The winners of the 2023 Singapore prize were honoured at a glittering ceremony at the Theatre Mediacorp in Singapore. Prince William was the master of ceremonies and wore a dark green velour suit with matching dickie bow for a coordinated look that matched the thick green carpet they both walked down. Hannah Waddingham was his co-host for the event and she was gorgeous in a long black sparkling ball gown with a green sash that tied around her waist. The sash was an over-sized poppy as a mark of remembrance.
The Singapore Prize is awarded to outstanding books that promote greater understanding of the country’s history and its place in the world. It is a joint initiative between NUS Press and the National University of Singapore. It is the third time the prize has been awarded since it was launched in 2014. The winner of this year’s prize, Leluhur: Singapore’s Kampong Gelam, by Hidayah Amin, is a non-fiction work that shines a light on the past of the Gedung Kuning (Yellow Mansion), one of the oldest heritage buildings in the Kampong Glam area. The author spent five years putting the book together, including two to three years interviewing former residents of the area.
In the fiction category, the shortlist features two novels that are set in different eras, Sembawang by Jeremy Tiang and Home is Where We Are by Anitha Devi Pillai. Both are stories of families living through the political movements, detentions and leftist political activism that occurred in the 1950s. The other novel, Imperial Creatures by Timothy P Barnard, is a look at the relationship between humans and animals in colonial Singapore.
This year’s prize celebrates the theme of resonance, which refers to how books can trigger emotions and memories. The selection committee was led by NUS Asia Research Institute distinguished fellow Kishore Mahbubani and comprised novelist Meira Chand, historian Peter Colclanis and archaeologist John Miksic from the NUS Department of Southeast Asian Studies. The judges commended the work of all the shortlisted authors, but chose Miksic’s Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea for its “unique contribution to the understanding of the region in the early modern era”.
NUS Press has published two other books on the shortlist, the NUS Singapore History Prize-winner The Making of a Colonial Capital: A Study of the Town of Singapore by Lee Yew Yong and The Last of the Civilians by Loh Kah Seng. The NUS Science and Technology Awards, which have been known as the President’s Science and Technology Awards since 2009, were formerly the National Science and Technology Awards.
A one-in-eleven chance of winning a prize in the Singapore lottery is possible when purchasing Toto tickets online or at outlets such as Giant supermarket in Pioneer Mall and FairPrice in The Woodleigh Mall. Winning tickets can be verified on the Toto results website or at Singapore Pools outlets. In addition to the Group 1 and 2 prizes, there are also other categories where you can win cash prizes of up to $100,000.