Born in 1958, Dr. Chua is a third-generation citizen who has lived in Singapore all his life. He is a veteran language, culture and education technology expert and renowned author known for his work in the promotion of Chinese language and culture in Southeast Asia. After completing a Master's degree in Education from the National University of Singapore, he proceeded to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on scholarship, where he obtained a Master's degree and a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures.

He is currently the Head of Education at KinderWorld International Group, Chairman of the Advisory Committee of Furen International School, Chief Project Director of the Centre for Language Education and Cooperation SEA, President of the Contemporary Art Research Association, President of the May Poetry Society, Chief Editor of the Journal of Art Research, Consultant on the translation of works by National Culture Award winners, Chairman of the Writing Group of the Singapore Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning, Director of the National Writer-in-Residence Programme, Director of the 5G Literature Network and Campus Network and Visiting Professor of the Shandong Weifang Institute of Technology College of Fine Arts and Design.

He was invited in Global Artist Committee of Asian Art Association in June 2021. And he was invited to be the speaker of PaperOne Newspaper Handwritting Contest.

Activities

Dr Chua has served as Senior Advisor to the Singapore Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo, Deputy Head of the Singapore Writers' Mission to China and Chief Examiner for the China International Chinese Language Teachers' Certificate. Over the years, he has worked tirelessly to promote bilateral cooperation between Singapore and China.

He was the Chairman of the Expert Jury for the Literature Category of the Singapore National Cultural Awards, an advisor to the National Arts Council and a judge for the South East Asia Literary Awards for many years, and was the first Singaporean to serve as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design as well as Head of the Chinese Department at a Malaysian tertiary institution. He has been invited to deliver numerous keynote speeches at international seminars over the last twenty years, including the Global Chinese Language Conference on Teaching and Learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.

Honours

In addition to having received the Nanyang Technological University's Excellence in Teaching Award, he was awarded the Special Contribution Award by three Singapore government departments (Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth) in 2014. In 2015 he was selected as the first writer to participate in the Singapore-France writer-in-residence program, completing a six week residency in Bordeaux, France.

To date, he has published more than 50 papers on language, culture, education and digital technology, hundreds of literary pieces (including poems, essays, and works of flash fiction), a new collection of poems, Listening to the Sounds of the Strange Earth, and a juvenile novel, A Magical Adventure in Wan Qing Yuan (Chinese and English edition), which was commissioned by the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall to commemorate the centenary of the Xinhai Revolution. He has edited more than 30 books, including Keeping My Mandarin Alive: Lee Kuan Yew’s Language Learning Experience. (Chinese and English Edition) .