To preserve or destroy

I think one of the places in Singapore that should be preserved is the botanical gardens. The Botanical Gardens is one of the few remaining parts of the tropical forests that used to flourish in Singapore. It has been around for many years and is a place where many people create memories that they hold dear. The botanical Gardens is home to many flora and fauna, many of which have not been discovered, some of these plants even have medicinal purposes. Destroying any part of the botanical Gardens is akin to destroying information which we have not found out and depriving some patients of the chance to get cured.

              Furthermore, the Botanical Gardens is Singapore's first UNESCO heritage site and represents Singaporeans' achievements in being able to make the botanical Gardens a UNESCO heritage site. 

Singapore and China youth culture

We decided to use this photos as our impressions of China is their Dim sum delicacy as well as the amount of homework the students have.




These are the things we feel that are unique to Singapore culture,such as void deck Football and us being food lovers.

Before I interact with the students in China

Before I interact with the students in China, I feel that the students, most likely being the only child in the family, they will tend to be less socially active and less competitive. This is due to the fact that without a sibling to talk to, they may not feel comfortable conversing with people. Moreover, without a sibling, there will not be any sibling rivalry,thus the student will not have to compete with siblings, but just with their classmates and schoolmates.

3-2-1 reflection

3 things I found out:

1)Singapore had a 2 child policy before

2)China abolished their 1 child policy

3)Singapore and China removed their policy due to ageing population and low birth rate.

2 perspective I gained:

1)Singapore may look fine on the outside but within the country, it faces a lot of problems.

2)China students seem to work very hard to obtain good results..

1 question I have:

Did the government not have thought about the consequences of the policies they have implemented?

Chingay 2016 Reflections

   The original purpose of the Chingay parade was to make up for the ban of firecrackers as a result of fire hazards as this ban was viewed unfavourably since firecrackers is the most important part of Chinese New Year and one of the highlights. Some people felt that the ban would result in a much dampened festival mood for the Chinese New Year period. Therefore, in order to bring back some cheer to the general public, a street parade was organised, featuring the signature floats, acrobatic acts, lion and dragon dances, stilt walkers, and the like. This year's theme is "Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore 智 慧 灯 海, 璀 璨 新 加 坡”.The theme is displayed by 'LED lights' costume performers, 'LED lights' floats, dragons and birds.

   The purpose for the Chingay Parade 2016 is for us to remember the core values that have lead us to what we are today and be grateful of our past, also encouraging Singaporeans to adopt a can-do spirit and to brace ourselves and be ready for the future which would sure post many challenges along the way. The parade marks the beginning of the first year of SG100. The parade also encourages people of all ages from different races and even countries, to volunteer to participate and perform. The theme was due to inspiration was drawn from the legacy of our Founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and the values embodied by our Pioneers. It is a place where Singaporeans from diverse backgrounds will come together to celebrate core values important to Singapore. Core values such as Racial and Religious Harmony, Caring for one another, Resilience and Meritocracy, which meant that every Singaporean regardless of race or religion could take his rightful place in the Singapore story, as we take the first step towards SG100. These are the values that made us One People, One Singapore. I think the change of purpose have happened as more and more people from other religions and even countries are volunteering to participate and perform in this parade, and the need to remind ourselves to prepare for the upcoming 50 years by the floats that said "Voyage SG 100" and "Towards SG 100"

   During the Chingay, there were many performances by many different races and culture. One of the few highlights include bungee jumping, the hula-hoop dance and the drum performance. All were done in mid-air, I admire them as performing in mid-air is no mean feat. It requires certain skills and quite a lot of energy and courage. If it was me, I would not be able to do so as I am afraid of heights and do not have enough skill. Another one of the highlights were the many different floats, they were all colourful and meaningful. The floats are the ones that bring the messages across to the audience, it is short but meaningful and would not bore the people out. The designs were also very nice and creative, which would capture people's attention. It caught my attention most as it is very big, nice and with creative designs, I could understand the messages perfectly. I also admire the volunteers, both performers and participants, to bring about such a spectacular and magnificent performance, they must have put in a lot of effort, time and hard work. They must have attended many practices too. Unlike us who attended much lesser practises for RV60, they spent way more time. I admire their dedication too, volunteering for the parade while balancing it with their other works too. If it was me, I would not be able to do so as I take a lot of time to do my homework and would not have much spare time left. I can understand their dedication as this is a very important event and it is for the country which we call home.

   For the first time in Chingay’s history, the lnter-Religious Organisation (IRO) will collaborate with 30 religious groups to present an item at Chingay 2016. Called “Because We Are Different, We Are One”, this segment takes on a special meaning as  the racial and religious harmony we enjoy today was forged through trials of fire. It is something we  never take for granted. PA is therefore very happy to partner the IRO and our friends in the religious groups to reinforce this important message of mutual respect and universal brotherhood.

Chingay 2016 represents the first step towards SG100, as we celebrate the Singapore Spirit and our shared values that have transformed us from a fishing village into a modern metropolis.  We celebrate these values that have brought us this far, and will take us into the future with confidence. I think that the organizers have successfully fulfilled this purpose.

Chingay 2016 Reflections

I used to think that the purpose of Chingay 2016 was, just like all the past few years Chingay parades, for enthusiastic people to display their talents over and over year over year while Singaporeans watch them parading around most of Singapore. However, after attending the Chingay parade 2016 Main Rehearsal on 30th January, my thinking has since changed. Now, I think that every year’s Chingay parade has its own significance and purpose.

This year marks the first year of Singapore’s next 50 and thus the theme for Chingay parade 2016 is “Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore”. The purpose of this year’s Chingay parade is to celebrate our founding fathers’ contributions towards the country and to reflect on the core values they have strongly believed in their whole lives which are:

1. A can-do spirit

2. A caring community

3. High moral values

4. Racial harmony and social cohesion

5. Resilience as a nation

The first Chingay parade was held in 1973 and it was a very simple one since it was the first time. However, after that, Chingay became very popular and it got better and grander year by year.

This year’s Chingay parade involved people of all walks of life with different races, religions and languages. With over 8000 performers, backstage volunteers excluded, this year’s parade was a significant and special one to me, mainly because this was my first, and probably only time that I went to watch the parade. It has left a very deep impression on me. I could remember performers wearing all sorts of costumes, each having their own story behind it.

The first float to enter was the "Brighter Singapore" float and the second one to enter was the “Voyage SG100” float.  These two floats signify our country’s leaders’ hopes for Singapore to sail towards greater heights, towards SG100.

 

Additionally, there was the ‘LED lights’ costumes performers, which about a few hundreds of youths under the People’s Association Youth Movement (PAYM) walked as a whole group together, bringing along a very grand atmosphere as hundreds of them walked by. Although one may seem insignificant among the whole group of people who look almost the same because of their costumes, I am sure the performers will feel very proud and excited because they have been rehearsing for very long and they will finally be able to reap what they sow and display what they have rehearsed thus far. 

This shows that Singaporeans have both a can-do spirit and have resilience as a nation because the performers do not give up even when they need to rehearse for long hours, and they make the best out of what they are supposed to do.

At some parts of the Chingay parade, I also see people of different races who speak different languages communicating and having fun together whilst performing. This shows that Singaporeans demonstrate racial harmony and social cohesion as we work together even with people who are not of the same race, language or religion as us.

Therefore, I think the organizers have done a really great job and have fulfilled this year’s Chingay parade’s purpose of letting Singaporeans reflect on the 5 core values our founding fathers have strongly believed in because all of the examples I have stated above show that we Singaporeans have lived by those core values that our founding fathers have strongly believed in, and have done them proud by upholding these values. I am really thankful towards the backstage crew and performers, and also everyone else who made this year’s Chingay parade a successful one.

Chingay Reflection 2016

What is Chingay all about? Before I even attend the talk on Chingay and watched the Chingay parade on the on 30 January 2016 at F1 pit building, I thought that Chingay parade is just a normal street performance with not much purpose, a parade with lots of lights, numerous floats and lots of performers.
The word Chingay is equivalent to the Mandarin zhuang yi (妆艺), which means "the art of costume and masquerade" in the Hokkien dialect. Firecrackers is a traditional New Year practice to drive away evil spirits, however, it caused deaths and injuries from fatal explosions in the past, hence, it was banned in Singapore. The absence of traditional firecrackers to celebrate the Lunar New Year caused unhappiness among people and they felt that the ban would result in a much dampened festival mood for the Chinese New Year period. As an alternative, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew suggested the staging of a Chingay parade similar to those held in Penang.

The first ever Chingay parade in Singapore took place in 1973 from Jalan Besar to Outram Park. The earliest Chingay parade only involved Chinese to perform for it. However, The parade had became muti-racial in 1977 when Malay and Indian groups joined the performances. I think this is because of the multiracial society in Singapore, hence, different races are involved in this performance so as to enhance the relationship with other races. Not only different races in Singapore are involved in Chingay,  there are also performers form other countries involved in this performances so such to build a closer friendship with us.

The purpose for the Chingay parade 2016 is to remember our past, mark a beginning of the first year of the next 50 years and also encourages performers and participant volunteers from different races and country to come together to carry out this spectacular street parade. The theme for this year is " Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore 智 慧 灯 海, 璀 璨 新 加 坡". The theme is inspired by the legacy of our Founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and the values demonstrated by our Pioneers such as Racial Harmony and Social Cohesion, Caring Community, Resilience as a Nation, Can-Do Singapore Spirit and Uphold high moral values. Though learning this core values, we can work together as one United people and make Singapore a better place as we head towards SG100.
Even though the purpose of Chingay changes from a celebration of the festival so as to replace the ban of firecrackers into a carnival-like parade which is used to promote racial harmony and friendship with other countries, I think that organisers had achieve their original purpose as the recent parade brings out the mood of the festival which is part of their original purpose. Furthermore, this parade bond people from other races and countries, allow them understand what is teamwork and by working together, they could bring out such a stunning performance.

The first performance is 'VoyageSG100' . There are more than 800 people dressed in shiny blue costumes followed by a float which have the words 'VoyageSG100'. The performers marched into the 'stage' orderly and neatly. I am amazed that how could they marched into the street so neatly while we need a lot of efforts to do the exactly same action neatly for 24 festive drums. After that performance, we gave our loudest applause as they must have put I much more efforts than us so as to put up such an extraordinary scene. The purpose of this performance is for us to remember the milestone that our founding fathers had faced and overcome, we should not take their efforts for building a wonderful homeland for granted. We should improve our country by contributing and put in our efforts so as to build a better country in the future.

After that opening performance, there are cultural performances put up by various races , such as 'firecraker' dragon dance, 'kampong spirit' Malay dance and Indian dance. Through Chingay, we learnt to respect and appreciate one another's culture and religion, so as to bring people from different backgrounds together, regardless of their race, language and religion, so as to promote racial harmony.
' Friendship all over the world'  was to the invite performers from other countries like Japan came to perform in this performance, 'United and Vibrant communtiy' had performances of pole dances, ballet, wushu, Ho la hoops and other dancing performances showing what people in our community will be doing from various ages. The finale 'Lights of Legacy' involved 3,000 performers lighting-up Singapore's city skyline with bright bulb-shaped Sky Lanterns that carries the commitment of the people. Many people are involved to design on the bulb-shapes lanterns. At the ending part of the finale, there are four people with long white dress being pulled up, displaying their beautiful white dress. However, we did not have a good view of the fireworks as it was behind of us, hence we need to turn our heads to watch them.

 

Despite of these, I still fully enjoy myself through watching Chingay at the F1 pit building as it allow us to understand the history of Chingay and it also demonstrated our Singapore Spirit. We can feel the sweat and hard work put in by the performers. Even though it is a pity that firecrackers are absent for Chinese New Year, but I think that having such a extaordinary performance is enough to replace the absence of firecrackers, proving the organisers had achieved their original purpose.

Rich=Happy?

Most of us might think that being rich equals to being happy, since you can get whatever you want, be it toys or a world tour. Definitely these things makes us happy. But the process?

Although Singaporeans lead quite a luxurious lifestyle, we are not happy according to the Happiness Index. Countries like India are happier than us, even though they earn lesser than us. Why is that so? In my opinion, it is exactly because we are rich, that's why we are unhappy. With more money comes the stress from work for adults and also students whose parents want them to score higher marks so that they can secure a stabilized job in the future. All these stress accumulates in us, causing us to be unable to smile when walking down the streets or buying food from vendors etc. It has also caused many students committing suicide to escape the frustration that has been building up.

Also, another result of Singaporeans having a high income is the busy and fast paced lifestyle. Everyone is so busy, some of us work even on transportations like buses and MRTs. It is not rare that someone would be sighted doing his/her homework or an adult rummaging through files and folders while scrolling through their phones at the same time. Surprising how well we multitask, isn't it?

Our fast paced lifestyle has caused us to not even have time to greet neighbours in the lift or put on a smile on our faces. Everywhere we go there is only students rushing to go to school or adults struggling to complete tasks before the due date. Even with money, are we satisfied with what we have now? In this case, does being rich really equals to being happy?

Rich=Happy?

Even though Singapore is  one of the more prosperous countries in the world, I do not think Singapore is a happy country. Based on a survey conducted last year, there was proof that despite being one of the richer countries,Singapore is one of the unhappiest countries in the world. A possible  reason is because Singaporeans do not appreciate what they have and instead complain about the problems we are facing.Comparing China or Indonesia and Singapore, Singapore is surely a safer and better developed country. However, Singaporeans complain a lot, especially  about MRT breakdowns, hot weather and congested roads during peak hours, etc.Complaining has become one of the icons that represent us Singaporeans .How about the others who are struggling with poverty? Chances are they are actually happier than us, since most of them choose to be positive instead of being negative.    

Apart from that, to live in a first world country, we have to make sure we are able to catch up with the fast paced society. We have to put much more effort into what we are doing and face huge amount of stress daily. I went to Indonesia before and saw that majority of the shops close at 5-6pm, despite being in a poorer country. On the other hand in Singapore, I can see office workers still sitting at the bus stop, impatiently waiting for their bus to arrive at times like 8-9 pm.I don't understand why Singaporeans act as if they would  be happier if they work more and earn more, sacrifice the time they spend with their family?

As we've always quoted, "Money can't buy happiness." It is not about how much we have, but how much we enjoy. I feel that as long as we live life with a positive mindset, nothing can  cause us to be unhappy.

Extra ordinary

I chose this picture that I took on 6th of January because I feel that this is extra ordinary because the school field is normally empty but in this picture , there is a cone on the field.This cone was there because of the RV60 performance.The event RV60 marks the 60 years that RV has gone through.To other students from other schools might think that the RV60 performance is just a normal school anniversary performance,but to me,it is a different feeling.Since last year , me and my friends have been practicing for the performance.There were a lot of stuff to remember especially the score for the drum.In the midst of doing all these,I also made new friends from other classes.In my opinion,I feel that RV60 was a very memorable day as everyone had been practicing for very long just for this day.

RV60 Reflections

On January 16, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of River Valley High School. According to many people, it was like a miniature NDP. The celebration is held in the school field, where every Rvian contributed one way or another. Some were helpers, some were ushers and of course most of us were performers. I was part of the Festive Drums performance, which was the opening of the whole performance. The solo item we presented was the fruit of our hard work in the past 2 months. From the selection to the actual practices, the journey was definitely not easy. As the day to RV60 became closer and closer, we had to stay back almost everyday for practice. During the full dress rehearsals, we were ome of the last groups to leave as we still need to do runs of the set up of drums.

For RV60, we were supposed to have 60 drums in total performing. However, in every group, there will always be someone who is not as committed to the show and the practices. Many members of the initial 60 drummers just stopped showing up all of a sudden and we did not recieve any reasons regarding that. In the end, we had no choicebut to cancel their names and attendance from the performance. It might not be obvious but in the end, we only had 53 drummers for the performance. It went well though, so it wasn't a very big deal.

I feel that for a performance to be successful, everyone included in the performance must give his/her best effort so as to not drag anyone down. In a performance, a mistake is equal to a messed up show, so we must be sure that we have enough practice to prevent any mistakes from happening.

RV60 Reflections

The RV60 celebration is to celebrate RV's 60th birthday.It was also a day where alumnus could come back and visit the school after they had graduated.However, we faced many issues when we were practicing for RV60.For example during the holidays, the were lots of practices for most of us,and had to come back to school every alternate day for practice, thus most of us were unable to enjoy our holiday.Apart from that, majority of us had to practice under the hot morning sun after 11am.I feel that people volunteer for national day as they are proud of their country and wanted to be part of the celebration by contributing their efforts during the special day.Rvians have our school pride,however it's just that most of the performances roles were forced onto the students without giving them a chance to choose the item they wish to perform in.However on the actual day, after most of us were proud that RV had turned 60 and had to the chance to be part of the special once in a lifetime experience of celebrating RV60, thus feeling a sense of pride.

The Extra in the Ordinary

This picture is taken on the day of RV60, before the performance when we were all busy doing our hair and makeup. I chose this picture as it is by far the closest thing we have to a group photo and it means a lot to me to be with this group of people, enjoying ourselves on and off stage. Being selected to be one of the 60 drummers to perform for RV60 is one of my biggest honour. The time I spent with this people are irreplaceable and it has indeed left a deep impression in me. Seeing everyone doing their best to perfect the score makes me really happy. These people stayed together, no matter happy or upset, and together we presented our best version of the score on January 16 2016 as a birthday present to River Valley. These people made a great impact on my life as I realised that I can learn many things from each and everyone of them. Our time drumming together might have been short, no longer than 3 months, but to me they really are the Extra in the Ordinary, adding spice to my 6 years in River Valley.

Extra in the ordinary

I chose this picture to represent the extraordinary in our ordinary school life because I think that the  greatest we will gain after our time in RV would be the valuable moments that we have experienced over the six years.This picture was taken not too long ago during the RV60 period. Although RV60 may seem like a normal standard school anniversary celebration, but to me it is something much more special than just a performance. As during the few months of preparation for RV60,me and my friends had spent our time to attend the training sessions to learn what our roles are and ow are we supposed to carry them out.This picture was taken not too long ago during the RV60 period. We might have changed much since then but the moments we spent together during RV60 period have only allowed us to recall the memorable moments we had during RV60.

In my opinion, our memorable moments with our friends are one of the most important thing in our lives. Whenever we are down, thinking of memorable events that happened to us will cheer us up and put a smile on our faces.  Without memorable moments, one will not find much happy things in life that will last for some time.