The National Calligraphy Huichun Competition 全国挥春大赛

This year’s National Calligraphy Huichun Competition will be held on 21 Feb (Sunday) at the Singapore Calligraphy Centre. Since the event first organised in 1983, this year’s competition is the 27th. It is a calligraphy event with the longest history in Singapore.

With the aim to promote Chinese calligraphy and set a festive mood, the Singapore International Youth Chamber of Commerce together with the Singapore Cultural Studies Society decided to organise the first National Calligraphy Huichun Competition in 1983. The competition was divided into two categories: Open category and Students category. It attracted 70 participants. It was declared open by Ho Kah Leong (He Jialiang), then the Parliamentary Secretary of Education. Ho also wrote eight Chinese words on the spot that said ‘spring returns to the earth and everything gets rejuvenated’.

From 1985, due the financial difficulty of the organisers, the Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore (CCSS) took over the organisation and administration of the competition. The 3rd competition was stilled held at Toa Payoh Gardens in 1985, and it attracted more than 200 participants that year.

In 1992, the venue of the competition was moved to the former Headquarters of the People’s Association (PA) in Kallang. In order to encourage more people to participate, two more categories of participants were added: Senior Citizen and Juniors.

The number of participants increased steadily over the years. Ho Kah Leong, then Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Communications and Information) said in 1987 when 328 participated in the competition, that he hoped that in years to come, this competition would attract not hundreds but thousands of calligraphy enthusiasts. His wish was fulfilled in 2006 when more than thousand people took part in the competition.

In 2009, due to the renovation works at the former Headquarters of PA, the venue of the competition was again moved to Waterloo Street, the ‘Cultural Street’ of Singapore. Despite of this, it attracted 1272 participants with ages ranging from 4 to 91 years old. This was the largest number of participants in the history of the competition.

We hope this year it can attract even more people to come forward and participate in the competition. This will help promote the development of Chinese calligraphy in Singapore.

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今年的‘全国挥春大赛’将于2月21日（星期天）在新加坡书法中心举行。这项比赛自1983年举办以来，今年已经是第27届了，可以说是新加坡历史最久的书法挥春比赛。

为了发扬中华书艺，增添春节气氛，新加坡国际青年商会和新加坡文化学术研究会于1983年2月20日（星期日）在大巴窑公园举行了第一届‘全国挥春比赛’。比赛分公开及学生两组进行。当时吸引了七十名公众人士与学生参加，由当时的教育部政务次长何家良先生主持开赛仪式。何家良当时也当众挥毫，写下‘大地回春，万象更新’。

由于经费的问题，从1985年开始，这项比赛有新加坡中华书学协会（新加坡书法家协会之前身）接办。第三节全国书法挥春比赛照旧在大巴窑公园举行，吸引了200多名公众人士与学生参加。

1992 年，比赛场地移到位于加冷的人民协会旧址。为了鼓励更多乐龄人士及儿童的参与，这届（第九届）比赛增设常青及稚龄两组。

参赛的人数也逐年增加。1987年原高级政务部长（交通与信息）何家良看到当时有328名人士参赛，他就希望以后吸引到的参赛者不是以百位计算，而是以千位计算。他的期望于2006年实现了。

2009年，受人民协会总部装修影响，举办了26年的全国挥春大赛移到有“新加坡文化街”之称的滑铁卢街举行。尽管如此，这项比赛仍吸引1272名介于4岁和91岁的参赛者，历来最多。

预祝今年的比赛能吸引更多的参加者，为促进新加坡书法发展尽一分力。