SINGAPORE - The National Schools Xinyao Singing and Songwriting Competition, a singing and songwriting competition which encourages students to enhance their reading and writing abilities as well as learn Chinese in an interesting and lively manner, is back for the fourth year.
This year's competition, which also aims to cultivate a love for local xinyao music and promote the composition of new xinyao songs, will comprise the following categories: singing (solo/group) and songwriting (open/creative).
The singing (solo/group) category and songwriting (creative) category is open to students in secondary schools, ITE, pre-universities and polytechnics.
Students from the above institutions can also take part in the songwriting (open) category, which for the first time is also extended to students in universities - the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore Institute of Technology and Singapore University of Technology and Design.
In addition, the songwriting (creative) category is a new category introduced to encourage students to write songs by drawing inspiration from stories in their secondary school Chinese textbooks.
The competition is co-organised by the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning, Jurong Junior College, Lianhe Zaobao and TCR Music Station.
To help students taking part in the competition, 20 xinyao music appreciation sessions and two songwriting workshops will be conducted by four veteran xinyao songwriters - Jim Lim, Zhang Lesheng, Roy Loi and Tan Kah Beng.
The workshops will be held on March 24 and April 7, while registration for the competition is open from April 16 to May 18.
This year, a new xinyao music magazine will also be published, featuring interesting stories behind some classic xinyao songs, interviews with xinyao singers and student winners of last year's competition, as well as language games.
The magazine will be distributed to students at the music appreciation sessions.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education Low Yen Ling said at a press conference at the National Library on Wednesday (Feb 7): "We hope that this year's competition will further encourage students to use Chinese, bringing it into their daily conversation and letting them love the language."
