2023:Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Singapore (Inspirational lecture from Dr. Kirk Siang Yeo, National Heritage Board (NHB) of Singapore)

Title : Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Singapore

Dr. Kirk Siang Yeo is one of the leading experts in the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Singapore. He has been with NHB since 2011 and currently oversees the development of national policies and initiatives to safeguard and promote various aspects of Singapore’s heritage, including ICH. He was instrumental in the successful inscription of Singapore’s hawker culture on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020, which was Singapore’s first ICH nomination to UNESCO. He was also elected as a member of UNESCO’s Evaluation Body for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2020, making him the first Singaporean to join this international panel.

In this lecture, Dr. Yeo will share his insights and experiences on how to safeguard and promote ICH in the digital age. He will draw from his involvement in various projects and initiatives that aim to safeguard ICH in Singapore and encourage its transmission to the next generation. These include Singapore’s ICH inventory; the Stewards of Singapore’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Award and other programmes. He will also discuss the challenges and opportunities for collaboration and innovation in the field of ICH, and the role of communities in the research and promotion of their cultural heritage.

This session is relevant to Wikimedia because it showcases some of the projects and initiatives that aim to improve the coverage, quality, and diversity of Asian content on Wikimedia platforms, such as Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, etc. These projects and initiatives also aim to foster collaboration and exchange among Wikimedia communities in Asia and beyond.