GEORGE TOWN, PENANG
15 April 2011

Think City and Chung Ling Launch Tagore Essay Writing Competition

Think City Sdn Bhd together with Chung Ling High School is organising a two-week essay writing competition starting today.
The competition is part of the Tagore 150-year celebration that Think City is organising in collaboration with the Indian High Commission and a number of Penang Indian-based community groups.
During the coming weeks, Think City and its partners are lining up a series of events to commemorate the journey of Dr Rabindranath Tagore to Penang in 1927. The journey that brought the extraordinary Bengali polymath, who was also Asia’s first Nobel Prize winner to the Penang shores, will be explored in various forms via the contest, a photo exhibition and a public lecture.

The Tagore Celebration is part of the Penang Story initiative that hopes to promote a wider appreciation of history as a way to strengthen the special identity of George Town within the larger context of state and nation.

The Tagore events being organised by Think City aims to re-create some aspects of his visit here, and also to highlight Tagore’s ideas about universal values, cultural identity and the importance of education.
“The reason why Think City is collaborating with Chung Ling High School is because 84 years ago Dr Tagore was received by a rapt audience at this very school and it was attended by Penang dignitaries and students from Chung Ling.

“His speech urged students to learn about their own culture for according to Tagore only by knowing one’s own roots could one hope to respect each other,” said Dr Neil Khor Programme Director of Think City sdn Bhd adding that Tagore’s speech was widely reported in the Straits Echo.

He added that the essay topics identified by the school and Think City aimed at promoting issues that was considered important to Tagore including universal peace and education.

“This is part of Think City’s continuing agenda which is to work with schools that began with the Malayasian Philharmonic Orchestra last October when we helped bring music to some innercity schools. We hope to work with other schools in the George Town area on different projects in the near future,” said Dr Khor.