Tan Xiang Yeow winner of inaugural translation category for Golden Point Award

SINGAPORE – Educator Tan Xiang Yeow has snagged the first prize at the Golden Point Award (GPA) for his English translation of Chinese-language writer Tong Nuan’s short story, Mandarins For The Year.

The 34-year-old is the inaugural winner of

the GPA’s new translation category

, which received 59 out of the more than 900 entries across nine categories at the biennial competition organised by Arts House Limited (AHL).

Established in 1993 by the National Arts Council, the creative writing competition is open only to writers who have not published a full-length solo work in the genre they are contesting.

Tan – who won second prize in the English poetry category in 2021 – told The Straits Times (ST) that the translation prize “came across as quite a shock”. He had only started translating Chinese poems into English five years ago and this was his first attempt at translating a short story.

Tan picked Mandarins For The Year for “its keen observations of shifting cultural norms”. The story is told through the eyes of an elderly couple during Lunar New Year.

Tan is one of 44 writers across English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil languages who were recognised at an awards ceremony for the 16th edition of the GPA, which took place at The Arts House on Dec 2.

Cash prizes of $6,000, $4,000 and $2,000 were awarded to the first-, second- and third-prize winners respectively across all four languages in the short story and poetry categories, as well as translated English short stories.

Winners also received a certificate and a chance to participate in a mentorship programme, with first-prize winners receiving a trophy too.

Other translators who won in the inaugural category include second-prize winner Jazel Koh, for her translation of Chinese-language writer Sui Ting’s Makeover Day, and third-prize winner Nor Djannah Djohan, for her translation of Malay-language writer Djohan A. Rahman’s Masayoshi-san.

Poet and translator Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma, who was one of three adjudicators for the translation category, said in a press statement: “Each writer, by their very choice of what to translate, helped introduce me to writers and worlds I hadn’t known before, and to ways of seeing, feeling, and imagining that have now nourished my own.”

The other judges were academic Nazry Bahrawi and translator Shelly Bryant.

Replying to queries from ST, an AHL spokesperson said that the response for the new category was “positive and comparable to the number of submissions in other categories” and that they “will study the feasibility of expanding the scope of the translation prize”.

Newly appointed AHL executive director

Sharon Tan said: “In the years ahead, we hope to work closely with our partners to further strengthen the role of the GPA in fostering a community of writers and creating a conducive environment for literary expression in Singapore.”

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List of first-prize winners

Translation (Short Story)

Poetry

Short Story