Wan Yee

REFLECTIONS

REFLECTION 4: ECONOMY AGING POPLUATION

3 things I found out:
- China's one child policy was implemented in 1979.
- Both the one-child and two-child policies were implemented to control the population rate in China and Singapore.
- When the two-child policy was implemented, people who wanted to have more than two children would have to pay a fine.

2 perspectives that I've gained:
- The more children people had, the less basic need each child would have.
- Most parents would only have a single child because they did not want to pay fines and having one child would mean having more money to provide their child with education and basic needs.

1 question that I have:
Is there any other way to reduce the population rate, besides implementing the child policies?


CHINGAY GRADED REFLECTIONS:

 This year, the school brought us to the floating platform to watch the Chingay   performance. I feel very lucky to be able to watch this parade.

  The theme for Chingay 2016 is "Lights of legacy, Brighter Singapore". For me, I think that the purpose of Chingay 2016 was not only to have people from different races celebrate lunar new year, it also marked the first year of Singapore's journey towards SG100.

 

Celebrating the start of Singapore's journey towards SG100

 

  I think the theme for Chingay 2016, "Lights of legacy, brighter Singapore" suggests that Singapore will continue the legacy of our late founding prime minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and we will continue to shine brighter and prosper as a country.

  The first Chingay was held in 1973 after the ban of firecrackers, in order to bring back the festive season cheer in the people of Singapore. 

  During this time, this street parade only depicted aspects of Chinese culture such as dragon and lion dances, as well as martial arts and street opera. The first chingay was so successful that chingay continued as an annual festival. In 1976, the street parade started including performances of different culture, such as malay and indian dance items. 

 

Stilt walkers

 

  Now, the Chingay parade has become a national festival that includes performances which depicts the malay and indian cultures. I think this change happened because Singapore is a multi-racial society and celebrating this festival as a whole nation can promote the core values embodied by our pioneers, such as racial harmony and social cohesion. Hence, i think that the changes that happened since the first chingay to the current ones were that when chingay first started, it was only celebrated by the Chinese. Now, Chingay is celebrated nationwide by different races and religions.

  This year, there are 14 international groups from 9 countries participating in Chingay. Some of these performances were put up by the Japanese Association of Singapore, Si Hai Meng Xun from China, Indonesia, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam. Each performing group put up a wonderful performance. This allows the Singaporeans to have a deeper understanding about the cultures of another country. 

Performers from China

  The costumes that the performers wore and the props that they were using can be used to represent the theme "Lights of legacy, brighter Singapore". 

  One example of this representation is a performance put up by the Inter Religious Organisation (IRO) during a segment called "Because We Are Different, We Are One." In this performance, the performers were wearing LED costumes and holding LED props. This can be used to represent this year's theme "Lights of legacy, brighter Singapore" because there were many performances which made use of LED lights, which brightened up the whole place without much uses of stage lightings.

 

Performers wearing LED costumes and holding LED props

  I think that the organisers of Chingay 2016 have successfully fulfilled their purpose of continuing Mr Lee Kuan Yew's legacy and to shine and prosper as a country. This is because i feel that alot of effort has been put in to this parade, especially to decorate the floats. 

Beautifully decorated float

  The performances put up by the different races also promotes our core values, such as racial harmony and social cohesion as people from different races, language and religions worked together to put up such an amazing performance. It is also very heartwarming to see people from different walks of life, come together to perform for a single festival. Through this performance, I'm sure that many new friendships and bonds have been formed. As a spectator, i could also feel the strong sense of Singaporean-pride from the performers. Hence, i agree that Chingay 2016 have definitely been very successful.
 

REFLECTION 3: LOOKING BEYOND THE PICTURE - POVERTY

  In my opinion, being rich does not necessarily mean being happy. Although Singapore is a relatively rich country, but I certainly do not think that we are a happy country. This may be because Singaporeans have been blessed with a good living environment since birth, not needing to worry about many things. Most Singaporeans are never contented with our lives as tend to take the things we have for granted and would often desire for more materialistic things. When we don't get whatever we want, we tend to feel unhappy. However, having a materialistic mindset may not be the only reason why Singapore is an unhappy country, compared to other countries. Compared to people living in happier countries such as Costa Rica and Vietnam, Singaporeans definitely live a more stressful life as we often have a heavier workload. Living in a first world country would also mean that we have many good facilities around us and that we would live a better lifestyle than those in other countries. However, because most of us has a wealthy or average living lifestyle, we would often feel competitive around others, which causes us to desire things that others have.
 However, Instead of being upset over things we don't, I feel that we should be contented with the things we have. In the Happy Planet Index, it was shown that many poor countries were happier than richer countries. This may be because the people living in these countries were contented and appreciative of whatever they had, instead of asking for more.
  Hence, I do believe that being rich does not necessarily mean being happy. Being contented with what we have is what truly makes us happy.
 

REFLCTION 2: RV60

  We celebrated our school's diamond jubilee on 16th January 2016. As a RVian, i feel very proud to be part of the RV60's performance. Most RVians who were involved in this event stayed back almost everyday after school and practiced very hard for the actual performance. I am very glad that our efforts paid off on the day of the performances.

  However, i feel that there are some points that can be improved on for RV60. One point that can be improved on is the technical issues. During the performance, echos of the music that was playing from the main speaker could be heard from another speaker. I think that this might have happened because the performances were held at the field, which was very big. As a result, more speakers had to be placed in the field, which caused different speakers to play the particular audio at a different timing. Personally, i feel that there are too little variety of performances for RV60. As a result, many people are performing in the same act. I feel that we could actually have more performances, with fewer people in each group. This could ensure that we have a different variety of performances for audiences to enjoy, and would also give RVians many other learn and experience different things.
  Nevertheless, i still enjoyed being part of this celebration and i believe that through the many friendships and bonds forged, many RVians who participated in this celebration feels a greater sense of belonging in RV.
  Lastly, I am proud of RV because of the school spirit that all the students display. One example was how the performers went for practices despite all their homework and other activities, tried their best and put up such a great performance on the actual day. Another example was that after the whole RV60 perfomance had ended, '立化情' started playing and almost immediately, the performers all sang along loudly, showing how proud they were as a RVian.

REFLECTION 1: extra in the ordinary

  To me, this picture is extra-ordinary because it reminds me of RV60. To any other non-Rvians who look at it, they would think that think that RV60 is just like any other school celebrations, but to me, it reminds me of all our hard work and preparation just for a 3 minute performance on the actual day of rv60.

  I'm involved in the RVFSD mass display and it was a very special experience for me because i am not from NCC and it was my first time trying out FSD. I remember staying back almost everyday in school until 6 to rehearse for RV60 and even though i didn't like the idea of consecutive trainings at first, i soon got use to going for practices after school, and even looking forward to these practices. However, i think RV60 is a very special memory to me because after the performance, i realise that i've learnt many things that i didn't have a chance to learn. As RVFSD consists only of members from different uniformed groups, many things were done the in a stricter way, such as the commands given and the the speed we do things were way faster. Through this experience, I finally understood the meaning of "ug pride" and felt a stronger sense of belonging in my CCA.




SELF INTRODUCTION

  My name is Ng Wan Yee from group 4. I enjoy leading and is currently a facilitator for 2016's Year one orientation. My hobbies include EATING and watching dramas. I like listening to kpop, especially songs from groups such as iKON and Big Bang :-)


  My CCA is scouts, and my favourite session of the CCA is usually the knots and lashings session. I dislike, or hate PE lessons, not because it is boring, but because it requires us to run about and build our muscles, which is very tiring, especially becuase i do not exercise very often. My favourite subjects are mathematics and science as i find the lessons very interesting. I often prefer basic amd simple things to complicated ones, hence i prefer to own things with basic designs. My favourite colours are black and maroon. I do not like interacting with animals in real life even though i tend them cute very often. I do not game very often as i tend to spend most of my time on social media instead.

  I look forward to OELP this year as i've heard of many interesting stories from my seniors about their OELP trip. I hope to be able to understand more about other countries' culture after this OELP trip.