Echoes Of The Forbidden Hill

On 30 August 2026, the historic grounds of Fort Canning Park came alive after dark as participants embarked on Echoes of the Forbidden Hill, an immersive bilingual adventure combining history, technology and collaborative problem solving.

Organised as part of the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism’s annual Community Series, the event attracted registrations from 104 teams, comprising approximately 319 participants. In groups of friends, family members and colleagues, participants navigated the park’s winding paths while uncovering stories connected to the hill’s rich and layered past.

Instead of encountering history through a conventional tour, participants experienced it through cinematic audio, light projections and interactive bilingual challenges. Equipped with their mobile phones and earphones, teams followed a specially created audio journey and worked together to interpret clues, solve puzzles and complete tasks in English and their Mother Tongue Languages.

Each station revealed a different dimension of Fort Canning’s history. The park became more than a backdrop. Its trees, pathways, brickwork and heritage landmarks formed part of the storytelling experience. As darkness fell, carefully placed projections and atmospheric lighting transformed familiar spaces into scenes filled with mystery and discovery.

The event demonstrated that bilingualism does not have to be confined to a classroom or assessed through formal exercises. It can be experienced through stories, conversations and shared moments. Participants had to draw on one another’s language strengths, negotiate meanings and communicate across languages to progress through the journey.

This collaborative element reflected the way bilingualism is practised in everyday Singapore. Language was not presented merely as a subject to be mastered, but as a living resource that connects people to one another, to their culture and to the places around them.

Echoes of the Forbidden Hill also marked the Fund’s first collaboration with NParks and Cinewav. Cinewav’s audio technology enabled participants to experience the narrative through their own devices while moving independently through the park. Together with projections, live event elements and bilingual puzzles, this created an accessible outdoor experience that brought storytelling beyond the limits of a conventional screen or stage.

The collaboration represented an important development in the Fund’s community outreach. While earlier editions of the Community Series traditionally focused on preschool children and their families, the Fund expanded its engagement from 2024 to connect with youths and young adults. Since then, it has worked with organisations such as Titan Digital Media, The Smart Local, The Daily Ketchup and the National Youth Council to explore new and relatable ways of encouraging bilingualism.

Through Echoes of the Forbidden Hill, this outreach moved into a new space, combining bilingualism with heritage, technology and an immersive nighttime experience.

More importantly, the event showed that young people remain willing to engage with language and history when these are presented in meaningful and imaginative ways. Throughout the evening, teams could be seen discussing clues, switching naturally between languages, taking photographs and helping one another make sense of the stories they encountered.

As the final teams completed their journey and the lights gradually dimmed, the echoes of the Forbidden Hill did not simply fade away. They continued through the conversations, photographs and memories carried home by the participants.

The Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism extends its appreciation to NParks, Cinewav, its partners, crew members, volunteers and everyone who contributed to the event. Most of all, the Fund thanks every participant who ventured into the Forbidden Hill and embraced the challenge of discovering Singapore’s stories through more than one language.

Echoes of the Forbidden Hill may have concluded, but its central message remains. When languages are brought to life through shared experiences, they become more than words. They become a bridge to our history, to one another and to the Singapore story.