The singapore prize celebrates people who put the common good above their own interests. A healthy civil society depends on citizens who are willing to sacrifice their own lives to ensure that the needs of the community are met. These are the individuals whose actions have led to extraordinary changes that improve the lives of the general population. The awards are the highest honours bestowed by the government of Singapore to recognise their contributions.
It was a night of glamour at the Mediacorp theatre on Tuesday as celebrities and dignitaries gathered for the third Earthshot Prize awards ceremony in Singapore. Emmy-award winning actor Sterling K Brown and actresses Cate Blanchett, Lana Condor and Nomzamo Mbatha took the stage to present the five prizes, while a number of high profile scientists walked the green carpet.
The glitzy event was hosted by the NUS department of history professor Kishore Mahbubani and saw Prof Miksic take home the inaugural award for his book titled Singapore And The Silk Road Of The Sea, 1300 – 1800. The work, he said, made “a fundamental reinterpretation of our Singapore past and its place in Asian history”. Among the key findings in the book were the discovery that Chinese trader Wang Dayuan wrote about places such as Temasek and Longyamen (or Dragon Teeth’s Gate) in his historical records, which scholars later identified as Singapore.
The shortlist for the prize includes non-fiction works with a personal slant, such as Leluhur: Singapore’s Kampong Glam by Hidayah Amin, which traces the city’s rich culture and heritage through the lens of a neighbourhood that many know only as a tourist attraction. It is up against Sembawang by Kamaladevi Aravindan, a novel that explores historical events from the perspective of an ordinary person.
Another entry on the list is Jeremy Tiang’s State Of Emergency, a non-fiction account of Singapore in the 1950s. The writer said his work aims to show how a country’s future seemed up for grabs in a time when the leftist political movements of that time shook the foundations of the nation.
Those interested in finding out more about the work of the authors can attend a series of special events organised by NUS, which begin on Monday. The university has also launched a new Earthshot Week, an initiative that will see global leaders, businesses and investors convene in Singapore to accelerate their solutions and bring about tangible action to repair the planet.
As part of this effort, the NUS has reopened its application for the 2024 Singapore Prize, which will recognise works that “expand the public’s understanding of our island city’s rich and diverse cultural identity”. The winner will receive a S$200,000 cash prize. NUS is inviting submissions until Friday, with the final prize winners to be announced by the end of 2022. For more information, visit the NUS website. NUS is also launching a new Fiction Prize that will reward the best in contemporary Singaporean writing.