Singapore Government Press Release
Media Division, Ministry of Information and The Arts,
36th Storey, PSA Building, 460 Alexandra Road, Singapore 119963.
Tel: 3757794/5
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Good morning

Assoc Prof Wong Yoon Wah

Chief Editor, "Write"

Distinguished Guests

Ladies & Gentlemen

I am very happy to join you this morning to launch the "Write" literary series. The series is the result of teamwork amongst the key elements in the Chinese Language literary community. This includes the Chinese Studies Departments of the universities, junior colleges and schools, the Chinese Language press, the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clans Associations, as well as Chinese Language Teachers' and Writers' associations. I congratulate all of you for the launch of "Write". This is a day all have been looking forward to.

Many in the Chinese literary community have expressed concern over the standard of written Chinese amongst our students. To raise standard, one of the measures must be to create more opportunities for young writers to share their work with their readers. This is the mission of "Write". To achieve this, "Write" has to get the fundamentals right:

a. It must be appealing and affordable to the young readers.

c. It must have good editorial staff to assure high standard.

d. It should not duplicate the other literary magazines

"Write" resolved the fundamental issues by networking and teamwork. The NUS and NTU Chinese Studies Departments, the alma mater of many of our Chinese Language teachers, sought the help of the teachers to identify and encourage the potential writers amongst their students to write. The Chinese press helped to publicise the appeal for literary work to the general public. So "Write" had many contributors of articles. Research students of NUS and NTU Chinese Studies Departments worked as volunteer editorial staff. They shortlisted articles for the Editorial Committee, comprising NUS and NTU professors and a few Chinese Language teachers. The research students also edited selected articles before putting them to print. By relying on highly qualified volunteer editors, the Editorial Committee ensured that "Write" will be cheap and good.

The Editorial Committee adopted a pragmatic but wise policy of fixing a general theme which is of interest to young readers and writers, but allowing the contributors to fix their own titles and to write in their own styles. This encouraged creativity and innovation, while making the works more appealing to the readers. The Editorial Committee got sponsorship for honorarium for the writers, and persuaded the publisher to keep the price very low for our secondary school and junior college students. It will be calling upon the network of the Chinese Language teachers to introduce "Write" to their students as supplementary readers, and to contribute articles for the next issue.

I congratulate all of you for your good work. The government has reiterated on many occasions the importance of mother tongue education. While government will always endeavour to improve mother tongue education, our ethnic communities can play their roles to encourage the use of mother tongues. The launch of "Write" illustrates this. "Write" is, indeed, a demonstration of the spirit of "active citizens" in the literary circle.

Having actively participated, all of you in this hall can feel proud of the launch of "Write". However, the work of "Write" has just started. The real test of a literary series is not in its launch, but in its continued quality and long term sustainability. This requires the same spirit of teamwork, co-operation, responsiveness, perseverance, and support from all of you.

I wish you all the best in your continued endeavour. "Write" series can be a platform from which young writers are discovered, nurtured and developed. If done well, there will be a more active and thriving Chinese literary circle in Singapore.

I now launch the first book of the "Write" series.

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