A prize for writers who cast a wide net to consider Singapore history has been launched in support of programmes to mark the nation’s 50th birthday. The S$50,000 NUS Singapore History Prize is the first of its kind here. It is administered by the university’s department of history and will be awarded every three years.
Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS and an Asia Research Institute distinguished fellow, mooted the idea in a Straits Times column in April. A month later, an anonymous Singapore citizen offered to fund the prize.
Mahbubani hopes the prize will address a gap in understanding of Singapore’s past. He adds: “The famous American social scientist, Benedict Anderson, said that nations are ‘imagined communities’, and a shared imagination, particularly in history, is a critical glue holding societies together today.”
The prize will be judged by a panel of scholars from academia, the media, business, government and education, including associate professor Ian Gordon, head of the NUS department of history; assistant professor Seng Guo Quan; educator Beatrice Chong; curator Suhaili Osman; and playwright Alfian Sa’at. The panel will choose the winner and the shortlisted books will be publicly announced in October.
NUS’ department of history is a global leader in the study of Southeast Asia and has published many acclaimed books on Singapore’s history. Among them is Prof Wang’s pioneering study of Singapore’s place in China, which was the first to make use of literary records such as Chinese travel writing. The book has sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide and is translated into more than 20 languages.
It is hoped the prize will draw a global audience to the region and encourage more authors from other countries to write about Singapore, the NUS department of history said. It is open to non-fiction books that have been published in English, or translated into English, between January and September this year.
NUS is also organising Earthshot Week in November, an international conference to showcase the innovative and impactful environmental solutions developed by TEP winners and finalists. The conference will bring together leaders from governments, businesses and investors to explore opportunities with TEP finalists and to accelerate their solutions for people and the planet.
NUS students have won a total of S$19 million in prizes since the Group 1 draw was introduced in 2000. The top prize for the latest draw was $19.4 million, which was split between eight winning tickets. This is the fourth time NUS students have won the top prize for the group. The previous highest was $16.8 million in the draw on Feb 11, 2022. The prize money was donated by the Society for Infectious Diseases (Singapore) and the Society of Infectious Diseases (International). There are a total of 30 groups in Group 1. The next draw will be held on Oct 23. For more information on the prizes and the draw, click here.