On March 1, ACSians descended upon the Shangri-La Hotel Ballroom for our annual Founder’s Day Dinner. Organised by the ACS OBA, this flagship event brought more than a thousand ACSians, teachers and guests together, to celebrate the 132nd year of our school’s founding.

The evening started with the rendition of our beloved school anthem. This was the highlight for the ACSians, as we sang with gusto and re-kindled nostalgic recollections of the past. Memory lapses may set in as we age, but the lyrics of our anthem are exempt from the ravages of dementia. The President of the ACSOBA, Lim Tat, gave a short welcome address for the evening and Rev Dr Chiang Ming Shun led us in saying Grace.

Our emcee for the evening was Morgan Zhou. He flawlessly executed the almost impossible task of leading a hall of boisterous Old Boys in the traditional lo-hei. In addition to his expert recital of traditional Chinese New Year phrases as we mixed the ingredients and spices, he methodically peppered the auspicious Chinese phrases with verses from the Bible. It was indeed a unique lo-hei with a Methodist flavour to it.

The momentum of the dinner continued with an outstanding vocal performance from one of our Old Boys, Pat ‘King’ Koh from the Class of ’77 who rolled back the years with his choice of songs from the 70s. The ACS Dance Theatre then injected youthful energy into the evening with two dance items. The enthusiasm displayed by the dancers blended with the bold colours of their costumes to produce a splendid performance that was very well-received by the audience.

Judging by the long queues that snaked from the photograph booth outside the ballroom, this was clearly another highlight of the evening. Old boys, teachers and guests posed together for informal photographs with the choice of backgrounds from our ACS schools, past and present. Familiar backdrops of the old ACJS and ACSS tuck shop, and the previous ACPS Coleman street campus graced many photos that were taken that night. Though these iconic school buildings cease to exist, vivid memories of them continue to linger on. This strong attachment to everything ‘ACS’ defines the ACSian, and this is the reason our Founder’s Day Dinner continues to be a resounding success, year after year.

Our ACS, forever.

Wong Heng Yu