SINGAPORE – Khir Johari’s book that celebrates Singapore’s Malay cuisine has won this year’s triennial Singapore Prize, an award that recognises significant publications on the country’s history. The tome, which took 14 years from conception to publication and weighs 3.2 kilograms, beat five other shortlisted works. The prize comes with a cash award of $50,000 and a trophy.
The other winners of the awards include a self-published comic in English, which was commended for its “total lack of compromise and over-the-top audacity,” and a Chinese novel that won the inaugural English translation prize. The award ceremony, which took place in Boston last year and in London this year, is expected to draw a star-studded audience, with performers including former Tatler cover artist Ellie Goulding and soccer legend David Beckham.
This year, the awards also have a new category that honours individuals who “have exhibited great care and compassion for others in their daily lives.” In addition to the $100,000 cash prize, the winner will receive a Harvard Prize Book – an embroidered silk scarf designed by fashion designer Rachel Voon – to be worn at special occasions. “I hope this will inspire our young people to make a difference in their own communities,” said Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loon, who launched the competition this year. “This is an important part of our national character, and we need to continue to nurture it.”
Among the finalists in this category are kitefoiler Ali bin Salim, who is a member of Team Singapore, for his work in improving the lives of youths in poor communities; Daryl Qilin Yam, for her efforts in helping homeless people in her neighbourhood; and rma cureess, who has worked with the mentally ill. Also in this category are a number of philanthropists who have set up their own foundations to improve the quality of life in Singapore.
A fifth prize was awarded to an online platform that uses AI to help protect children from harmful content online. The SG SmartTech Online Safety Prize, organised by AI Singapore, is a 10-week challenge for companies to submit their best AI models that can discern between benign and harmful memes.
The organisers expect the competition to help advance research into multimodal, multilingual, and zero-shot models that can understand the diverse and nuanced Singaporean digital landscape. More information can be found here. The finalists will be announced in November, with the top three winning a share of a $200,000 prize pool and the winner receiving a $50,000 cash prize and a trophy. The winners will present their solutions at the 2024 Earthshot Summit in Singapore, a global initiative inspired by President John F Kennedy’s moonshot speech. The Summit will convene leading global leaders, businesses and investors to explore exciting opportunities for tackling the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges. The event will be held in conjunction with a series of local activations and activities.