Calling herself an ‘accidental diplomat’, NUS College 2023 Commencement Ceremony Speaker Ambassador Chan Heng Chee is a respected figure in Singapore, known for her works in academia and diplomacy. As our graduands take their first steps into the working world, Class of 2023 students Zara Karimi (Sociology ’23) and Soh Kai Xin (Business + CNM ’23) sat down with Ambassador Chan as she shared her advice on maintaining intellectual curiosity and how she makes the most of life in and out of the office.
Ambassador Chan was the head of Political Science at the University of Singapore, now National University of Singapore, when she was unexpectedly offered the position of ambassadorship by then-Minister of Foreign Affairs Suppiah Dhanabalan. Upon accepting the offer, she served alongside diplomats Tommy Koh and Kishore Mahbubani PPA in the United Nations. Later, she became Singapore’s ambassador to the United States, remaining in office till 2012. Currently, she is an appointed member of the Presidential Council for Minority rights. She served as chairman of the National Arts Council from 2013 – 2019.
By Kooi Xiu Min ’26
With her wealth of experience across different fields, Ambassador Chan Heng Chee embodies NUS College’s values of interdisciplinary learning. Come 6 July, she will be speaking at the NUS College (University Scholars’ Programme) commencement ceremony. “An education is what you make of it,” she says. While acknowledging the “direct relevance” between her political science degree and her career in civil service, she adds, “A lot of what I did outside of the classroom, and in my life, was very important for the development of Chan Heng Chee.”
These included joining the University’s film society and working in The Straits Times as a stringer, and then in an advertising firm. The experiences allowed Ambassador Chan to hone her skills in journalism and advertising, which she says taught her “how to speak effectively in sound-bites” and better manage the press during her diplomatic stint.
Ambassador Chan also threw herself into campus life, going on frequent dates – she states with a well-meaning gleam – and rushing back to Eusoff Hall half an hour before curfew, a titbit that surprised our graduates. In her own words, “I had a life outside of class!”
However, when asked about her work-life balance today, Ambassador Chan is quick to quash any rosy expectations. “I don’t have a work-life balance,” she says bluntly, drawing wry chuckles from the graduates.
“I do a lot of work,” she explains, “But my vocation is my avocation.”
Indeed, Ambassador Chan admits that with her busy schedule, she is reading far less than she would like. An enthusiast of novels and poetry, she finds it impossible to choose a favourite. Instead, she re-visits books she has read before at different stages of her life, such as Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which she has perused thrice. In the course of the interview, Ambassador Chan was wistfully quoting lines from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, after being prompted by Zara.
Coming from a family that appreciates the arts and history, Ambassador Chan’s love for the arts comes as no surprise. “Some families emphasize sports and talk a lot about sports. In my family it was history and the arts,” she says. She has fond memories badgering her grandmother, mother, and helpers, called Ah Mahs back in her day, to tell stories of their different ways of life. Going into the arts, therefore, was “natural” for her.
From professor, to diplomat, to chairperson, Ambassador Chan’s portfolio is as diverse as it is illustrious, but she has no intention of stopping anytime soon. “People say, ‘How do you look so youthful?’ and I say it’s because I’m always feeling inadequate and I’m always chasing something,” she declares.
In fact, that ‘something’ need not be a specific occupation nor position. Noting that diplomacy was never quite her ambition, Ambassador Chan says: “I worked to be the best of what I could be.”
True to form, the 81-year-old took another unanticipated opportunity in her stride when she was asked to chair the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC) at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) at an age most retired.
“It was a learning exercise,” she says. In her first board meeting, she remembers sitting amongst a room of engineers, and turning to her deputy multiple times to clarify technical terms. Since then, she has deepened her understanding of climate change, sustainability, and technology in line with her belief that “life is continuous learning.”
On that note, Ambassador Chan is still striving for improvement in areas such as inclusivity. She believes we still have a way to go before everyone feels accepted, and that inclusivity must come from the ground-up. “How do we want diversity to permeate society? Each of us has a role,” she says, citing companies with inclusive hiring policies and work cultures. “The place I work in is much better with diversity.”
In preparing for the future world, Ambassador Chan hopes our graduates will remain curious and humble. “Be flexible and have the right attitude. Be ready to do things,” she advises. Moreover, she emphasizes the importance of clear communication: “Most of the time you won’t really see your bosses, but they read your papers, and you are judged by the messages you write.”
Her own attitude has clearly struck a chord with our graduates.
“Far from the trite cliches and buzzwords about lifelong learning, I really do think that the best way to approach learning is to view it as a constant work-in progress,” says Kai Xin, who made it a point in her University journey to choose classes based on her interest rather than grades. Also an advocate for interdisciplinary learning, Kai Xin’s passions include art, design, media, research and entrepreneurship, which led her to her current stint at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) X in Strategic Design. Like NUS College, the Strategic Design team has members from diverse educational backgrounds.
Furthermore, despite Ambassador Chan’s earlier quip about having no work-life balance, Zara was struck by her adamance in taking on activities outside of work. “Between the 10,000 things competing for my attention at any moment I feel like so much of my time is frittered away,” she says. Having further taken on a Bachelor of Arts in Economy and Society from Sciences Po Paris, juggled interest groups and been a Residential Assistant, Zara has found her life at University busy but fulfilling.
“Which is why I think Ambassador Chan’s deliberate commitment to doing things for pleasure is something that I would like to adopt in my own life,” she concludes. Zara will have the chance to put this commitment to practice this August when she joins Enterprise Singapore as a Management Associate.
As for her commencement speech, Ambassador Chan has written it herself, as she does all her speeches. She remains tight-lipped about it. “Wait and see,” she says. “I don’t want to spoil it.”
Ambassador Chan’s Tips for Lifelong Learning
- Read widely; it’s good for you
“I work at writing everyday, I read essays and I read how the writers work their sentences.”
- Do not be afraid to ask questions
“If I’m sitting in a seminar and I’m not the speaker, I’m always asking questions because I have questions. As I listen, I have a reaction.”
- Know more and want to know more
“You are lucky to be endowed with curiosity, and that curiosity should enable you to investigate every area. Go in depth.”
- Develop a taste for quality
“In Cornell, the word I learnt was ‘Quality’. Quality, quality, quality. Whatever you delve into must be of quality.”
- Never lose the human touch
“The human touch, the human interaction, is far more important. AI (Artificial Intelligence) cannot replace it.”
