A moment with my singing idol, Chun Keat in XQRJ 2012
心情溶剂 is a Chinese Song Writing Competition that provides a platform for school goers to showcase their talents in composing chinese songs organized by the residents of King Edward VII Hall. It has a long history dated 14 years ago. The competition grown from its humble beginning of providing this platform to only students of National University of Singapore, to the current state of providing this platform to all secondary and tertiary students in Singapore and Malaysia. It has developed into one of the key pillars of King Edward VII hall prime cultural performance. It is a gem for all of us to feel really proud of.
However, over the last two years, it seems that the competition has grown so fast so rapidly that students in King Edward VII hall has somewhat lost their ways. They seems to emphasis so much on showmanship that they neglected the initial calling that created 心情溶剂. The intense desire to do better every year forced our beloved students towards an emphasis on creating a stellar performance instead of a platform for budding song writers and composers. For example, our residents would spend significant amount of their time and effort on ‘purchasing’ performance from well-known artists or to spend on items that ensure everything is of top notch quality during presentation. As a result of this relentless push for stella performance, many of our members got burnt out.
Fortunately, this year 心情溶剂 put in place several good leaders (i.e. Yong Jun, Yu Di, and Ao Yun). Leaders who are willing to reflect upon past experiences to determine that a change is needed. Leaders who have the courage to make that change. Sure, the work by and large remains similar. We still need the commitments of members to ensure that operation works run smoothly. But when required to make a decision during a time of resource crunch, I am happy to see that the leaders made the choice towards upholding the true meaning of organizing 心情溶剂, i.e. creating a platform for budding song writers and composers. It serves as a further testament to my fundamental belief that for as long as you serve from the heart, you will always be successful.
I congratulate the entire 心情溶剂 team for the rediscovery of a passion that was once buried by the pursuit of pure stella performance. I need to make it clear that I do not mean to say that the last two years of 心情溶剂 prior to this one were organized poorly. In fact, on the contrary, I think it has much more ‘stardom’ in its line up than this year. But this year, the emphasis on staying true to the original philosophy of 心情溶剂 impresses me a lot. It touches my heart and let me know that there are many things in life that is worthwhile pursuing. Upholding the spirit of 心情溶剂 is one of them.
