Arts Crisis & Crime Gender Inequality Humanitarian Leadership
Media Modern Society Politics Poverty Science Singapore
GENERAL PAPER: GENERAL CASE STUDIES
Arts
True Colours Festival (2018)
- Last year, Singapore held its first festival for artistes with disabilities
- 20 artistes and troupes from around the world performed over three days at the
Singapore Indoor Stadium and OCBC Square
- Performers included New Zealand wheelchair dancer Rodney Bell and
Canadian violinist Adrian Anantawan, who was born without a right hand
Hear65 (2018)
- A national movement launched by the National Arts Council in 2018 to allow
Singaporeans to listen to local music of different genres, languages, and decades,
thus promoting the local arts scene
- Hear65 partners with stakeholders like the Esplanade to create more buzz around
Singaporean artistes and music events + maintains a website for Singaporeans to
discover local music – new and old
#BuySingLit (Singaporean Literature)
- #BuySingLit is an annual event organized by homegrown book publishers, retailers
and NGOs to encourage more Singaporeans to discover and embrace Singapore’s
literature, including works by local authors Francis Wong, Huang Shu Jun and Ai Yu
- One of this year’s programmes, the Grab SingLit project, involved a collaboration
with the ride-hailing app to reach out to a wider community by allowing Grab users
to redeem free mystery SingLit titles using their GrabRewards Points
- 2019’s new Sing Lit Cloud project also allowed Singaporeans to ‘order’ and print
excerpts of Singapore literature in minutes using ‘self-ordering’ printers in different
locations islandwide for reading on the go
Shubigi Rao
- Singaporean artist Shubigi Rao won a Jurors’ Choice Award at the 2018 Asia Pacific
Breweries (APB) Foundation Signature Art Prize
- Her mixed-media installation touched on the history of the destruction of books and
libraries as part of a 10-year project she started in 2014; included video testimonials
from firefighters who tried to save the burning Sarajevo national library during civil
unrests in the 1990s
Daryl Aiden Yow
- In 2018, local photographer Daryl Aiden Yow made a public apology after facing
allegations of plagiarism in some of his works
- Several media outlets pointed out that some of his photographs were identical to
stock photos and many were Photoshopped without crediting the original sources
- After the saga, he made a successful comeback by rebranding himself as more of a
Photoshop guru rather than a photographer (over 100,000 followers on Instagram)
Y4 Argumentative Essay Materials
, Arts Crisis & Crime Gender Inequality Humanitarian Leadership
Media Modern Society Politics Poverty Science Singapore
- This even earned him a paid partnership with HK video-streaming provider Viu to
Photoshop himself into local artiste Benjamin Kheng’s travel photos as part of the
publicity for the company’s new original series ‘No Sleep No FOMO’
Yeo Siew Hua
- Young Singaporean director, Yeo Siew Hua, won the Golden Leopard award for his
film A Land Imagined at the 2018 Locarno Festival in Switzerland
- The film is about a police investigator who sets out to discover the truth behind the
disappearance of a Chinese construction worker working at a land reclamation site in
Singapore, and weaves elements of the virtual world and reality in its presentation
Donations to Arts & Cultural Scene
- Donations to Singapore’s arts and cultural scene totalled S$51.6 million in 2017,
dropping for the second year running
- These contributions included electronic tablets loaned to the National Gallery
Singapore by Samsung Asia for visitors to access the multimedia Gallery Explorer
guide in the museum
- Samsung Asia received the Friend of the Arts award from the National Arts Council,
which awards Patron of the Arts awards to recognize organizations and individuals
who have contributed towards the development of the arts via contributions in cash,
in-kind and artwork loans
Singapore Literature Prize
- Singaporean writers Sonny Liew and Jeremy Tiang both wrote books that
challenged the established narrative of the country’s history and won the SLP for
English fiction awarded by the Singapore Book Council (SBC)
- Tiang won the prize for his novel State of Emergency, which traces leftist movements
throughout Singapore’s history
- He was awarded a NAC Creation grant of S$12,000 for his novel, of which he
had already received S$8000, but the remaining funding was withdrawn after
he sent the council the novel’s first draft
Audiobooks in China
- The total market value of audiobooks in China rose from 2.37 billion yuan in 2016 to
3.24 billion in 2017, amd is expected to reach 7.83 billion yuan by 2020, according
to a 2018 report by iMedia Research
- Highest spending on Ximalaya FM, a popular Chinese audiobook platform, in the
first half of 2018
- The Qin Empire, a historical novel series based on China’s Qin dynasty became the
bestselling ebook on iReader, a major reading platform for ebooks, 10 years after its
first publication in 2008
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
- Inspired by Kevin Kwan’s bestselling book, it is the first modern film with an all-Asian
cast and an Asian-American lead in 25 years, after The Joy Luck Club in 1993
Y4 Argumentative Essay Materials
, Arts Crisis & Crime Gender Inequality Humanitarian Leadership
Media Modern Society Politics Poverty Science Singapore
- Grossing almost 250 million USD at the global box office has made the movie one of
the best performing romantic comedies in years → Can be attributed to the rapidly
expanding influence of Asian culture and the power of the global box office
Trump (2017-)
- Since 2017, Trump has been vocal in his desire to eliminate the National Endowment
for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- In 2019, Trump’s 2020 budget aims for the agencies’ “orderly termination of all
operations over two years” as “the Administration does not consider NEA [or NEH]
activities to be core Federal responsibilities”
Y4 Argumentative Essay Materials
, Arts Crisis & Crime Gender Inequality Humanitarian Leadership
Media Modern Society Politics Poverty Science Singapore
Crisis & Crime
Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar
- In August 2017, a group of Rohingya militants attacked at least 30 police posts in
Rakhine, Myanmar, killing at least 12 members of Myanmar’s security forces
- Myanmar launched a deadly military crackdown in response to the attacks, resulting
in the exodus of nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to neighboring Bangladesh to
escape the government’s ‘ethnic cleansing’
- According to UNICEF, living conditions in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh
are ‘appalling’
- In January 2018, it was agreed between Myanmar and Bangladesh that repatriation
of all the refugees would be completed within 2 years
Arab Spring (2010-12)
- A series of pro-democracy uprisings that enveloped several largely Muslim countries,
including Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Libya, Egypt, and Bahrain; widely regarded as a
failure with Tunisia the only country that achieved democracy successfully
- Began with a single act of defiance → The Arab Spring began in December 2010
when Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the
arbitrary seizing of his vegetable stand by police over failure to obtain a permit
- Bouazizi’s sacrificial act served as a catalyst for the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia →
Protests in Tunis, the capital, eventually prompted authoritarian president Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali to abdicate his position and flee to Saudi Arabia
- Activists in other countries in the region were inspired by the regime change in
Tunisia—the country’s first democratic parliamentary elections were held in October
2011—and began to protest similar authoritarian governments in their own nations
Egypt
- In Egypt, though early changes arising from the Arab Spring gave many hope after
the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, authoritarian rule has returned
- Following the controversial election of Mohamed Morsi in 2012, a coup led by
defense minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi installed the latter as president in 2013, and he
remains in power today
Libya
- In Libya, authoritarian dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and
assassinated in October 2011, during a violent civil war; video footage of his death
was seen by millions online
- However, Libya has remained in a state of civil war, and two opposing governments
effectively rule separate regions of the country
- Libya’s civilian population has suffered significantly during the years of political
upheaval, with violence in the streets and access to food, resources and healthcare
services severely limited
Syria
- The civil war that began in Syria in the aftermath of the Arab Spring lasted for
several years, forcing many to leave the country to seek refuge in Turkey, Greece
and throughout Western Europe
Y4 Argumentative Essay Materials
Media Modern Society Politics Poverty Science Singapore
GENERAL PAPER: GENERAL CASE STUDIES
Arts
True Colours Festival (2018)
- Last year, Singapore held its first festival for artistes with disabilities
- 20 artistes and troupes from around the world performed over three days at the
Singapore Indoor Stadium and OCBC Square
- Performers included New Zealand wheelchair dancer Rodney Bell and
Canadian violinist Adrian Anantawan, who was born without a right hand
Hear65 (2018)
- A national movement launched by the National Arts Council in 2018 to allow
Singaporeans to listen to local music of different genres, languages, and decades,
thus promoting the local arts scene
- Hear65 partners with stakeholders like the Esplanade to create more buzz around
Singaporean artistes and music events + maintains a website for Singaporeans to
discover local music – new and old
#BuySingLit (Singaporean Literature)
- #BuySingLit is an annual event organized by homegrown book publishers, retailers
and NGOs to encourage more Singaporeans to discover and embrace Singapore’s
literature, including works by local authors Francis Wong, Huang Shu Jun and Ai Yu
- One of this year’s programmes, the Grab SingLit project, involved a collaboration
with the ride-hailing app to reach out to a wider community by allowing Grab users
to redeem free mystery SingLit titles using their GrabRewards Points
- 2019’s new Sing Lit Cloud project also allowed Singaporeans to ‘order’ and print
excerpts of Singapore literature in minutes using ‘self-ordering’ printers in different
locations islandwide for reading on the go
Shubigi Rao
- Singaporean artist Shubigi Rao won a Jurors’ Choice Award at the 2018 Asia Pacific
Breweries (APB) Foundation Signature Art Prize
- Her mixed-media installation touched on the history of the destruction of books and
libraries as part of a 10-year project she started in 2014; included video testimonials
from firefighters who tried to save the burning Sarajevo national library during civil
unrests in the 1990s
Daryl Aiden Yow
- In 2018, local photographer Daryl Aiden Yow made a public apology after facing
allegations of plagiarism in some of his works
- Several media outlets pointed out that some of his photographs were identical to
stock photos and many were Photoshopped without crediting the original sources
- After the saga, he made a successful comeback by rebranding himself as more of a
Photoshop guru rather than a photographer (over 100,000 followers on Instagram)
Y4 Argumentative Essay Materials
, Arts Crisis & Crime Gender Inequality Humanitarian Leadership
Media Modern Society Politics Poverty Science Singapore
- This even earned him a paid partnership with HK video-streaming provider Viu to
Photoshop himself into local artiste Benjamin Kheng’s travel photos as part of the
publicity for the company’s new original series ‘No Sleep No FOMO’
Yeo Siew Hua
- Young Singaporean director, Yeo Siew Hua, won the Golden Leopard award for his
film A Land Imagined at the 2018 Locarno Festival in Switzerland
- The film is about a police investigator who sets out to discover the truth behind the
disappearance of a Chinese construction worker working at a land reclamation site in
Singapore, and weaves elements of the virtual world and reality in its presentation
Donations to Arts & Cultural Scene
- Donations to Singapore’s arts and cultural scene totalled S$51.6 million in 2017,
dropping for the second year running
- These contributions included electronic tablets loaned to the National Gallery
Singapore by Samsung Asia for visitors to access the multimedia Gallery Explorer
guide in the museum
- Samsung Asia received the Friend of the Arts award from the National Arts Council,
which awards Patron of the Arts awards to recognize organizations and individuals
who have contributed towards the development of the arts via contributions in cash,
in-kind and artwork loans
Singapore Literature Prize
- Singaporean writers Sonny Liew and Jeremy Tiang both wrote books that
challenged the established narrative of the country’s history and won the SLP for
English fiction awarded by the Singapore Book Council (SBC)
- Tiang won the prize for his novel State of Emergency, which traces leftist movements
throughout Singapore’s history
- He was awarded a NAC Creation grant of S$12,000 for his novel, of which he
had already received S$8000, but the remaining funding was withdrawn after
he sent the council the novel’s first draft
Audiobooks in China
- The total market value of audiobooks in China rose from 2.37 billion yuan in 2016 to
3.24 billion in 2017, amd is expected to reach 7.83 billion yuan by 2020, according
to a 2018 report by iMedia Research
- Highest spending on Ximalaya FM, a popular Chinese audiobook platform, in the
first half of 2018
- The Qin Empire, a historical novel series based on China’s Qin dynasty became the
bestselling ebook on iReader, a major reading platform for ebooks, 10 years after its
first publication in 2008
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
- Inspired by Kevin Kwan’s bestselling book, it is the first modern film with an all-Asian
cast and an Asian-American lead in 25 years, after The Joy Luck Club in 1993
Y4 Argumentative Essay Materials
, Arts Crisis & Crime Gender Inequality Humanitarian Leadership
Media Modern Society Politics Poverty Science Singapore
- Grossing almost 250 million USD at the global box office has made the movie one of
the best performing romantic comedies in years → Can be attributed to the rapidly
expanding influence of Asian culture and the power of the global box office
Trump (2017-)
- Since 2017, Trump has been vocal in his desire to eliminate the National Endowment
for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- In 2019, Trump’s 2020 budget aims for the agencies’ “orderly termination of all
operations over two years” as “the Administration does not consider NEA [or NEH]
activities to be core Federal responsibilities”
Y4 Argumentative Essay Materials
, Arts Crisis & Crime Gender Inequality Humanitarian Leadership
Media Modern Society Politics Poverty Science Singapore
Crisis & Crime
Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar
- In August 2017, a group of Rohingya militants attacked at least 30 police posts in
Rakhine, Myanmar, killing at least 12 members of Myanmar’s security forces
- Myanmar launched a deadly military crackdown in response to the attacks, resulting
in the exodus of nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to neighboring Bangladesh to
escape the government’s ‘ethnic cleansing’
- According to UNICEF, living conditions in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh
are ‘appalling’
- In January 2018, it was agreed between Myanmar and Bangladesh that repatriation
of all the refugees would be completed within 2 years
Arab Spring (2010-12)
- A series of pro-democracy uprisings that enveloped several largely Muslim countries,
including Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Libya, Egypt, and Bahrain; widely regarded as a
failure with Tunisia the only country that achieved democracy successfully
- Began with a single act of defiance → The Arab Spring began in December 2010
when Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the
arbitrary seizing of his vegetable stand by police over failure to obtain a permit
- Bouazizi’s sacrificial act served as a catalyst for the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia →
Protests in Tunis, the capital, eventually prompted authoritarian president Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali to abdicate his position and flee to Saudi Arabia
- Activists in other countries in the region were inspired by the regime change in
Tunisia—the country’s first democratic parliamentary elections were held in October
2011—and began to protest similar authoritarian governments in their own nations
Egypt
- In Egypt, though early changes arising from the Arab Spring gave many hope after
the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, authoritarian rule has returned
- Following the controversial election of Mohamed Morsi in 2012, a coup led by
defense minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi installed the latter as president in 2013, and he
remains in power today
Libya
- In Libya, authoritarian dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and
assassinated in October 2011, during a violent civil war; video footage of his death
was seen by millions online
- However, Libya has remained in a state of civil war, and two opposing governments
effectively rule separate regions of the country
- Libya’s civilian population has suffered significantly during the years of political
upheaval, with violence in the streets and access to food, resources and healthcare
services severely limited
Syria
- The civil war that began in Syria in the aftermath of the Arab Spring lasted for
several years, forcing many to leave the country to seek refuge in Turkey, Greece
and throughout Western Europe
Y4 Argumentative Essay Materials
