This year’s Singapore Prize included 12 categories, and recognized work produced in all four official languages of Singapore: Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. The awards ceremony, hosted online (you can watch it below), showcased amazing content recognized from every category with Cate Blanchett, Sterling K Brown, Lana Condor Robert Irwin Nomzamo Mbatha and Donnie Yen among many acclaimed celebrities present to recognize it all!
Judges were impressed by winners for their ability to engage readers with history in novel ways, with archaeologist John Miksic’s book on Singapore’s and Silk Road of the Sea history from 1300-1800 providing fresh insights.
Notable among these books was historian Yong Shuiping’s biography of legendary tin miner-turned-politician Lee Kuan Yew, which chronicles his rise and impactful impact on Singapore’s economic development.
NUS Singapore History Prize received an unprecedented 26 submissions this year, leading the jury panel to give out special commendations without cash awards – for Reviving Qixi: Singapore’s Forgotten Seven Sisters Festival by Lynn Wong Yuqing and Lee Kok Leong; and Theatres of Memory: Industrial Heritage of 20th Century Singapore by Loh Kah Seng, Alex Tan Tiong Hee, Koh Keng Wee Tan Teng Phee and Juria Toramae respectively.
As part of its ongoing mission to promote reading and literature, the prize also awarded English-language writing awards and a graphic novel category. Shubigi Rao’s Pulp III: An Intimate Inventory of Banished Books won this year for best English creative non-fiction, part of her decade-long project that documents banned books in Singapore over time.
This year also marked an exciting innovation: the Arts and Multimedia Category opened up competition to artists, authors, playwrights and performers creating multimedia historical works relating to any field, theme or period of Singaporean history; submissions should provide new insights and ways of engaging Singaporeans about their heritage.
This year, Prince William’s ambitious global initiative to address our planet’s most pressing environmental challenges, The Earthshot Prize, made its inaugural visit to Singapore this year. Recognizing individuals and organisations with breakthrough innovations that make a significant impactful impact in addressing pressing environmental challenges, its 10 winners included Dutch academic who pioneered wastewater surveillance to curb Covid-19 spread as well as California water agency with innovative water reuse programmes.
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