help us to express our identity, values and beliefs; they also fly our flag overseas. We are supporting them with the $20M Cultural Diplomacy Fund set up last year. This provides our artists with overseas exposure, and also strengthens cultural engagement with other countries.
There are several international highlights on the horizon this year. We will soon launch a Singapore Festival in France – three months' worth of visual arts, theatre and other cultural forms. We are returning to the Venice Biennale, which is the pinnacle platform for contemporary visual art. In June, we will participate in the City of London Festival – one of the most highly regarded festivals in the UK. And Singapore will be in the spotlight as the featured country at the Festival.
These are not just ad-hoc events on engagements. I agree with Ms Irene Ng that our cultural engagement needs to be done in a systematic manner. So, as part of our cultural diplomacy efforts, we are working closely with other agencies – including MFA – to build meaningful, strategic and sustained cultural partnerships with these nations. Events like Venice Biennale or SingFrance are just part of this larger strategy.
Mdm Chair, the government is committed to supporting our artists. We will continue to invest in them and the cultural sector. I should say that this is something we should not take for granted. Resources will always be limited and from time to time, difficult trade-offs have to be made.
You see this in the most advanced economies where budgets for the arts and culture have been cut back sharply in order to meet more pressing demands. We are in a different position, fortunately, and our public finances allow us to invest in the arts and culture. I'm glad that in this House, there's strong support for such investments. And I'm also glad to say that this support is shared by many Singaporeans.
We recently set up a Cultural Matching Fund for the government to match private donations to the arts on a dollar for dollar basis. In just over a year, we've seen very good response from the public, and the Fund has already disbursed over $30M to about 60 arts and heritage groups.
Beyond funding, we will continue to support our arts practitioners in other ways. One way suggested by Mr Baey Yam Keng is through the provision of centralised services.
As he noted, NAC already provides some of these services, like shared publicity and marketing. There are also outreach programmes that bring together tenants at our art centres, like Aliwal Arts Centre, and Goodman Arts Centre.
Going forward, NAC will open its consultancy programmes to more arts organisations. This includes coaching on organisational capabilities, like board management and arts marketing. And we will see what else can be done, including the possibility of shared professional services.
I also support Mr Baey's suggestion to extend the Dual-Use Scheme to arts groups. MCCY will work with MOE to see how best this can be implemented.
All in all, we can expect a year-long calendar of very meaningful SG50 activities. It's worth highlighting that many of these activities are driven from the ground-up – they are initiated by ordinary Singaporeans, from all walks of life.
So far, through the SG50 Celebration Fund, we have supported around 260 ground-up initiatives; and the number is still rising.
The diverse projects show the strong sense of ownership that our people have in leading the SG50 celebrations, which will strengthen our national identity and our community cohesion.
Our future
This brings me to what I think is the most important theme for this Jubilee Year, which is our future.
We must preserve our heritage, and remember the past. We must celebrate our arts and culture, and strengthen our sense of identity as a people.
But most importantly, we must look forward to consider what kind of future we want for Singapore and for the next generation.
MOS Sam Tan and Parl Sec Low Yen Ling will say more about this in their speeches about how we want to strengthen our spirit of giving, our sense of harmony, and our engagement with our youths. I will close by talking about sports.
I would say that we particularly recognise that our young people today play a crucial role in shaping our future. So we will do everything we can to support them in their aspirations, and to provide opportunities for them to contribute to the community.
This is why we started the Youth Corps last year, and we've scaled up programmes at OBS. We are also investing in spaces for youths, for example, by upgrading *SCAPE, and offering more programmes for youth development.
SG50 is naturally a good opportunity for young people to get involved in causes that they care about, and help shape a better society. And I'm glad that we are already seeing many young people getting involved in SG50 projects.
One example is a young lady named Janet Ng, who is a recent graduate of ITE College West. She is also an active volunteer, who teaches ukulele to the elderly. She was inspired by the Prime Minister's National Day Rally last year, where he spoke about honouring our pioneers. A seed of an idea was planted, and it grew bigger over time.
Janet asked herself, “Why is it that when National Day comes around, some Singaporeans like to go abroad?” She thought – “That's not quite right. I would like to remind people about their identity as Singaporeans, about their roots and their culture. I would like to inspire students to be the pioneers of the next generation.”
So she linked up with her schoolmate Sherwin, and they applied for the SG50 Celebration Fund.
This July, their team will hold a carnival called “Evolution to 50”. They hope to re-create Singapore life in the 1970s and 1980s. They will curate panels that showcase Singapore's development over time. They will invite participants to pen down their aspirations for Singapore's future, and pledge to be the “Pioneers of the Next Generation.”
We asked Janet, “What does that phrase 'pioneers of the next generation' mean to you?” And she replied, “Our pioneers today helped to build up Singapore. So it's our turn to make the change.”
There are many young people like Janet who are excited about SG50, and galvanised by that same sense of ownership and possibility. So the projects they are undertaking show that they have got heart and drive for the community.
We will continue to engage young people on SG50 throughout this year. We will hear from them directly on their hopes, dreams and ideas for Singapore's future.
This year, the National Youth Council will host a series of youth engagement sessions and conversations. We will invite youths to share their ideas for a better Singapore – how we can create opportunities for all, build a fair and inclusive society, and secure the future of our choice.
We will showcase their aspirations at the futuretogether.SG exhibition, which will round off our SG50 celebrations. This will be held at Gardens by the Bay from November, and will continue on through early next year.
I hope many will be inspired by this collective imagining of how we might one day live, work and play in Singapore. And I hope that all Singaporeans will be moved to act on these aspirations and build a better future for Singapore.
Mdm Chair, earlier on, I compared what we are doing in SG50 to a family gathering for a celebration. I think it is appropriate to end for now by quoting Janet, the ITE graduate I mentioned just now. When we spoke to her about her project, we also asked her, “What is your wish for SG50?"
And she replied, “That more people will come together and celebrate – not just as individual families, but as one family.”
And that's the spirit of SG50.
In our Jubilee Year, I hope we can celebrate our heritage and culture, build a brighter future for all of us to share, and grow closer together as one Singapore family.