(This is a monthly letter from Baba Colin Chee to members and friends of the Association.)
Dear Babas and Nyonyas
Changes in the 2020-2022 General Committee (GC)
The following personnel changes in the GC took place in January and February this year.
Baba Christopher Tan stepped down as GC member and is replaced by Nyonya Yip Wai Kuan, who doubles up as Events Advisor and THE PERANAKAN magazine’s new Advertising Manager. Kuan also helps in the Secretariat Subcommittee.
I will miss Christopher’s steady counsel most of all.
Nyonya Elizabeth Ng, our hard-working Honorary Assistant Treasurer for three years, also stepped down from her role and is replaced by GC member Baba Bryan Tan, who will also head up Youth Outreach. Elizabeth remains as a member of the GC.
We thank both Elizabeth and Bryan for continuing to volunteer with TPAS GC in spite of their heavy workloads outside and still providing us with their solid support.
Nyonya Dawn Lee has stepped down from GC. She relinquishes her two responsibilities as Head of Youth Outreach (taken over by Bryan) and Head of Communications.
Nyonya Theresa Tan, who is our GC member and Technology Advisor, is our new Head of Communications in charge of the Association’s digital platforms despite her heavy personal and career commitments.
Dawn is also stepping down as Editor of THE PERANAKAN magazine but will stay on as the magazine’s editor until a replacement is found. Dawn served as co-assistant editor for the two 2016 issues of THE PERANAKAN magazine. In 2017, she succeeded Nyonya Linda Chee as editor and has put to print seven issues of the magazine to date.
The magazine won the Special Interest Media of the Year (Bronze) at the Media Publishers Association Singapore (MPAS) Awards in 2018, under her watch.
Dawn, together with Nyonya Victoria Chanel Lee, an IT-whizz volunteer who served more than four years as TPAS’s pro bono Webmaster, solidified TPAS’s digital bench strength.
Victoria had stepped down last year to concentrate on her career. Her role has been assumed by IT professional Baba Noel Ng as TPAS’s new Webmaster.
TPAS thanks both Dawn and Victoria for their passion and contributions and welcome Noel to the TPAS team.
Running an all-volunteer organisation is never easy.
Our challenge has always been to find individuals who are honest, tireless and creative, who are team players, and, most importantly, who are committed enough to give unstintingly of their personal time to both the community and culture.
I have led teams in the private sector long enough to know that the best outcomes are never achieved by one person alone, but the collective strength of diverse individuals with a shared passion.
To this end, I wholeheartedly welcome our new GC members Nyonyas Peggy and Theresa, and Baba Tony Tan. Thank you for stepping up to serve the community, including the others who agreed to continue serving this second term alongside me until 2022.
The GC and I would also like to record our thanks to the members of the previous GC who had stepped down during our first term in 2018-20: Nyonyas Agnes Ng and Christine Ang, and Baba Steven Lim. And our long-serving members Nyonya Monica Alsagoff, and Babas Alan Koh, Philip Chia and Emeric Lau.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to ALL our TPAS volunteers within and without the GC, past and present.
Without them, TPAS will not be.
Special Events in 2020 and 2021
In 2020, we piloted two virtual events for members – Bibiks Behind Bars. Kena Again! to celebrate our Association’s 120th Anniversary and the talk on Christianised Baba Communities in Early Singapore by Dr Marc Rerceretnam at NUS Baba House Museum.
In the process, we acquired valuable lessons from these first-time experiences and applied what we learnt to our recent online session, Raising the Tok Samkai, with Baba Cedric Tan.
Our Association also co-ordinated an initiative, led by our then Head of Communications Nyonya Dawn Lee, which enabled Baba GT Lye to win The National Heritage Board’s inaugural Steward of Singapore’s Intangible Culture Heritage Award.
The award recognises practitioners of intangible cultural heritage who are committed and dedicated to its promotion and transmission.
Baba GT Lye won it for his dedication to the craft of Wayang Peranakan.
In the midst of all this, the Association’s Legal Advisor, Nyonya Ngiam May Ling, doggedly and quietly led a star-studded team of writers and literary professionals to prepare for the second annual edition of the Association’s Baba Nyonya Literary Festival. This follows the success of the world’s smallest literary festival that debuted in 2019.
At this time of writing, an imaginative and impactful festival programme has already been more or less drawn up for late 2021 or 2022 – waiting only to be triggered.
Thank you for your continued support and constant encouragement. Keep safe and keep healthy!
Blessings
Colin Chee
Keeping the Culture Alive
31 March 2021
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