Email to Buddy
OELP Day 1
It's our first day in China and we were very hyper and thrilled. Firstly, we rode the Maglev train that travelled 431km/h, its fastest speed. The Maglev train is the world fastest train as it uses the repulsion of magnets. Due to the repulsion, it reduces lots of friction unlike normal trains that produced friction from wheels and tracks. Within minutes, we arrived at our destination which is merely 30 kilometres. I am very impressed with China's ability to have such an advanced technology. However, I was very curious why the Maglev trains only travels between two stations. I soon realized that the Maglev train was only to build up China's reputation. Furthermore, it requires high expenses to maintain it. Also, Shanghai is actually a big city, and along with the fast growing economy and population, they have to keep up with the developments. China needed such high speed train because of the big country, and also they have enough land to support such a big infrastructure. Singapore has minimal land, and the distance between each stations does not require trains to travel that fast. One facility I noticed was the amount of luggage space available in the cabin. I finally realised that it was a thoughtful aspect as one of their station is at the airport and most of their passengers carry their luggage with them. This might be one of the aspect Singapore can consider because there are quite a number of people who travel to the airport through MRT. The main difference in Singapore’s MRT and Shanghai’s Maglev train is that the MRT is a transportation to allow people to travel around Singapore, and for the convenience of its people, while the Maglev train does not really have the purpose to provide its people access around the city. Then, we visited the Maglev museum to know more about the scientific reasons behind the speed of the train.Next, when we were walking along the street, just about to cross the road, the tour guide mentioned that she was envy and impressed with the laws and regulation of Singapore. Singapore has strict laws that ensure the safety of its citizens, in which China lacked of. I observed that Singaporeans do have the habit of crossing roads at traffic lights, but people in China cross the road at wherever they want to. I think it is very dangerous for them to do that as they are putting their life at risk.
Hence, through these two events, I have learnt some differences between Singapore and China in merely a day already.
CID Group 1!
Maglev Train
Speed of Maglev Train
OELP Day 2
Our first
destination of the day was Zhou Zhuang. Even though it was not what I had
expected, the scenery was still very beautiful and breathtaking. Zhou Zhuang is a historical place with stories
of 900 years. It attracted many tourists and we can tell that Chinese were
generally proud of Zhou Zhuang. I recalled seeing a woman sitting by the river
washing her clothes. I was a little taken aback as I did not expect to see
things like that in a tourist attraction. We visited 沈厅 and 张厅which depicts
the structure of houses back in the Qing and Ming Dynasty. The main takeaway I had
was the different status in women and men in the past. Men were considered more
superior than women. There was a distinctive gender inequality. The men had
hall bigger and more towards the front door because they were more important
and considered as the family’s pride. Their chairs also had back rests while
there weren’t any for the women. If only your feet are bind since young and you
have mastered the skills of sewing will qualify you to marry someone. This is
because women are not allowed to study in the past and education for them is
considered waste of money and time. Even in rare situation that they do, men
will also not prefer to marry such women as that was not how the society worked
in the past. Also, I have learnt about something new which was why the owner’s
seat was usually on the left. It had something to do with the sun rising from
the north/south/east/west direction from the house. Visiting Zhou Zhuang definitely
explained why people of SuZhou takes pride of Zhou Zhuang. It was eye opening
to learn and discover how life was in this past.
Next, we
went to HanShan Temple (寒山寺), a Buddhist temple. This temple is famous for the poem, 楓橋夜泊, which describe a melancholy scene of a traveler.
I feel that this poem is very meaningful and it leaves people with deep
thoughts. There is this bell in the temple
which was ringed 108 times in the past to pray for happiness and safety of the
coming New Year. It still happens in recent year, but due to its popularity,
people can ring the bell as long as the paid for it, and thus, it was not a s
signifying anymore The tour guide
explained that most temple does not charge tourist entrance fee, and HanShan
Temple does, because they want to raise money to give to the charity. I think
that was such a great idea to help others in need.
After that,
we visited GuanQian Street. We had fun shopping and getting excited at the
relatively cheap prices.
Following,
we visited the tiger hill. Unfortunately for us, it was raining heavily and we
did not receive the best experience. Along the way, all I could see was the
ground and tons of umbrellas :(. Everyone was afraid that they may slip and
fall, feeling very vexed and annoyed with the rain, and just wanting to get
back to the comfortable bus. Nonetheless,
I managed to take a glance of the tiger hill and needless to say, it was simply
amazing and astonishing, especially in the rain. However, the tiger
infrastructure itself was under construction so we were unable to see its shape.
Overall, it
was an enriching day to learn about some history of China.
Today, we went to Xinghai Experimental High School in Suzhou. We were all very excited. When I first enter the school, I was awed by the beautiful school made with red bricks. We were warmly welcomed by the principal, some teachers and the students. We wanted to show them our performance that we put in lots of effort on! Thankfully, the performance went smoothly and we were very relieved. After that, all of us went respectively to our buddy’s class. Somebody class went up and gave some short speeches to welcome us, and soon after, their lessons started. Along the lessons, my buddy was very friendly and introduced to me how their school works and also a bit about Suzhou. The first observation I had was that they do not have to great the teacher. I was very surprised as Singapore students all have the habit to do. I decided that it might be the culture of China. I realized that the students in China are all very enthusiastic. They are very proactive during lessons, and always ask questions. I think this showcase their responsibility towards their studies as they are not afraid to be wrong but see learning as the more important factor. In Singapore, there is a vast difference. Singapore students are afraid to be embarrassed by their wrong answer and will always stay quiet until the teacher picks someone to answer. If not, they will only mutter to their friends. Most of the students take lessons seriously although their lesson time was relatively long. No one was sleeping. Also, they cherish time and make use of the break in between to do productive things. There are many good attitudes worth learning.
Next, we visited the logistic park where they exhibited what those products go through before they were exported. I was impressed with the virtual airport and seaport. It actually meant that the products do not have to go through actual airport or seaport which were absent in Suzhou. If they were to do so, it would have caused a lot of inconvenience. Instead, those products actually do have to go through immigration, but “virtually”.
Following that, we visited the Yili Factory where we got to understand about every step they go through to produce those dairy products, from raising species of cows to the packaging of products. Before going there, my mother had brought up the topic of the scandal which Yili faced years ago. From what I saw, they had quality control of the products, mainly by making sure of the hygiene. Having to sanitize the workers’ hands was one of the aspect. I believe that they will soon gain trust from consumers. I was glad that they managed to overcome the difficulties, and even achieved being the top 10 in the world, and now aiming towards top 5 in near years.
At night, one of our most looked forward ‘attractions’ finally came! We were brought to a nearby supermarket to complete our CID task. However, we definitely look forward to buying things there more. It was a fruitful trip as it fulfilled our shopping desires and we learnt about their cost of living.
Beautiful ZhouZhuang
At 张厅
Famous Poem
At Tiger Hill
OELP Day 3
Today, we went to Xinghai Experimental High School in Suzhou. We were all very excited. When I first enter the school, I was awed by the beautiful school made with red bricks. We were warmly welcomed by the principal, some teachers and the students. We wanted to show them our performance that we put in lots of effort on! Thankfully, the performance went smoothly and we were very relieved. After that, all of us went respectively to our buddy’s class. Somebody class went up and gave some short speeches to welcome us, and soon after, their lessons started. Along the lessons, my buddy was very friendly and introduced to me how their school works and also a bit about Suzhou. The first observation I had was that they do not have to great the teacher. I was very surprised as Singapore students all have the habit to do. I decided that it might be the culture of China. I realized that the students in China are all very enthusiastic. They are very proactive during lessons, and always ask questions. I think this showcase their responsibility towards their studies as they are not afraid to be wrong but see learning as the more important factor. In Singapore, there is a vast difference. Singapore students are afraid to be embarrassed by their wrong answer and will always stay quiet until the teacher picks someone to answer. If not, they will only mutter to their friends. Most of the students take lessons seriously although their lesson time was relatively long. No one was sleeping. Also, they cherish time and make use of the break in between to do productive things. There are many good attitudes worth learning.
Next, we visited the logistic park where they exhibited what those products go through before they were exported. I was impressed with the virtual airport and seaport. It actually meant that the products do not have to go through actual airport or seaport which were absent in Suzhou. If they were to do so, it would have caused a lot of inconvenience. Instead, those products actually do have to go through immigration, but “virtually”.
Following that, we visited the Yili Factory where we got to understand about every step they go through to produce those dairy products, from raising species of cows to the packaging of products. Before going there, my mother had brought up the topic of the scandal which Yili faced years ago. From what I saw, they had quality control of the products, mainly by making sure of the hygiene. Having to sanitize the workers’ hands was one of the aspect. I believe that they will soon gain trust from consumers. I was glad that they managed to overcome the difficulties, and even achieved being the top 10 in the world, and now aiming towards top 5 in near years.
At night, one of our most looked forward ‘attractions’ finally came! We were brought to a nearby supermarket to complete our CID task. However, we definitely look forward to buying things there more. It was a fruitful trip as it fulfilled our shopping desires and we learnt about their cost of living.
At the school
OELP Day 4
Today, we had a few hours of school immersion again and following that, we visited Suzhou Industrial Park and Master of the Nets Garden. The school immersion this time had more activities. We attended a lesson on Suzhou and its history, which was kindly provided by the school. I am very grateful for this lesson as it was indeed more interesting and relatable compared to when doing our own research. I learnt that the 苏州特色were 水乡，伍子胥 and 园林, and many more information, such as the historical figures and infrastructures. It was a meaningful lesson where my general knowledge for Suzhou increased tremendously. I no longer have to ask Liurong (oops) whenever the tour guide mentioned something basic about Suzhou. We were told that we have to see them ourselves in order to truly feel them.
Next, we had a paper cutting lesson where we were given the choice to cut out a horoscope, which many of us chose our very own horoscope. We were briefed on the origin of paper cutting and it was a great opportunity to have hands on activity. Paper cutting has a rich history behind it and not as simple as it seems. I believe that there is a need for us to cultivate and preserve the traditional paper cutting culture. It was definitely not easy to do something that we just learnt, but we certainly enjoyed it. We were tested on our patience and perseverance. We were proud of our piece of work, and it served as a souvenir from the school as well.
After that, we visited the Suzhou Industrial Park. We were introduced to the place where both Singapore and China collaborated to work on. The success of the Industrial Park was thanks to Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s insight. He knew the need to build the place because it will eventually benefit Singapore. After reviewing on the different places proposed to build an industrial park, it was decided that Suzhou was suitable. The industrial park was unexpected and eye catching. The gallery showed the process of the nurture of the industrial park from 1997 to today, and it was absolutely touching for us to see its development step by step. The place has lots of technology which made us ‘wow-ed’ and many models of the park. The structures of the park were beautiful and it was overwhelming to see them in 3D instead of merely listening to the descriptions. It was no doubt interesting, but too heavy on information. Furthermore, the information is very profound and I was confused and unable to comprehend most of them. Sad to say, many of us found it too boring because of that, and I hope that I can visit the industrial park again when I am older and smarter. There are many aspects of the industrial park where I do not figure out, and I hope to find out more.
Lastly, the final stop of that day was The Master of the Nets Garden. When I first stepped, the view was breathtaking. I was glad that the owner was willing to open up his house as a tourist attraction. Again, it showed the superiority of men compared to women. However, this time, the tour guide told us that women actually played an important role too. The wife of one of the owner was quite capable and she was in charge of managing the house, the husband could focus on his career. It is supported by this belief ‘每一个成功的男人背后都有一个女人’. We obviously did not miss this wonderful opportunity of photo taking and manage to capture many beautiful memories.
To end this day, I will say that it is yet another beneficial and fascinating experience.
Yes, today is the day where most of us have been looking forward to! We had our full day immersion with our buddies. I was very grateful to all the planning that my buddy prepared for me, but unfortunately, I was unable to follow the itinerary she intended to follow. It was very heartwarming as they were very friendly and tried to offer the best they can to us. It was a pleasant experience and entertaining day. I got to experience the life of China teenagers.
Firstly, we went to watch a movie. Much to our surprise, the movie theatre was very different from the ones we have in Singapore. In Singapore, everyone selects the movie they want to watch and enjoy it in one theatre. In Suzhou, we had to secure a room before deciding the movie. This might be because there wasn’t a need to watch movies in the cinema as they may likely be uploaded online. Also, Singapore has limited land so it is not feasible to have such facilities of having a few people to big private rooms. Moreover, there is a wide range of movies, from the recently released ones to the movies way back, unlike in Singapore, where the movies only have a certain time of featuring in the cinema. I got to learn their distinctive entertainment style.
Next, we managed to take the train to travel around instead of walking or taking the taxi. I realized all of our buddies all have a card which can be used almost everywhere, like taking the train, paying for food or things that they buy. I did not ask them what it was for and why they chose this method of bringing money around as I felt that it will not be very pleasant asking about money related issues. However, I will have interpreted it to be like cash cards that we have as well. The train stations in Suzhou are similar to Singapore, where we have to tap our cards in to get in. I noticed something different though, which is the requirement to scan our belongings before heading into the station. I was taken aback initially, because it was unexpected. I was quite surprise that there was such safety enforcement. I feel that it is actually a good feature, but I am quite curious about something. What happens during peak hours? Isn’t it very troublesome to check everyone’s bags, and won’t it consume too much time?
We went to a shopping trip after that. While we were walking, we discovered that many people were trying to sell their things as people walk past. We saw someone trying hard to sell flowers, and she shoved a flower into one of buddy’s hands with force. I panicked even though I was not the one encountering it, but that buddy remained calm. She walked on with the flowers without paying. The seller was displeased and certainly did not want her to walk away without paying, hence snatching it away from her and continue promoting to others. I found this way of promoting business a bit despicable. You should not force people into buying your things, moreover giving a bad attitude when you are in the wrong. Also, from the reaction of that buddy, she seemed to know how to deal with it and it makes me wonder if she encountered it often enough.
More than anything, I was thankful to my buddies. We had a fun time talking and interacting with each other, and understand more about each other. It was delightful to know a new friend. It was rather regrettable since we were unfamiliar with each other and mostly stick with out friends. I anticipate more opportunities to come.
It was quite tearful when we have to live the place where we stayed in for 5 days. We headed to Shanghai today. Shanghai was definitely different from Suzhou, from the people to the infrastructure. Shanghai gives off the city vibe, where many places were commercialized and people were colder towards us. Suzhou has many rural places and nature, and more spacious too. We saw many significant buildings all centralized in one place. We visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition where we understood Shanghai’s urban planning and development. We also got a bird’s eye view of Shanghai through the exhibition. They were cute display on the developments of Shanghai from early 1800 to today. We learnt about globalization where the guide explained on how China looks out for western ideas and consider whether they can be in cooperated to benefit China. We also observe popular culture of China and those which are preserved until now. We were also told that they have been trying to think ahead and come out with ideas that seemed impossible now. I think this is a great learning point, because they are still trying to improve even though they may be considered as one of the top. It means that we should not stop upgrading ourselves because we are better, but to continue.
Then, we visited Nanjing Road. It was a high end shopping street with expensive brands such as Rolex, Zara etc. Therefore, we were rather disappointed because it is not economical for students like us to get them. Luckily, being able to buy books cheered us up a little, or rather, having Starbucks at the bookshop. Some of us who loved reading had a great time choosing books there.
Next, the most anticipated HaiDiLao dinner was here! We had a sumptuous meal because 110 RMB per person was actually more than enough, and we combined our entire budget together as a table. One significant thing I observed was their service. They had excellent service where hair ties, Ziploc bags were provided, and also having people standing by side of the sinks to help customers press the tap. I could not understand the need for such extreme customer service but I wished I would.
Lastly, we visited a monument of Shanghai, which is the Bund and Huangpu River. We were very fortunate to have this attraction scheduled at a night slot, because the night lights result in a gorgeous view.
It was the last day of our OELP trip and we could not bear to leave this wonderful place. However, we have to face up to reality and cherish the last day instead. We went through sweet and sour moments and bonded well through this trip. It was a once in a lifetime experience. 2E is a unique and special class <3. Time passed too quickly and I wished I had the ability to turn back time …
We went up to Oriental Pearl’s TV Tower. We had a 360 degree view of real Shanghai infrastructures and they were fascinating. It made me appreciate development of Shanghai with its diverse architecture. We spent 50 cents RMB to use the telescope and I can say, it is definitely worth it. Seeing those architectures up close is even more unbelievable. Then, we went up some more and arrived at the sky walk. I was very excited to see the transparent walkway because I don’t have fear of heights. It was a wonderful experience because it appears that you have nothing underneath you and the feeling of that was amazing.
Next, we visited the Municipal History Museum, where there were mini structures of Shanghai’s infrastructures and figurines. They look like they are alive with their movements and sounds they made. It was vivid. I understood some colonial history of Shanghai through this.
And soon, it was flight back home T_T…
Overall, this OELP trip was definitely an eye opening and enriching one with great bonding time with my fellow classmates. It was a one in a life time experience which was unforgettable and fulfilling. This fruitful journey allowed us to encounter the differences and similarities between China and Singapore we had learnt in CID lessons over the past few months with our very own eyes. We also got to learn and understand the relationship and collaboration between Singapore and Suzhou. Every place in we visited had its own unique story and history that was fascinating enough to capture my attention. Those sceneries were breathtaking and the images are still deeply etched in my mind. I would like to briefly jot down what I have learned and observed in those mere, few days.
Firstly, China put great emphasis in education. I am very impressed with the students in China in terms of how they treat their education. They are very independent with their learning, which in Singapore there is a vast difference. The students there are self-directed and they do not rely on the teachers or the schools to help them in their studies. During lessons, they are very enthusiastic and proactive, having great responsibility and taking charge of their own studies. They have self-discipline and they aren’t afraid to be wrong when they feel that they have any questions to ask. In this aspect, Singapore students really lack a lot and have lots to learn. We found it so difficult to converse in Chinese and I wondered why at first but soon realized it was actually because we are very used to mixing Mandarin and English together instead of communicating in proper Mandarin.
Secondly, the cost of living is lower than Singapore. We visited a supermarket and GuanQian Street. In both shopping trip, we found out that basic necessities, groceries and other things are 2 -4 times cheaper on average. It is actually no surprise and understandable because many items are manufactured in China itself and there is no extra charges needed to import those items from other countries unless necessary. China has sufficient land, manpower and natural resources that Singapore unfortunately does not have. However, such low cost of living may affect its country’s economy and standard of living. Hence, there are both pros and cons to high or low cost of living.
Next, the tour guide mentioned how envious she was for Singapore’s laws and regulation where she was full of praises for them. I strongly believe that the different cultural have effect on those conditions. They have been living in that environment for mostly their lifetime and are naturally accustomed to it. For example, the traffic condition in China was not that bad but Singapore was better. She raised the issue of drivers and pedestrians not obeying the traffic rules. In fact, I witnessed an incident of a restaurant worker smoking boldly in the restaurant where its customers were dining at. It undeniably left a bad impression on us. Also, he quarreled in an uncivilized manner with our tour guide over an issue. Such behavior, I guess, was what made most foreigners stereotyped Chinese as. Indeed, your behavior often unintentionally reflects on other things as well and not just you as an individual. Also, during my time in GuanQian Street, some uncomfortable scene happened. There were people selling flowers along the street, and as passersby walk past, they will stuff the flowers into their hands and refuse to take it back. When the passerby had no other choice but to continue walking with those flowers without wanting to buy them, those people will snatch them away and scold the passerby loudly in public. I was appalled by this ridiculous behavior of forcing others to buy something. Some were also cutting our queues, and I thought that it was pretty rude. However, most of the people are nice and friendly too. When I had some questions to ask for my task, they did not rudely reject me or ignore me, but pleasantly notify me that they have something on and I should look for the others instead. It was very comforting to hear those words. My buddies were also lovely and kind. Despite us being relatively demanding, they did not say anything and tried to satisfy us just because we were the guest. It reflects one of the principles of treating guest properly.
Lastly, out of the lessons that we are supposed learn from this trip, I will like to bring up the well spent time among the class. The mix feelings of being worried and excited will definitely be what we felt before the trip. It was an overseas trip without our parents, familiarity but fortunately friends and teachers. We rely greatly on each other during the trip and were great supporters too. It was extra memorable because we are not only learning, but also building beautiful memories. When one of the classmates was sick, everyone was concern about her and it was indeed heartwarming. During meals, everyone cared about each other’s health and had the courtesy to offer water, tea and even help scoop the dishes into someone’s bowl. During late nights into rehearsing and doing reflection, we cheered each other up and that was what kept us going. With our roommates and teammates, we tolerated each other’s weakness and rendered help instead of complaining. During tours on various attractions, it can be seen that people were considerate and offered a better position to those who had trouble so that everyone can listen and learn together. During shopping trips, people will attempt to help carry things for another person if they can afford to. During the last debrief, people offered hugs and comfort to those who were emotional and instantly made them feel better. Although the appreciations of those little actions and gestures are certainly not part of our learning objectives, I will still want to mention it because it was doubtlessly one of an important learning point for me.
In conclusion, I have absolutely received a lot more things that I would have deserved and I am thankful to have learnt so many things over that week.
Everyone knows the great story behind the Merlion. The Merlion is made up of half fish and half lion. It consists of a lion head, fish body and fish tail. The lion head represents the name Singapura which means Lion City in Malay language. It traced back to the times where Sang Nila Utama visited the area around 11 AC, and reportedly spotted a majestic lion on this small fishing village of Singapore. He then gave Singapore the name Singapura. The tail on the other hand represents Singapore as Temasek which means Sea in Javanese in the past. It symbolises the humble beginning as a small fishing village. It shows how much Singapore has changed and prospered from a mere fishing village to a first world nation. We, Singapore, is a strong country who successfully struggled through the hard times and arrived at the other end. A small little red dot, with lackof natural resources and land, who people thought could never made it big, did it. Singapore’s meaningful past is clearly depicted on the Merlion. Many might know Singapore as a wonderful country, but how much do they really know about our rich history? Well, the Merlion has a tale to tell you ;) It captures people’s attention and gives them a better understanding of the Singapore story.
Other icons like the Changi Airport and Vanda Miss Joaquim can certainly be out national icon too. We can consider them because they also bring out different perspective and characteristics of Singapore. The Changi Airport is a world class airport known worldwide. It is our nation’s pride. Vanda Miss Joaquim is chosen as the national flower to represent Singapore’s uniqueness and hybrid culture. The However, in my opinion, it does not have the good traits of Singapore which the Merlion has, so they ain’t the best candidates. Every country has an airport, yet being the best doesn’t really signify anything. An orchid flower can be seen and planted, so what’s so special about the Vanda Miss Joaquim that makes it stand out? Thus, the Merlion still remains as the best choice.
The Merlion also boost Singapore’s economy. It works well as the Singapore Tourism Board’s emblem. It is also the landmark of Singapore. Tourists will visit Singapore after hearing about the Merlion. They would want to learn more about the awesome creature people have been talking about. (Strong reason of why the national icon has to capture the attention) Shops also start producing product concerning the Merlion.
With the Merlion as our national icon, it is important that Singaporeans believes in the Merlion. They have to take pride in it for more people to know about it. We have to bring the Merlion to a whole new level, like on the international platform and not only in Singapore. By advertising more on the Merlion, people will start to connect Singapore with the Merlion and Merlion with Singapore. It makes Singapore a more well-known country. The simplest way to do it is to mention the Merlion in front of your friends, and bringing them to visit the Merlion when they are here to visit Singapore. Introduce them to the interesting tale of the Merlion too. Words spread fast and it’s the best way to promote our national icon. Also, we should have the Merlion spirit in us too, since Merlion represents Singapore. Singaporeans will work hard together and do the best out of everything we do.
In conclusion, I couldn’t agree more on making the Merlion our national icon. I believe that the most important thing to see in a national icon is how well it can link back to our country. In this aspect, the Merlion did it! I had background knowledge on the Merlion but not on any other icons that I had to google them for information. Thus, the Merlion should be made our national icon.
Firstly, Singapore is a democratic country, but there is controlled democracy in it. If one nominated Member of Parliament is nominated, PAP will always be the winner. PAP is always the winning party since there are 80 seats of PAP and only 7 seats in the Workers’ Party. On the other hand, China has a dominant one party system.
The one party system simply means that only one single political party has the rights to form the government, making important decisions for the country. In Singapore’s case, since the Singapore Parliament is the only dominant party, it is controlled democracy.
There are both advantages and disadvantages in the One Party System.
The advantages include:
- Since only one party has the rights, there isn’t a need to be going around the country promoting and convincing people to vote for this particular party, no resources will be wasted.
-It will be more efficient as no voting is needed.
-
The government has to give out money or benefits to citizens which indirectly tell them to continue voting for them.
The disadvantages include:
Meritocracy:a system in which such persons are rewarded and advanced
In Singapore’s society, there is a strong belief in meritocracy, where hard work will definitely be rewarded. Hence, they would have the motivation to work harder to deserve a better treatment in the society. On the contrary, North Korea is a communist country and everyone receives the same reward no matter how hard you work. In the end of the day, no one is willing to work hard since it doesn’t matter if you put in more effort or not when everyone gets the same thing. They are extremely unmotivated which directly affect the country’s progress.
Also, we talked a little about monuments. Taj Mahal is India’s monument and Angkor Wat is Cambodia’s monument. Yes, monuments are important as the preserve history of that country. They are unique, and one of a kind with interesting and touching stories behind them.
Singapore’s most important monument is the Merlion which represent Singapore’s past as a fishing village and as a lion city.
So what is a golden age? A golden age in China is when China is in a great time of prosperity, advanced technology and which people lived in ideal happiness. Tang Dynasty was the golden age in China. In Singapore, we could actually call our present the golden age. It was long ago that Singapore first started as a nation. Now, Singapore has good economy, with strong and stable government, and even great education. People lived in peace and harmony. However, we believed that Singapore could even do better and reach its peak.
So, the rise of China faced many challenges caused by Asia’s super power. China has different climate, culture, topography, agriculture and industry. It has 32 provinces grouped into large regions. This makes it relatively difficult for the government to manage such a huge country. It was not within their control. Someone suggested the idea of having a governing ruler for each province, but it was not really practical as it could cause internal conflict among the provinces which wasn’t what they want. The government is concentrated in one area and cannot control places further away from them. They are mostly in the city, which makes the living conditions there better than the other. The government had to consider the pros and cons inflicted on the different province when proposing something. It could be suitable for one and not fit for the other. Furthermore, their geography location was not really in their favour. Only 10% of the land can grow crops. Western China is made up of deserts and mountains while northern china does not have enough water. The government had to deal with various problems that they would face.
Next, people living in the south and north have different treatments. People around the central where big cities are, are generally richer and have higher living standards than the others. Cities are usually industrial where better opportunities are. More global businesses are around there. With less watch and control, officials there may be more daring and open in doing illegal things such as corruption. Again, the government cannot control it and it continues, affecting China’s economy.
Lastly, the hukou was mentioned. A hukou is a record in the system of household registration required by law in both countries of the mainland communist People's Republic of China (PRC) and the democratic industrialized island nation of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Basically, it is a policy which limits citizens from moving to coastal areas for better opportunities in education and business. It doesn’t want to lose control over the sudden increase in citizens, creating more trouble for them. Citizens had to pay a huge sum of money and their living expenses are higher than others. They were unprivileged in the first place and even more unsatisfied with the government’s decision in this policy.
It was an interesting lesson in understanding China but I hope that I can better absorb these lessons and remember them. I anticipate the next lesson.
Next, we mentioned about Mr Lee Kuan Yew, whom everyone acknowledges as the father of Singapore. He was the first prime minister and the founding father of Singapore. He passed away on 23rd of March 2015. As I did not personally experience his journey in building the nation, I knew little of him. Yes, his name was often heard but it did not leave a huge impact on me. However, his death actually bought me to understanding more about the great man. He was a great leader with foresight and visions for Singapore. He dedicated his whole life to Singapore only to achieve what Singapore is now. His devotion for Singapore made Singapore a better place. Mr Lee was responsible for everything around us now. Without him, we would grow from a third world nation to a first world nation. Even leaders around the world respect him. He set the best example for the younger generations in Singapore. His legacy would never be forgotten.
Thank you Mr Lee Kuan Yew, you would always remain in our hearts.
Firstly, when China's economic grow, there are more rich people coming over to Singapore to buy our properties and lands to build condominiums and shopping malls. Then, China is the second largest tourism market for Singapore and it is also one of the fastest growing. Total tourist arrivals from China registered 1.6 million in 2011 and it has been growing at a rapid pace of 14.4% per annum compared to the industry-wide average of 5.9% over the last decade. Hotels, casinos, retail stores and F&B business gain customers and earn more profits. Furthermore, opening up to international trades means that Singapore can trade with China. China is the centre of the region’s growth story and an important trading partner of Singapore’s exports and imports. China produces and exports lots of products. Nearly everything is Made In China. Singapore has no natural resources and can only be reliant on importing products- mainly from China. When China has more ability and resources can Singapore better benefit from the trading with China.
However, Singapore will be very dependent on China economically. Any change in China's economic will cause Singapore to have a downfall. Even though China has a secure growth in economic, we still have to be very careful in any case that China's economic has a sudden drop.
Reflection for Week 6
In this week’s CID lesson, we talked about the economic of China and went through 4 questions: Where does China rank in the world in terms of total GDP? What is the size of China’s population? What is the likely implication of this? Where will China rank in the world in terms of GDP per capita? What does this mean? And when did China join WTO?
1) China ranked 2nd in the world in terms of total GDP. GDP is the total value of goods and services produced in a country, within a given period of time. China’s GDP is increasing steadily. It overtook Japan in 2009 and with USA ranking first now. This means that China is the 2nd richest country, boosting the economy and the country is moving forward.
2) However, China has a population of 1.3 billion, nearly 1.4 billion with India catching up fast. Because of the large population in China, there is a large pool of unemployed workers who can be recruited. As there are more people working, the respective salary of each employer will be low as the company has to pay for more people. This may be a good sign as there will be less burden on films as they pay their workers low wages. Unfortunately, with many more people there are more competitions. It may be a win-lose situation thus workers are unsatisfied because of the unfair treatment. And because of the many choices made available to companies, they can choose the people they want, such as people with better qualifications and abilities. It leaves out those who never had the opportunities to earn more money and they were constantly excluded. This can be one of the reasons why many people in China is going out to other countries to find working opportunities instead.
3) Even though China is a rich country, it is ranked low in terms of GDP per capita. GDP per capita is the value of goods and services each citizen can get per year. On the average, each Chinese citizen does not get a high amount of goods and services to consume, even though the country has been experiencing increasingly amounts of GDP. In this case, it might be better to be in a smaller country with less population so that each citizen can be better taken care of. In China, there is also a possibility that one might get a higher amount of GDP per capita as compared to another. Thus, the rich poor divide is widening because the rich is constantly getting more but the poor is neglected and they receive lesser.
4) China joined WTO (world trade organisation) in 2001. One benefit is that they have more access to international markets for their exports and allow more foreign investors to enter the country freely. They can trade more and easily, allowing them to make more profits. This is great for the growth of China’s economy.
Lastly, I wonder why China is selling their goods so cheaply when they can raise the price and earn more money for their citizens. I realised the reason is that they have too much resources and they can afford to produce more goods. Also, China’s currency is also smaller than Singapore so when converted it is much cheaper. Nowadays, a lot of things are made in China, so there are higher demands for their goods. They don’t mind to sell at a lower price to attracted more people to buy. They might also want to sustain a good relationship with Singapore so that they do not lose their important customers and risk downfall to their country.
Reflection on One Child Policy
Because of the overwhelming population in China, most people can only have one child. It might not be a huge issue for China’s economic growth unlike Singapore because China is a very big country, and their economic might be quite stable. However, with lesser young people, there will be slower economic developments. Even though parents may have the ability to fend for themselves and their parents, not relying on the child, but when they grow older, it might be hard to do so. Then, the child will be left to support all his elders and it will be a heavy load and huge burden to him. With already so much to spent, they will not splurge and save more, contributing lesser to the economic. The only child has to be responsible to their parents, and it can cause them not being able to pursue their dreams because they have to be there for their parents. They also have to pay more tax as they is lesser people to pay taxes to the government. They also have less people to associate and interact with. They may have less trust, less concern and close ties with people because they never had any siblings. However, in a positive light, the only child can get all the attentions from the parents. Also, there will be less competition. Nobody to fight with at home, lesser people to compete with in terms of studies, lesser people to fight against in the working industry. With lesser population in the country, the government can manage and take better care of each and everyone before things get out of control. Citizens will not be neglected and have better welfare.
Furthermore, the Chinese tradition believes that it is better to have a son so that they can keep the family line going. Boys are inferior to girls. The old way of thinking is that boys can go out to the society to work and earn money but girls does not qualify and the only thing that they should do is household work. Even till now, some people still hold on to that wrong way of thinking. To them, a daughter is useless as they will be married off eventually, making them a "waste of rice", time and effort. In this case, some of the daughters were even killed or gave away so that the parents can have another child which may turn out to be a son. As a result, the ration of females to males is 1:10. However, they might not have realized that if everyone gives birth to only a son, the women population will also decline, and declination in marriage, resulting in less women giving birth to babies. In time to come, the population in China will also get affected.
In my opinion, I feel that the one child policy should be reviewed again. But I believed that there are many factors that caused the decision to have this policy, so we should respect the decision made by the China government, even though we can still give our views and opinions on them.
We played a game of broken telephone. The first person in the group will have a look at the given picture. She had to remember the details and tell the next person which will eventually get to the last person. As i was the last person, i realised that the information that was passed down to me was actually way lesser than in the picture. In the end, the outcome was very different from the original but we still managed to have a good laugh. Through this simple game, I have realised the importance of proper observation and communication. If we do have poor observation and broken communication, the message that we are supposed to relay will not be successful and will be even cause some misunderstanding between people. The message also has to be effective and serve some purposes. In some cases like in examinations, if we read the question wrongly or missed out something because of our carelessness, we will lose the mark and even cause the grade to go down by one level.
Also, I learnt the implications of the one child policy making in China. There was a picture showing one baby supporting both its parents and maternal, fraternal grandparents. It means that the one child policy caused the only child in the family to have a heavy load by having to support the whole family. The one child policy is to have proper control of population in China. All in all, there will be pros and cons in that policy and it can be divided into two big categories: economic and social impacts.
Just when China is enforcing the one child policy, Singapore has the exact opposite situation. Many people are not willing to give birth and thus little babies were born each year, causing dwindle in Singapore’s population growth. It even led to Singapore having an aging population. Even though Singapore does not enforce on One Child Policy, it is also facing similar issues. Singaporeans have hectic lifestyles and quick pace of work, thus they want to avoid having to give birth to children and having to take care of them. It is also not easy to support them. The living cost in Singapore is very high. However, with lesser children, it will be huge burden for the younger generation having to support their older generation in the future. Furthermore, Singapore will also have to face the immediate challenges of declining population and talent shortage- economic impacts. With lesser and older people working in the industry, our economic growth will be affected. It will lessen. There are lesser young people in the company. Even though many people are working hard to sustain Singapore’s economic, but in the long run, there will be nearly nobody to take over their jobs. Thus, Singaporeans have to give birth to more babies so as to have equal population among the young and the old.
To ensure stable population growth, Singapore had begun to emphasise on the importance of child birth in Singapore. They have to let Singapore see the problems they will be facing because of the decline in child birth. They even came up with a scheme to award Singaporeans who gave birth to babies. The way, people who are unwilling to give birth because of financial issues and worried for their child’s wellbeing, they might feel more relief and even consider doing so. Also, people in Singapore often already foresee the situations they might have to face in the futures because of the high demands in Singapore, and just decides to not give birth so they will definitely not meet the situation. Some working people are too enthusiastic with their work and not willing to give up their work just to take care of the child. Some would rather just live with their spouse and not lose their freedom. Some also think that a child might affect their relationship because of many cases they seen on others. Hence, Singapore has to consider the many reasons and take appropriate steps in solving those problems. They have to change the mentality people have. People certainly have doubts in Singapore so Singapore must prove to them and also convince them. Singapore can provide better environment for children so that people trust that their children will be well taken care of in Singapore.
It will not be easy to change the current challenges that Singapore is facing but I believe that as long as Singapore is willing to recognise and responds to the problem, it will not be a huge issue. I am also sure that Singapore will have a good plan to improve the situation.
In Singapore, it is highly unlikely to see beggars lining up the street or starving children walking the pavement scourging for food. It will give an overall impression that poverty does not exist. Furthermore, given Singapore’s level of wealth and development, it is also a common held view that poverty do not exist. However, we have to understand that they actually do and acknowledge that. I feel that poverty in Singapore simply means that one cannot afford to pay for the high necessities for living in Singapore. They may even struggle to survive on a day-by-day basis. It is difficult for them to make ends meet. Often, the poor has no place to be in the society of Singapore. Parents simply cannot afford education for their children and children have to take up jobs to contribute to the low income of the family. We have to acknowledge rapidly rising income inequality by setting an official poverty line. Only in this way can we better identify and assist the poor. Refusing to acknowledge poverty doesn't mean that no one is poor, it will only means that we will not get what work can be done to resolve such problem. We should still respect everyone despite of the fact that they are poor or rich, because everyone has a equal status. We should not look at them with a different eyes and feel superior towards them. What we should do instead is to help the poor in Singapore. Donating to charities can be one of the many ways but I feel that we should start by helping those people who see in our daily lives. In some cases, we might see a classmate who is unable to afford food because of the poor conditions they are facing and we can stand forward to lend a helping hand instead of ignoring those situations. Also, it might not means that only donating money can help the poor. We can help by giving away books and textbooks to the needy we needs them. It's the simple geastures that count. All in all, we should not despise the poor and look down upon them.
During this holiday, I spent most of my time training in school. Even though it is a hassle to travel to and fro school, I still enjoy those trainings. We will be having our tournaments when school reopen, so it is important for us to train hard and improve ourselves. We were also given opportunities to play in friendly matches in preparation for the real match. Those friendly matches gave us an insight on our pros and cons and how we can do better. Playing friendly matches also let us gain more experience in playing. We can also learn how to deal with the plays of other schools and the need to change our play according to different opponents rather than just sticking to the usual way of playing with our own teammates. We also bonded well during the trainings and had better relationships now. I feel that after going through all the hard work, we can now have more trust in each other, support each other whenever someone is in need and encouraging each other when we feel disheartened or feeling down. Trainings also gives me a good workout and not let me weaken physically.
I went on overseas to Korea for 8 days as a vacation with my family. I like going overseas to explore new things that I don’t usually see and experience in Singapore. I learnt a lot in Korea as we visited many historical sights, and the tour guide introducing and sharing many stories of Korea. I have also discovered many interesting things that I did not know at first. I also had lots of fun in Korea, like experiencing snow which never happens in Singapore, and being able to ski. I love the thrill of skiing and am very glad that I manage to pick up the skill of skiing. Apart from those experiences, I am also fond of being able to spend time with my family as throughout the whole year, my family has always been busy with their own things and rarely have enough time with each other. It was a good time to interact my parents. I always have talks before bedtime with my grandma where we can chat about anything. It was those simple things that I appreciated.
However, I have also wasted lots of time and unnecessary things like watching dramas and shows. I could have spend that time preparing for the new school year and finishing my homework. I feel that I have to disciplined myself more and not procrastinate. I should be rational and do things that I need to do and not what i want. I learnt that it is okay to relax and do things that I liked but should not go overboard. Hence, in the next school holiday, I will learn from the mistakes and try to adhere to my aims.
Lastly, the final stop of that day was The Master of the Nets Garden. When I first stepped, the view was breathtaking. I was glad that the owner was willing to open up his house as a tourist attraction. Again, it showed the superiority of men compared to women. However, this time, the tour guide told us that women actually played an important role too. The wife of one of the owner was quite capable and she was in charge of managing the house, the husband could focus on his career. It is supported by this belief ‘每一个成功的男人背后都有一个女人’. We obviously did not miss this wonderful opportunity of photo taking and manage to capture many beautiful memories.
To end this day, I will say that it is yet another beneficial and fascinating experience.
OELP Day 5
Yes, today is the day where most of us have been looking forward to! We had our full day immersion with our buddies. I was very grateful to all the planning that my buddy prepared for me, but unfortunately, I was unable to follow the itinerary she intended to follow. It was very heartwarming as they were very friendly and tried to offer the best they can to us. It was a pleasant experience and entertaining day. I got to experience the life of China teenagers.
Firstly, we went to watch a movie. Much to our surprise, the movie theatre was very different from the ones we have in Singapore. In Singapore, everyone selects the movie they want to watch and enjoy it in one theatre. In Suzhou, we had to secure a room before deciding the movie. This might be because there wasn’t a need to watch movies in the cinema as they may likely be uploaded online. Also, Singapore has limited land so it is not feasible to have such facilities of having a few people to big private rooms. Moreover, there is a wide range of movies, from the recently released ones to the movies way back, unlike in Singapore, where the movies only have a certain time of featuring in the cinema. I got to learn their distinctive entertainment style.
Next, we managed to take the train to travel around instead of walking or taking the taxi. I realized all of our buddies all have a card which can be used almost everywhere, like taking the train, paying for food or things that they buy. I did not ask them what it was for and why they chose this method of bringing money around as I felt that it will not be very pleasant asking about money related issues. However, I will have interpreted it to be like cash cards that we have as well. The train stations in Suzhou are similar to Singapore, where we have to tap our cards in to get in. I noticed something different though, which is the requirement to scan our belongings before heading into the station. I was taken aback initially, because it was unexpected. I was quite surprise that there was such safety enforcement. I feel that it is actually a good feature, but I am quite curious about something. What happens during peak hours? Isn’t it very troublesome to check everyone’s bags, and won’t it consume too much time?
We went to a shopping trip after that. While we were walking, we discovered that many people were trying to sell their things as people walk past. We saw someone trying hard to sell flowers, and she shoved a flower into one of buddy’s hands with force. I panicked even though I was not the one encountering it, but that buddy remained calm. She walked on with the flowers without paying. The seller was displeased and certainly did not want her to walk away without paying, hence snatching it away from her and continue promoting to others. I found this way of promoting business a bit despicable. You should not force people into buying your things, moreover giving a bad attitude when you are in the wrong. Also, from the reaction of that buddy, she seemed to know how to deal with it and it makes me wonder if she encountered it often enough.
More than anything, I was thankful to my buddies. We had a fun time talking and interacting with each other, and understand more about each other. It was delightful to know a new friend. It was rather regrettable since we were unfamiliar with each other and mostly stick with out friends. I anticipate more opportunities to come.
OELP Day 6
It was quite tearful when we have to live the place where we stayed in for 5 days. We headed to Shanghai today. Shanghai was definitely different from Suzhou, from the people to the infrastructure. Shanghai gives off the city vibe, where many places were commercialized and people were colder towards us. Suzhou has many rural places and nature, and more spacious too. We saw many significant buildings all centralized in one place. We visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition where we understood Shanghai’s urban planning and development. We also got a bird’s eye view of Shanghai through the exhibition. They were cute display on the developments of Shanghai from early 1800 to today. We learnt about globalization where the guide explained on how China looks out for western ideas and consider whether they can be in cooperated to benefit China. We also observe popular culture of China and those which are preserved until now. We were also told that they have been trying to think ahead and come out with ideas that seemed impossible now. I think this is a great learning point, because they are still trying to improve even though they may be considered as one of the top. It means that we should not stop upgrading ourselves because we are better, but to continue.
Then, we visited Nanjing Road. It was a high end shopping street with expensive brands such as Rolex, Zara etc. Therefore, we were rather disappointed because it is not economical for students like us to get them. Luckily, being able to buy books cheered us up a little, or rather, having Starbucks at the bookshop. Some of us who loved reading had a great time choosing books there.
Next, the most anticipated HaiDiLao dinner was here! We had a sumptuous meal because 110 RMB per person was actually more than enough, and we combined our entire budget together as a table. One significant thing I observed was their service. They had excellent service where hair ties, Ziploc bags were provided, and also having people standing by side of the sinks to help customers press the tap. I could not understand the need for such extreme customer service but I wished I would.
Lastly, we visited a monument of Shanghai, which is the Bund and Huangpu River. We were very fortunate to have this attraction scheduled at a night slot, because the night lights result in a gorgeous view.
OELP Day 7
It was the last day of our OELP trip and we could not bear to leave this wonderful place. However, we have to face up to reality and cherish the last day instead. We went through sweet and sour moments and bonded well through this trip. It was a once in a lifetime experience. 2E is a unique and special class <3. Time passed too quickly and I wished I had the ability to turn back time …
We went up to Oriental Pearl’s TV Tower. We had a 360 degree view of real Shanghai infrastructures and they were fascinating. It made me appreciate development of Shanghai with its diverse architecture. We spent 50 cents RMB to use the telescope and I can say, it is definitely worth it. Seeing those architectures up close is even more unbelievable. Then, we went up some more and arrived at the sky walk. I was very excited to see the transparent walkway because I don’t have fear of heights. It was a wonderful experience because it appears that you have nothing underneath you and the feeling of that was amazing.
Next, we visited the Municipal History Museum, where there were mini structures of Shanghai’s infrastructures and figurines. They look like they are alive with their movements and sounds they made. It was vivid. I understood some colonial history of Shanghai through this.
And soon, it was flight back home T_T…
Overall Reflection
Overall, this OELP trip was definitely an eye opening and enriching one with great bonding time with my fellow classmates. It was a one in a life time experience which was unforgettable and fulfilling. This fruitful journey allowed us to encounter the differences and similarities between China and Singapore we had learnt in CID lessons over the past few months with our very own eyes. We also got to learn and understand the relationship and collaboration between Singapore and Suzhou. Every place in we visited had its own unique story and history that was fascinating enough to capture my attention. Those sceneries were breathtaking and the images are still deeply etched in my mind. I would like to briefly jot down what I have learned and observed in those mere, few days.
Firstly, China put great emphasis in education. I am very impressed with the students in China in terms of how they treat their education. They are very independent with their learning, which in Singapore there is a vast difference. The students there are self-directed and they do not rely on the teachers or the schools to help them in their studies. During lessons, they are very enthusiastic and proactive, having great responsibility and taking charge of their own studies. They have self-discipline and they aren’t afraid to be wrong when they feel that they have any questions to ask. In this aspect, Singapore students really lack a lot and have lots to learn. We found it so difficult to converse in Chinese and I wondered why at first but soon realized it was actually because we are very used to mixing Mandarin and English together instead of communicating in proper Mandarin.
Secondly, the cost of living is lower than Singapore. We visited a supermarket and GuanQian Street. In both shopping trip, we found out that basic necessities, groceries and other things are 2 -4 times cheaper on average. It is actually no surprise and understandable because many items are manufactured in China itself and there is no extra charges needed to import those items from other countries unless necessary. China has sufficient land, manpower and natural resources that Singapore unfortunately does not have. However, such low cost of living may affect its country’s economy and standard of living. Hence, there are both pros and cons to high or low cost of living.
Next, the tour guide mentioned how envious she was for Singapore’s laws and regulation where she was full of praises for them. I strongly believe that the different cultural have effect on those conditions. They have been living in that environment for mostly their lifetime and are naturally accustomed to it. For example, the traffic condition in China was not that bad but Singapore was better. She raised the issue of drivers and pedestrians not obeying the traffic rules. In fact, I witnessed an incident of a restaurant worker smoking boldly in the restaurant where its customers were dining at. It undeniably left a bad impression on us. Also, he quarreled in an uncivilized manner with our tour guide over an issue. Such behavior, I guess, was what made most foreigners stereotyped Chinese as. Indeed, your behavior often unintentionally reflects on other things as well and not just you as an individual. Also, during my time in GuanQian Street, some uncomfortable scene happened. There were people selling flowers along the street, and as passersby walk past, they will stuff the flowers into their hands and refuse to take it back. When the passerby had no other choice but to continue walking with those flowers without wanting to buy them, those people will snatch them away and scold the passerby loudly in public. I was appalled by this ridiculous behavior of forcing others to buy something. Some were also cutting our queues, and I thought that it was pretty rude. However, most of the people are nice and friendly too. When I had some questions to ask for my task, they did not rudely reject me or ignore me, but pleasantly notify me that they have something on and I should look for the others instead. It was very comforting to hear those words. My buddies were also lovely and kind. Despite us being relatively demanding, they did not say anything and tried to satisfy us just because we were the guest. It reflects one of the principles of treating guest properly.
Lastly, out of the lessons that we are supposed learn from this trip, I will like to bring up the well spent time among the class. The mix feelings of being worried and excited will definitely be what we felt before the trip. It was an overseas trip without our parents, familiarity but fortunately friends and teachers. We rely greatly on each other during the trip and were great supporters too. It was extra memorable because we are not only learning, but also building beautiful memories. When one of the classmates was sick, everyone was concern about her and it was indeed heartwarming. During meals, everyone cared about each other’s health and had the courtesy to offer water, tea and even help scoop the dishes into someone’s bowl. During late nights into rehearsing and doing reflection, we cheered each other up and that was what kept us going. With our roommates and teammates, we tolerated each other’s weakness and rendered help instead of complaining. During tours on various attractions, it can be seen that people were considerate and offered a better position to those who had trouble so that everyone can listen and learn together. During shopping trips, people will attempt to help carry things for another person if they can afford to. During the last debrief, people offered hugs and comfort to those who were emotional and instantly made them feel better. Although the appreciations of those little actions and gestures are certainly not part of our learning objectives, I will still want to mention it because it was doubtlessly one of an important learning point for me.
In conclusion, I have absolutely received a lot more things that I would have deserved and I am thankful to have learnt so many things over that week.
Merlion as our national icon
There is definitely a need to have a national icon because that is what represents the country as a whole, leaving others a deep impression of the country while giving citizens a sense of belonging and pride. It is a significant identity of that country. A national icon will have to be unique and special, reminding locals about the important heritage and legacy of that country. It must also have a meaningful story behind each national icon, and something that makes its citizens proud to introduce to others. It is certainly not easy to decide on the national icon as the country needs to give a thorough thought before the decision. A national icon must leave an impact on others to be a successful national icon. It does not take any random objects to qualify for that special symbol. A national icon needs to be easily recognizable, that whenever the name of the icon is mentioned, people can immediately link back to the country. National symbols intend to unite people by creating visual, verbal, or iconic representations of the national people, values, goals, or history.Everyone knows the great story behind the Merlion. The Merlion is made up of half fish and half lion. It consists of a lion head, fish body and fish tail. The lion head represents the name Singapura which means Lion City in Malay language. It traced back to the times where Sang Nila Utama visited the area around 11 AC, and reportedly spotted a majestic lion on this small fishing village of Singapore. He then gave Singapore the name Singapura. The tail on the other hand represents Singapore as Temasek which means Sea in Javanese in the past. It symbolises the humble beginning as a small fishing village. It shows how much Singapore has changed and prospered from a mere fishing village to a first world nation. We, Singapore, is a strong country who successfully struggled through the hard times and arrived at the other end. A small little red dot, with lackof natural resources and land, who people thought could never made it big, did it. Singapore’s meaningful past is clearly depicted on the Merlion. Many might know Singapore as a wonderful country, but how much do they really know about our rich history? Well, the Merlion has a tale to tell you ;) It captures people’s attention and gives them a better understanding of the Singapore story.
Other icons like the Changi Airport and Vanda Miss Joaquim can certainly be out national icon too. We can consider them because they also bring out different perspective and characteristics of Singapore. The Changi Airport is a world class airport known worldwide. It is our nation’s pride. Vanda Miss Joaquim is chosen as the national flower to represent Singapore’s uniqueness and hybrid culture. The However, in my opinion, it does not have the good traits of Singapore which the Merlion has, so they ain’t the best candidates. Every country has an airport, yet being the best doesn’t really signify anything. An orchid flower can be seen and planted, so what’s so special about the Vanda Miss Joaquim that makes it stand out? Thus, the Merlion still remains as the best choice.
The Merlion also boost Singapore’s economy. It works well as the Singapore Tourism Board’s emblem. It is also the landmark of Singapore. Tourists will visit Singapore after hearing about the Merlion. They would want to learn more about the awesome creature people have been talking about. (Strong reason of why the national icon has to capture the attention) Shops also start producing product concerning the Merlion.
With the Merlion as our national icon, it is important that Singaporeans believes in the Merlion. They have to take pride in it for more people to know about it. We have to bring the Merlion to a whole new level, like on the international platform and not only in Singapore. By advertising more on the Merlion, people will start to connect Singapore with the Merlion and Merlion with Singapore. It makes Singapore a more well-known country. The simplest way to do it is to mention the Merlion in front of your friends, and bringing them to visit the Merlion when they are here to visit Singapore. Introduce them to the interesting tale of the Merlion too. Words spread fast and it’s the best way to promote our national icon. Also, we should have the Merlion spirit in us too, since Merlion represents Singapore. Singaporeans will work hard together and do the best out of everything we do.
In conclusion, I couldn’t agree more on making the Merlion our national icon. I believe that the most important thing to see in a national icon is how well it can link back to our country. In this aspect, the Merlion did it! I had background knowledge on the Merlion but not on any other icons that I had to google them for information. Thus, the Merlion should be made our national icon.
Week 3 lesson
Today, I will be talking about how different countries have different ruling system.Firstly, Singapore is a democratic country, but there is controlled democracy in it. If one nominated Member of Parliament is nominated, PAP will always be the winner. PAP is always the winning party since there are 80 seats of PAP and only 7 seats in the Workers’ Party. On the other hand, China has a dominant one party system.
The one party system simply means that only one single political party has the rights to form the government, making important decisions for the country. In Singapore’s case, since the Singapore Parliament is the only dominant party, it is controlled democracy.
There are both advantages and disadvantages in the One Party System.
The advantages include:
- Since only one party has the rights, there isn’t a need to be going around the country promoting and convincing people to vote for this particular party, no resources will be wasted.
-It will be more efficient as no voting is needed.
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The government has to give out money or benefits to citizens which indirectly tell them to continue voting for them.
The disadvantages include:
- Party whip: Even if everyone has different opinions on that party, you have no other options than to follow accordingly to the party’s wish. The policy intended will eventually be pushed through and there is nothing they could do. It might not be what the people in the country voiced out and cannot be implemented.
- In China, if they did not appoint a good leader in the beginning, you have no choice but to stick with it until the next election.
- In Singapore, since PAP is the only dominant party, if Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who makes most of the decisions steps down, and there is not any competent leader to take over him, Singapore may be in deep trouble.
So in Taiwan which follows the presidential system, there is a problem in which the parties fight among themselves, mainly because there are too many parties ruling. In USA, there are two dominant parties which supposedly take turns to rule… Some countries like Africa have dictator system which allows the ruler to rule the country however he or she likes. Malaysia has a one party system who is slowly being less trust worthy and people are gradually leaning towards the opposition party. During voting, they secretly let loose of the firm rules needed during voting, for example using washable ink and bribing people to vote again and again, as they themselves knew that they have high chances of losing and are scared to lose. Worse, they created the image of a blackout during counting and magically they were leading right after the blackout even though the opposition party was clearly leading right before the blackout.- In China, if they did not appoint a good leader in the beginning, you have no choice but to stick with it until the next election.
- In Singapore, since PAP is the only dominant party, if Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who makes most of the decisions steps down, and there is not any competent leader to take over him, Singapore may be in deep trouble.
Meritocracy:a system in which such persons are rewarded and advanced
In Singapore’s society, there is a strong belief in meritocracy, where hard work will definitely be rewarded. Hence, they would have the motivation to work harder to deserve a better treatment in the society. On the contrary, North Korea is a communist country and everyone receives the same reward no matter how hard you work. In the end of the day, no one is willing to work hard since it doesn’t matter if you put in more effort or not when everyone gets the same thing. They are extremely unmotivated which directly affect the country’s progress.
Also, we talked a little about monuments. Taj Mahal is India’s monument and Angkor Wat is Cambodia’s monument. Yes, monuments are important as the preserve history of that country. They are unique, and one of a kind with interesting and touching stories behind them.
Singapore’s most important monument is the Merlion which represent Singapore’s past as a fishing village and as a lion city.
Week 2 lesson
In today’s lesson, we did a recap on last week’s lesson and deeper understanding of the golden age in Singapore and mostly China.So what is a golden age? A golden age in China is when China is in a great time of prosperity, advanced technology and which people lived in ideal happiness. Tang Dynasty was the golden age in China. In Singapore, we could actually call our present the golden age. It was long ago that Singapore first started as a nation. Now, Singapore has good economy, with strong and stable government, and even great education. People lived in peace and harmony. However, we believed that Singapore could even do better and reach its peak.
So, the rise of China faced many challenges caused by Asia’s super power. China has different climate, culture, topography, agriculture and industry. It has 32 provinces grouped into large regions. This makes it relatively difficult for the government to manage such a huge country. It was not within their control. Someone suggested the idea of having a governing ruler for each province, but it was not really practical as it could cause internal conflict among the provinces which wasn’t what they want. The government is concentrated in one area and cannot control places further away from them. They are mostly in the city, which makes the living conditions there better than the other. The government had to consider the pros and cons inflicted on the different province when proposing something. It could be suitable for one and not fit for the other. Furthermore, their geography location was not really in their favour. Only 10% of the land can grow crops. Western China is made up of deserts and mountains while northern china does not have enough water. The government had to deal with various problems that they would face.
Next, people living in the south and north have different treatments. People around the central where big cities are, are generally richer and have higher living standards than the others. Cities are usually industrial where better opportunities are. More global businesses are around there. With less watch and control, officials there may be more daring and open in doing illegal things such as corruption. Again, the government cannot control it and it continues, affecting China’s economy.
Lastly, the hukou was mentioned. A hukou is a record in the system of household registration required by law in both countries of the mainland communist People's Republic of China (PRC) and the democratic industrialized island nation of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Basically, it is a policy which limits citizens from moving to coastal areas for better opportunities in education and business. It doesn’t want to lose control over the sudden increase in citizens, creating more trouble for them. Citizens had to pay a huge sum of money and their living expenses are higher than others. They were unprivileged in the first place and even more unsatisfied with the government’s decision in this policy.
It was an interesting lesson in understanding China but I hope that I can better absorb these lessons and remember them. I anticipate the next lesson.
Individual presentation and Week 1 lesson
For this CID speech, I was supposed to find a picture that best represents Singapore. The first thing that came into my mind when the question was mentioned was the merlion, and so I decided to go along with it. The initial challenge was to create the slides for my presentation. I had to consider the point of view as an audience to make my slides better. The slides cannot have too many words as everyone will read off the screen and nobody will be paying attention to you. For the script, I had hard time as well because it was difficult to be answering the question and make it impactful for the audience. I had revised and memorized my speech well enough, however as the speech was dragged and my speech was after 3 weeks, the script was firmly in my mind that I actually forgot some of the lines in the presentation. Also, I was very nervous as we rarely had the chance to be speaking in front of the whole class and I was not used to it. During my speech, I can feel myself shaking badly which affected the quality of my speech. I could not control my emotions. I am very disappointed with my performance this time round and I hope I can learn from this bad experience and improve. I leant that we should not let our nerves take over and have more confidence. Unfortunately, I still think that it is not easy to adapt and we obviously need more practice in speaking loudly in front of the class. All in all, it was an enriching experience.Next, we mentioned about Mr Lee Kuan Yew, whom everyone acknowledges as the father of Singapore. He was the first prime minister and the founding father of Singapore. He passed away on 23rd of March 2015. As I did not personally experience his journey in building the nation, I knew little of him. Yes, his name was often heard but it did not leave a huge impact on me. However, his death actually bought me to understanding more about the great man. He was a great leader with foresight and visions for Singapore. He dedicated his whole life to Singapore only to achieve what Singapore is now. His devotion for Singapore made Singapore a better place. Mr Lee was responsible for everything around us now. Without him, we would grow from a third world nation to a first world nation. Even leaders around the world respect him. He set the best example for the younger generations in Singapore. His legacy would never be forgotten.
Thank you Mr Lee Kuan Yew, you would always remain in our hearts.
China's impact on Singapore
Today, I will talk about how China's economy growth and opening up to international trade will affect Singapore. There are both positive and negative impacts on Singapore. While China’s past rapid growth has been a positive driving force for Singapore, a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy could prove to hurt the most for Singapore that have benefited from its boom. There will be many business opportunities in China and Singapore can make use of these opportunities in expanding our economy.Firstly, when China's economic grow, there are more rich people coming over to Singapore to buy our properties and lands to build condominiums and shopping malls. Then, China is the second largest tourism market for Singapore and it is also one of the fastest growing. Total tourist arrivals from China registered 1.6 million in 2011 and it has been growing at a rapid pace of 14.4% per annum compared to the industry-wide average of 5.9% over the last decade. Hotels, casinos, retail stores and F&B business gain customers and earn more profits. Furthermore, opening up to international trades means that Singapore can trade with China. China is the centre of the region’s growth story and an important trading partner of Singapore’s exports and imports. China produces and exports lots of products. Nearly everything is Made In China. Singapore has no natural resources and can only be reliant on importing products- mainly from China. When China has more ability and resources can Singapore better benefit from the trading with China.
However, Singapore will be very dependent on China economically. Any change in China's economic will cause Singapore to have a downfall. Even though China has a secure growth in economic, we still have to be very careful in any case that China's economic has a sudden drop.
Reflection for Week 6
In this week’s CID lesson, we talked about the economic of China and went through 4 questions: Where does China rank in the world in terms of total GDP? What is the size of China’s population? What is the likely implication of this? Where will China rank in the world in terms of GDP per capita? What does this mean? And when did China join WTO?
1) China ranked 2nd in the world in terms of total GDP. GDP is the total value of goods and services produced in a country, within a given period of time. China’s GDP is increasing steadily. It overtook Japan in 2009 and with USA ranking first now. This means that China is the 2nd richest country, boosting the economy and the country is moving forward.
2) However, China has a population of 1.3 billion, nearly 1.4 billion with India catching up fast. Because of the large population in China, there is a large pool of unemployed workers who can be recruited. As there are more people working, the respective salary of each employer will be low as the company has to pay for more people. This may be a good sign as there will be less burden on films as they pay their workers low wages. Unfortunately, with many more people there are more competitions. It may be a win-lose situation thus workers are unsatisfied because of the unfair treatment. And because of the many choices made available to companies, they can choose the people they want, such as people with better qualifications and abilities. It leaves out those who never had the opportunities to earn more money and they were constantly excluded. This can be one of the reasons why many people in China is going out to other countries to find working opportunities instead.
3) Even though China is a rich country, it is ranked low in terms of GDP per capita. GDP per capita is the value of goods and services each citizen can get per year. On the average, each Chinese citizen does not get a high amount of goods and services to consume, even though the country has been experiencing increasingly amounts of GDP. In this case, it might be better to be in a smaller country with less population so that each citizen can be better taken care of. In China, there is also a possibility that one might get a higher amount of GDP per capita as compared to another. Thus, the rich poor divide is widening because the rich is constantly getting more but the poor is neglected and they receive lesser.
4) China joined WTO (world trade organisation) in 2001. One benefit is that they have more access to international markets for their exports and allow more foreign investors to enter the country freely. They can trade more and easily, allowing them to make more profits. This is great for the growth of China’s economy.
Lastly, I wonder why China is selling their goods so cheaply when they can raise the price and earn more money for their citizens. I realised the reason is that they have too much resources and they can afford to produce more goods. Also, China’s currency is also smaller than Singapore so when converted it is much cheaper. Nowadays, a lot of things are made in China, so there are higher demands for their goods. They don’t mind to sell at a lower price to attracted more people to buy. They might also want to sustain a good relationship with Singapore so that they do not lose their important customers and risk downfall to their country.
Reflection on One Child Policy
Because of the overwhelming population in China, most people can only have one child. It might not be a huge issue for China’s economic growth unlike Singapore because China is a very big country, and their economic might be quite stable. However, with lesser young people, there will be slower economic developments. Even though parents may have the ability to fend for themselves and their parents, not relying on the child, but when they grow older, it might be hard to do so. Then, the child will be left to support all his elders and it will be a heavy load and huge burden to him. With already so much to spent, they will not splurge and save more, contributing lesser to the economic. The only child has to be responsible to their parents, and it can cause them not being able to pursue their dreams because they have to be there for their parents. They also have to pay more tax as they is lesser people to pay taxes to the government. They also have less people to associate and interact with. They may have less trust, less concern and close ties with people because they never had any siblings. However, in a positive light, the only child can get all the attentions from the parents. Also, there will be less competition. Nobody to fight with at home, lesser people to compete with in terms of studies, lesser people to fight against in the working industry. With lesser population in the country, the government can manage and take better care of each and everyone before things get out of control. Citizens will not be neglected and have better welfare.
Furthermore, the Chinese tradition believes that it is better to have a son so that they can keep the family line going. Boys are inferior to girls. The old way of thinking is that boys can go out to the society to work and earn money but girls does not qualify and the only thing that they should do is household work. Even till now, some people still hold on to that wrong way of thinking. To them, a daughter is useless as they will be married off eventually, making them a "waste of rice", time and effort. In this case, some of the daughters were even killed or gave away so that the parents can have another child which may turn out to be a son. As a result, the ration of females to males is 1:10. However, they might not have realized that if everyone gives birth to only a son, the women population will also decline, and declination in marriage, resulting in less women giving birth to babies. In time to come, the population in China will also get affected.
In my opinion, I feel that the one child policy should be reviewed again. But I believed that there are many factors that caused the decision to have this policy, so we should respect the decision made by the China government, even though we can still give our views and opinions on them.
Thoughts on CID lessons Week 4&5
We played a game of broken telephone. The first person in the group will have a look at the given picture. She had to remember the details and tell the next person which will eventually get to the last person. As i was the last person, i realised that the information that was passed down to me was actually way lesser than in the picture. In the end, the outcome was very different from the original but we still managed to have a good laugh. Through this simple game, I have realised the importance of proper observation and communication. If we do have poor observation and broken communication, the message that we are supposed to relay will not be successful and will be even cause some misunderstanding between people. The message also has to be effective and serve some purposes. In some cases like in examinations, if we read the question wrongly or missed out something because of our carelessness, we will lose the mark and even cause the grade to go down by one level.
Also, I learnt the implications of the one child policy making in China. There was a picture showing one baby supporting both its parents and maternal, fraternal grandparents. It means that the one child policy caused the only child in the family to have a heavy load by having to support the whole family. The one child policy is to have proper control of population in China. All in all, there will be pros and cons in that policy and it can be divided into two big categories: economic and social impacts.
6/2/2015
Reflection on possible situations that might happen and how Singapore can possibly prepare for them.Just when China is enforcing the one child policy, Singapore has the exact opposite situation. Many people are not willing to give birth and thus little babies were born each year, causing dwindle in Singapore’s population growth. It even led to Singapore having an aging population. Even though Singapore does not enforce on One Child Policy, it is also facing similar issues. Singaporeans have hectic lifestyles and quick pace of work, thus they want to avoid having to give birth to children and having to take care of them. It is also not easy to support them. The living cost in Singapore is very high. However, with lesser children, it will be huge burden for the younger generation having to support their older generation in the future. Furthermore, Singapore will also have to face the immediate challenges of declining population and talent shortage- economic impacts. With lesser and older people working in the industry, our economic growth will be affected. It will lessen. There are lesser young people in the company. Even though many people are working hard to sustain Singapore’s economic, but in the long run, there will be nearly nobody to take over their jobs. Thus, Singaporeans have to give birth to more babies so as to have equal population among the young and the old.
To ensure stable population growth, Singapore had begun to emphasise on the importance of child birth in Singapore. They have to let Singapore see the problems they will be facing because of the decline in child birth. They even came up with a scheme to award Singaporeans who gave birth to babies. The way, people who are unwilling to give birth because of financial issues and worried for their child’s wellbeing, they might feel more relief and even consider doing so. Also, people in Singapore often already foresee the situations they might have to face in the futures because of the high demands in Singapore, and just decides to not give birth so they will definitely not meet the situation. Some working people are too enthusiastic with their work and not willing to give up their work just to take care of the child. Some would rather just live with their spouse and not lose their freedom. Some also think that a child might affect their relationship because of many cases they seen on others. Hence, Singapore has to consider the many reasons and take appropriate steps in solving those problems. They have to change the mentality people have. People certainly have doubts in Singapore so Singapore must prove to them and also convince them. Singapore can provide better environment for children so that people trust that their children will be well taken care of in Singapore.
It will not be easy to change the current challenges that Singapore is facing but I believe that as long as Singapore is willing to recognise and responds to the problem, it will not be a huge issue. I am also sure that Singapore will have a good plan to improve the situation.
6/2/2015
Reflection on Poverty in SingaporeIn Singapore, it is highly unlikely to see beggars lining up the street or starving children walking the pavement scourging for food. It will give an overall impression that poverty does not exist. Furthermore, given Singapore’s level of wealth and development, it is also a common held view that poverty do not exist. However, we have to understand that they actually do and acknowledge that. I feel that poverty in Singapore simply means that one cannot afford to pay for the high necessities for living in Singapore. They may even struggle to survive on a day-by-day basis. It is difficult for them to make ends meet. Often, the poor has no place to be in the society of Singapore. Parents simply cannot afford education for their children and children have to take up jobs to contribute to the low income of the family. We have to acknowledge rapidly rising income inequality by setting an official poverty line. Only in this way can we better identify and assist the poor. Refusing to acknowledge poverty doesn't mean that no one is poor, it will only means that we will not get what work can be done to resolve such problem. We should still respect everyone despite of the fact that they are poor or rich, because everyone has a equal status. We should not look at them with a different eyes and feel superior towards them. What we should do instead is to help the poor in Singapore. Donating to charities can be one of the many ways but I feel that we should start by helping those people who see in our daily lives. In some cases, we might see a classmate who is unable to afford food because of the poor conditions they are facing and we can stand forward to lend a helping hand instead of ignoring those situations. Also, it might not means that only donating money can help the poor. We can help by giving away books and textbooks to the needy we needs them. It's the simple geastures that count. All in all, we should not despise the poor and look down upon them.
17/1/2015
Reflection on my holidaysDuring this holiday, I spent most of my time training in school. Even though it is a hassle to travel to and fro school, I still enjoy those trainings. We will be having our tournaments when school reopen, so it is important for us to train hard and improve ourselves. We were also given opportunities to play in friendly matches in preparation for the real match. Those friendly matches gave us an insight on our pros and cons and how we can do better. Playing friendly matches also let us gain more experience in playing. We can also learn how to deal with the plays of other schools and the need to change our play according to different opponents rather than just sticking to the usual way of playing with our own teammates. We also bonded well during the trainings and had better relationships now. I feel that after going through all the hard work, we can now have more trust in each other, support each other whenever someone is in need and encouraging each other when we feel disheartened or feeling down. Trainings also gives me a good workout and not let me weaken physically.
I went on overseas to Korea for 8 days as a vacation with my family. I like going overseas to explore new things that I don’t usually see and experience in Singapore. I learnt a lot in Korea as we visited many historical sights, and the tour guide introducing and sharing many stories of Korea. I have also discovered many interesting things that I did not know at first. I also had lots of fun in Korea, like experiencing snow which never happens in Singapore, and being able to ski. I love the thrill of skiing and am very glad that I manage to pick up the skill of skiing. Apart from those experiences, I am also fond of being able to spend time with my family as throughout the whole year, my family has always been busy with their own things and rarely have enough time with each other. It was a good time to interact my parents. I always have talks before bedtime with my grandma where we can chat about anything. It was those simple things that I appreciated.
However, I have also wasted lots of time and unnecessary things like watching dramas and shows. I could have spend that time preparing for the new school year and finishing my homework. I feel that I have to disciplined myself more and not procrastinate. I should be rational and do things that I need to do and not what i want. I learnt that it is okay to relax and do things that I liked but should not go overboard. Hence, in the next school holiday, I will learn from the mistakes and try to adhere to my aims.
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