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EDITOR’S NOTE Dear POPULAR family members, We hope you have enjoyed the three stories by Popular Singapore, Popular Malaysia and Popular Hong Kong about their entries in POPULAR’s inaugural Christmas Decoration Competition in the previous issue of Popular News. If you have taken up our challenge to choose your winner, no doubt you would have realised that judging this competition was no easy task. In this issue’s first Special Feature (p.4), we reveal the winning team and interview the judges to find out more about the challenges that they faced in deciding the winner in a competition that merges the holiday festivities with our “POPULAR Spirit”! In the second part of this issue’s Special Feature (from p.7), we learn how the POPULAR offices in Guangzhou, Malaysia and Hong Kong strove to welcome the year of 2021 as the world continued to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to adapt to these challenging times has also led to the Excellent Service Award in Singapore being held online for the very first time. Join Popular Singapore as they celebrated the achievements of 21 staff who represented POPULAR in this annual event celebrating service excellence (p.21). We then head across the Causeway to find out more about the "Masked Heroes of Popular 2020”, an innovative contest organised by Popular Malaysia to showcase the “POPULAR Spirit” in weathering the storm as one united POPULAR family (p.23). A Popular Taiwan staff recounts her experience of witnessing the lively side of her colleagues at their annual diner, and shares her joy in winning the top prize of the Lucky Draw (p.37). We round up this issue with a story that introduces you to the various customs across different parts of Asia in celebrating the arrival of a new year (p.39). An opportunity to present POPULAR’s core values and team spirit. — Popular Malaysia’s Executive Director Ms Lim Lee Ngoh on the purpose of POPULAR’s Christmas Decoration Competition “一个展示大众的核心价值与团队精神的机会。” — 马来西亚大众执行董事林利娥女士 谈圣诞装饰大赛的意义 亲爱的大众家庭成员们: 希望您喜欢上一期有关新加坡大众、马来西亚大众，以及香 港大众的首届年度圣诞装饰大赛的报道。如果您也挑选了您 心目中的赢家，必然理解当中评选难度不小。在本期“与众 不同”首篇文章(页4)中，我们将为您揭晓获胜队伍，也 采访了评委们所面临的挑战，而最后又是如何选出最能将 “大众精神”融入佳节喜悦的赢家! 在“与众不同”的第二部分(页7起)，我们来看看大 众在广州、马来西亚、香港的办事处如何在全球冠病疫情 肆虐下，竭力迎接2021年。为了顺应时代挑战，新加坡的全 国性比赛“卓越服务奖”也首次移师线上举行，让我们一同 为代表新加坡大众入选这项年度赛事的21名劳苦功高的同仁 喝彩(页21)。之后，且一起越过新柔长堤，一探马来西亚 大众举办的创意Instagram大赛——“大众蒙面英雄2020”， 同仁们皆通过这项比赛展现同舟共济之心与“大众精神” (页23)。 我们随同一名台湾大众同仁走访他们的尾牙宴，看她 是如何借此见到同仁们活泼的一面，分享她在幸运抽奖中赢 得头奖的喜悦(页37)。本期的尾声，我们带领大家来一趟 “远程旅行”，看看亚洲几个地区在迎接新一年时分别有哪 些特殊习俗(页39)，祈愿新年顺遂安康。 The Editorial Team 编辑室 popnews@popularworld.com One family, one vision. 大众一家，众人一心 Head office: POPULAR HOLDINGS LIMITED, 15 Serangoon North Avenue 5, Singapore 554360. Homepage: http://www.popularworld.com