A heritage director who played a key role in having hawker culture recognised by Unesco has become the first Singaporean to be elected to its evaluation body.
Mr Yeo Kirk Siang of the National Heritage Board (NHB) will be on a 12-member international panel reviewing and recommending nominations for intangible cultural heritage to the United Nations agency.
He said it was vital to preserve the cultural heritage of cities, adding: “I think Singapore can contribute with our multicultural perspective and urban experience.
“It’s important to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage in cities, especially since more than half of the world’s population live in them. At the moment, many of the cultural practices on Unesco’s list contain rural traditions.”
As director of heritage research and assessment at the NHB, Mr Yeo, 41, was instrumental in the inscription of Singapore’s hawker culture on Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage list last Wednesday – a first for the country.
He will serve a term of four years on the 15th intergovernmental committee for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, starting on Jan 1, the NHB said yesterday. The committee includes six experts in fields of intangible cultural heritage from state parties and six representatives from non-governmental organisations accredited by Unesco.
Mr Yeo’s role involves reviewing and recommending nominations for Unesco’s list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding, the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity and the register of good safeguarding practices. He will also look at applications by states for international assistance of more than US$100,000 (S$134,000).
Mr Yeo never expected to pursue his love for history, which began when he was a student at Victoria School. “I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to do so I decided to take the popular route by studying for an engineering degree at university,” he said. This changed when he found a job at the NHB, which married his desire to contribute to society with his passion for history.
Since joining the statutory board in 2011, he has helped oversee the development of national policies and initiatives to safeguard and promote Singapore’s intangible cultural treasures, and to engage communities in the research and promotion of the island’s heritage.
The hawker culture nomination took almost three years of work by the NHB, the National Environment Agency and the Federation of Merchants’ Associations. The list on which it now appears comprises more than 460 entries, including yoga in India and Belgian beer.
Mr Yeo said: “I am very honoured to be elected as a member of the Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage Evaluation Body… The successful election is a positive recognition of Singapore’s efforts in the safeguarding of our intangible cultural heritage, and I look forward to contributing to the work of the evaluation body alongside cultural experts from around the world.”