Light Through Broken Glass: Celebrating the Humanities

Written by: Poh Li An Liam and Toh Yu Qing Tristan (4i4, 2026) 

Humanities-in-Celebration (HiC) 2026 brought to mind an observation by Joel Uili: while the arts and humanities are sometimes dismissed as impractical, people continue to turn to them in moments of joy, grief and reflection. As he puts it, “Surviving is one type of practicality, knowing why we bother is another.”

The evening opened on a musical note, with Jiansheng performing a solo rendition of a Tchaikovsky piece. Sam on piano and Chak Kai on violin followed with “As the World Caves In”, before Hanwen joined them for a lively rendition of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”.

The first play of the night, Sejarah Melayu, directed by Aiden, invited the audience to reconsider familiar childhood tales from the perspectives of characters conventionally cast as villains.

Music returned to the stage with Eugene, Aaron, Jared and Mike performing “海阔天空”, followed by Albert’s “About You”, a reflective piece exploring the difficulty of letting go of treasured memories.

The evening then took a more contemplative turn with The Most Powerful Storyteller, directed by Ayden. The play offered a poignant reminder that even the darkest periods of our lives can be worth enduring.

The mood lightened with The Sigma Goldilocks and Bear Fam, whose playful rhymes and wordplay provided a humorous contrast to the heavier pieces that had come before.

The final musical set featured Andre, Yiduo, Nikolai, Hanwen and Ian. The evening culminated in a performance of “Viva La Vida”, with the wider Humanities Programme community joining them on stage, arms around one another as they sang together.

Bringing HiC 2026 to life was not without its challenges. The concert took place immediately after the End-of-Year examinations, when many students would understandably have preferred to rest. Performers, the lights and sound crew, the publicity team and teachers nevertheless worked through fatigue and uncertainty to bring the production together.

In this sense, the theme “Light Through Broken Glass” proved especially fitting. The difficulties behind the production made the final performance all the more meaningful, while the works themselves explored moments of struggle, memory, humour and hope.

The humanities are sometimes seen as impractical, yet they are often what we turn to when we seek to understand and express what it means to be human. HiC 2026 brought that idea vividly to life on stage. 💙