3 Cultural Things From "Welcome To Beijing"

Stereotypes: Singapore vs China

Does Tourism Add Value Or De-value A Heritage Spot Or Icon?

Does Tourism Add Value Or De-value A Heritage Spot Or Icon? Personally, I think it's both. I'm sure all of us know that tourism can help to increase a country's economy and reputation. Tourists often visit a heritage site of a country, and as well as the tourists' attractions, which are usually the popular places or representative of the country. At the heritage site, tourists will get to learn about that country's culture, history, and the icon of the country. The Icon of a country helps to increase its reputation as it attracts tourists all around the world to visit the country to learn more about the country and add more value to the icon. 

However, to satisfy the tourists' needs, especially food, there will be western restaurants and eateries either near or in the heritage sites as people living in this century love to eat western food. One example will be MacDonald's, which I believe it exists in many countries. Let's take The Forbidden City of China as an example, isn't it weird to find a Western restaurant instead of a Chinese restaurant at the heritage site, where people are supposed to learn about China's culture and not the Western's? If so, what is the point of visiting China? Would you eat pizza or chicken rice in Italy?

One way the government can solve this issue is that they can try combining both Western and Chinese cuisines. This way, not only the tourists can have a meal that satisfies them, they can also try out and have an experience of eating Chinese cuisine, to know what kind of food the Chinese eat, to know China's culture better.

Should We Demolish Mr Lee Kuan Yew's House?

In my opinion, I think we should demolish Mr Lee Kuan Yew's house. After the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, he left a will that stated he wanted his house to be demolished after his passing. It is the minimal respect to follow his will after his passing. If his house is demolished, the plot of land could be used for other purposes, for example, residential.

I understand that Mr Lee Kuan Yew had done a lot of things for Singapore, bringing her from a first world to a third world country, and because of this, many people respected him and missed him dearly after his passing. However, should Mr Lee Kuan Yew's house become a heritage site? If you were to ask me, my answer is no. Why not? We could preserve this building and make it a place where future generations can learn about Mr Lee Kuan Yew. We could preserve this building to remember him. There are many reasons why we should preserve Mr Lee Kuan Yew's house but think about it, is it really necessary? Must we need this building in order to remember him? Must we use this building to educate the future generations? No. This is just a building with no heritage values. I believe that we can remember Mr Lee Kuan Yew even if this building is demolished and we can teach the future generations about Mr Lee Kuan Yew. How? We can keep his love for him in our heart. We can tell our children stories about Mr Lee Kuan Yew, even if we are not sure of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's contributions to Singapore, we could look up to google, youtube, I'm sure there will be plenty of stories and videos about him. 

We should use this plot of land for better purposes, we should look forward and not look back, we should continue the spirit that Mr Lee Kuan Yew gave, the Singapore Spirit. We should work hard together as one and make Singapore better.

Dilemma between the blind pursuit of higher economic growth and protecting our environment

Good environment or good economy? In other words, health or wealth? Which is more important? Which is more valuable? Can money buy us health? Sadly, the answer is no. 

If a country builds a large number of factories, what would happen? Well, air pollution might be one of the answers to the question. If there is air pollution, people in that country would be breathing in harmful air that would lead to poor health. If the people in that country is all sick because of the air pollution, who would work in the factories? Who would produce goods that are to be sold away for profits? Yes, there might still be a few people out there who are willing to sacrifice their health for money, however, the economy of that country will surely drop as lesser people working means lesser goods produced and lesser goods produced means lesser profits. In addition, is it worth it to sacrifice our health, our lives just for the money? Absolutely not.

Now, let's think about it another way, a country with good environment. Will this country do better than the country with "good economy" in terms of economy? Well, my answer is yes. A country with good environment will have more people with good health as compared to the country with "good economy" and that would mean there would be more people working and increase the country's economy.

Thus, a good environment will protect the economic growth of a country in a long run.

Cost Of Living (Singapore)

Cost of a standard 4/5 room HDB flat (90-100 square metre) In Punggol	$428000
Cost of a brand new Toyota Vios	From $105988
Cheapest 10 kg packet rice	$13.70
Cheapest one litre drinking mineral/distilled water	$1.30
Cheapest fresh whole chicken (refrigerated not frozen)	$5.35
Do we provide plastic bags and how are they used?	Yes. The products that we purchased will be placed into the plastic bag for us to carry them home.
Who are the cashiers (age, nationality) and what kind of service will they provide?	Cashiers are of various ages and races, they help us to calculate the total cost of the products that we buy and place them into the plastic bags.
Cheapest one litre of cooking oil	$4.75
Cost of school fee	$28 (per month)
Cost of one litre of petrol (95 unleaded)	$2
Cost of one movie ticket on a weekend	$13
Average salary of a Singaporean	$4998 (per month)
Unit price of water and electricity	Water: $1.17/Cu M Electricity: $1.54/kWh

Consequences Of High Cost Of Living

What is cost of living? Well, it is the amount of money needed to sustain a certain level of living, including basic expenses such as housing, food, taxes and health care. What will happen if the cost of living is high? If the cost of living is high, that will mean that the prices of things will increase and our daily expenses will be higher. Consequences of high cost of living can be positive and negative. Below are some examples.

Negative consequences of high cost of living

When the cost of living is high, things will get more expensive and it will be harder for people to purchase. In order to purchase the thing that one wants, one will have to wait for a longer time to save up enough money for that particular thing. If people were to live in a place with a high cost of living, they might feel more stress and unhappy as they need to work harder to achieve what they want.

Positive consequences of high cost of living

Living in a place with a high cost of living can teach people how to spend their money wisely and manage their money carefully. This can also help people to save up more money for future uses. Besides that, spending money wisely means that we do not buy unnecessary things and by doing so, we can help to reduce wastage.

Hence, we can see that there are positive and negative consequences of high cost of living and that there are more positive consequences that will benefit both the people and the country.

E n C Week Reflection

" Experiencing another's culture may open doors that were previously closed ... but the choice to walk through those doors are entirely up to you."

What do we know about the other races? What do we know about the other religions?

What do we know about others' cultures? Well, I do not know much about the other cultures in Singapore but after the eye-opening week, I learnt more about others' cultures. Together with my classmates, we went on a learning journey to places such as Little India, Kampong Glam, Sultan Mosque and Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah on three differents days. 

Day 1: Little India

Little India is a buzzing historic area that shows off the best of Singapore's Indian community from vibrant culture to incredible shopping.

Walking through the alleys in Little India, I spotted many shops that sell flower garlands. The flowers were so bright and beautiful that they attracted bees. It was a scary experience as I am very scared of bees and there were many bees. That is not all, a flower shop has many bees which are scary enough, the thing is there are so many flower shops! Hence, whenever I walk pass the flower shops, I always stay as far as possible from the flower shops. Besides that, I learnt that these flowers eternity, purity and divinity and a symbol of life, fertility, ever-renewing youth and describes feminine beauty.

At Little India Arcade, we saw many different types of snacks. I also tried some of them and they taste delicious. I realised that they even used spices such as curry leaves for some of the snacks. Besides that, I also tried the Chocolate Burfi, a type of sweet made out of a layer of chocolate and a layer of condensed milk, which tasted extremely sweet. I also saw many of my friends trying out the Henna-drawing on their hands, there are many designs and all of them have their very own kind of beauty. After doing some research online, I learnt that Henna is regarded as having Barakah, also known as blessings, and is applied for luck as well as joy and beauty. It is applied on ladies during festive events such as marriage and Deepavali. 

Next, we went to Tekka Market. At the first level, there is a hawker centre where we can find food, due to time constraint, my group did not have a chance to try out any of the traditional Indian food as we spent too much time at the second level of Tekka Market, where traditional Indian costumes are sold. If we were to look closely to the traditional Indian costumes, we can see that the costumes are decorated with tiny gold ornaments, which make the costumes look glamourous.

Lastly, we went to the Sri Veeramakliamman Temple which is located in the heart of Little India. The temple is very colourful and stunning. Many Hindus often go there to pray. In the temple, I witnessed a few Hindus throwing coconuts against the floor, I was curious about why they have to do that so I went to do some research online. The reason behind it is that only when the physical world or maya is stripped or smashed away, one can one relieve stress and burden. Smashing coconuts is a spiritual technology and the smashing of it is symbolic of the removal of karmas that create obstacles on many different levels of spiritual and material evolution.

Day 2: Kampong Glam

Kampong Glam is a flourishing centre of Malay and Islamic culture. Whilst its Malay-Muslim Identity, the streets of Kampong Glam today are bustling with commercial activities amidst the presence of other communities.

We went to the Kampong Glam cafe which is located along Muscat Sreet, Baghdad Street or Northbridge Road. Over there, I shared a plate of Nasi Padang with my friend and it was delicious! Nasi Padang is commonly mistaken as Nasi Lemak, but it is not. Nasi Padang is a Padang steamed rice served with various choices of pre-cooked dished originated from Padang city, the capital of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is a miniature banquet of meats, fish, vegetables and spicy sambals eaten with plain white rice. 

Day 3: Sultan Mosque and Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah

Sultan Mosque is also known as Masjid Sultan, a mosque located at Muscat Street and North Bridge Road within the Kampong Glam precinct of the district of Rochor in Singapore. The mosque is considered one of the most important mosques in Singapore. The prayer hall and domes highlight the mosque's star features. Before entering the mosque, the Muslims first have to take off their shoes and socks. Then, they will proceed to the water taps that can be easily found in the mosque and do the ritual cleansing which is known as ablution or wudu in Arabic before performing their prayers. There are eight steps in performing the ablution. 

Afterwards, they will proceed to the prayer hall to perform their prayers. In mosques, places that are covered with carpets are called Itikaf, where people pray. All the carpets are arranged in a way such that they are facing in one direction, Mecca. Muslims pray five times a day. The first prayer is during midday after the sun passes its highest, which is known as Zuhr. The second prayer is at dawn, before sunrise, which is known as Fajr. The third prayer is just after sunrise, which is known as Maghrib. The fourth prayer is between sunset and midnight, which is known as Isya. Lastly, the fifth prayer is during the late part of the afternoon, which is known as Asr. Muslims also need to be dressed properly when they go to a mosque, Muslim men and women should both cover as much skin as possible and women are required to cover their heads with hijab. Many people tend to have this misconception of all Malays are Muslims, but this is not true, there are also Christian-Malays and Buddist-Malays. In addition, not all Muslims are ISIS, ISIS have misunderstood and misinterpreted peace, they thought through violence, peace can be found in the world. True Muslims will not act violently towards others. Moreover, after interacting with so many Muslims in Singapore, I find all of them friendly so I hope that to some people out there who think that all Muslims are a part of ISIS, could stop thinking it in the wrong way.

After visiting Sultan Mosque, we went to Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah, Madrasah Aljunied is one of the 6 Madrasahs in Singapore. Madrasah is a religious institution that offers a pedagogical mix of Islamic religious education and secular education in their curricula. Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah provides education for both secondary and pre-university students and has around 1000 over students. This religious school provides 16 subjects, which some subjects are optional for the students to take. Besides providing academic and Islamic educations, students in Madrasah Aljunied also get to learn about the Islamic art & culture, such as martial art called Silat, calligraphy called Khat and also traditional Malay instruments such as kompang. Lesson hours for students is from 7.45 am to around 4 pm, which is roughly around 8 hours, in between, there will be a lunch break and a prayer break. I used to think that religious schools’ students just learn about their religion and take some basic subjects, but after knowing that they have around 16 subjects to juggle with, I kind of respect them a lot. I am taking 7 subjects and I am already here "dying", but if I were to choose between going home late from school due to school activities and juggling with 16 subjects, I would definitely choose the first option.

Although I had been to these places when I was in primary school, but this time round it was definitely a different and fruitful experience as I have a number of takeaways from this learning journey. On these three days, I learnt about the Indian and Malay culture and overcame common stereotypes and discriminations. However, I hope that the duration of the learning journey can be extent as there was not enough time for us to explore around. As for Kampong Glam, we went too early and most of the shops along Arab Street and Muscat Street Were still closed, hence there was nothing much for us to explore. I hope that the school will take note of my feedbacks so that the next badge will get to have a better experience of the learning journey.

Should Singapore Continue To Share Her Development Experiences With Other Countries?

From the Suzhou Industrial Park, I learnt that Singapore and China have different ways of dealing things due to different cultures, which caused some misunderstandings. The Suzhou Industrial Park project was not a successful one for Singapore, however, Singapore did not give up in working with China, but instead, Singapore find her own way out and continued their second partnership with China, the Tianjing Eco-City which turned out to be a success. From this, I learnt that when we are faced with difficulties, we should never ever give up and that we should find a way to get to our feet again. 

I personally think that Singapore should continue to share her development with other countries. This is because Singapore is a country with lack of natural resources, hence it is important to get "help" from other countries. We can do so by sharing our development experiences with other countries. This way, both parties will get benefits, other countries will get to know how to manage their country better and would want to work with Singapore, leading to a good relationship between the two countries. Singapore will also have a chance to start businesses overseas and this will help in boosting the country's economic growth, helping her to climb higher.

Why Can't Singaporeans Be Complacent & Why Is Our Relationship With China Important?

To grow from a 3rd world to a 1st world country, it is not something easy to do. It is all thanks to the previous generations of Singapore who put in their blood, sweat and tears that Singapore is what it is today. In order to let Singapore continue to succeed, we must follow the footsteps of the previous generations and at the same time, show and teach the younger generations how Singapore can stay as successful as today. As a small nation, we should not be complacent, especially when we are working and competing with the big nations. We should always be on our toes, stay alerted to the changes around us and keep improving in order to keep up with the world and to be recognised. If Singaporeans are complacent, we would definitely start to fall downwards and other countries would definitely catch up or even go ahead of us due to the tense economy competitions between countries. 

It is important for Singapore to keep spurring on but we should not forget about maintaining a good relationship with China. China is one of Singapore's biggest investment and Singapore is one of China's biggest investment hence it is important for both countries to have a good relationship and work closely together to achieve something big. If one country were to be complacent, it will surely not bring any benefits for both countries, especially Singapore. If China were to have a little loss, Singapore will have a big loss, and when it goes down, it really goes down very fast. Hence, it is important that Singaporeans are not being complacent and Singapore should maintain a good relationship with China.

Similarities between Singapore and China's culture

From what I learnt, culture involves the 4Fs: Festivals, Fashion, Folk and Food. Understanding one's culture is not something that can be done overnight, we need time to do so. I think that understanding Festivals, Fashion and Food is easier than understanding Folk. We can spend less than a week to understand their Festivals, Fashion and Food just by going around the city and roam at those places where it is related to that culture, try out their food, look at the different types of traditional costumes they wear and talk to the people there or search up online to know what are their festivals. Whereas for Folk, it is harder to do so because it is related to their religions and it is more complicated for us to understand. Hence, I think that understanding one's culture is hard, but if we are willing to put in the time and effort to learn about their culture, I don't see how understanding one's culture is impossible.

Now let's talk about the similarities and differences between Singapore's and China's culture. The similarities between Singapore's and China's culture is that in both countries, we celebrate Chinese New Year, there is also Chinese cuisine in both countries and both countries practice the value of showing respect to the elders. The differences between Singapore's and China's culture is that in Singapore, we care more about the law than the relationships while China cares more about relationships than the law. Singapore is a multi-racial country with people of different races and religions whereas China is a country where the people are generally Chinese.

A Picture That Represents Singapore's Culture

This is a picture that I think would best represent Singapore's culture. The reason behind this is because in Singapore, we live together as one, regardless of race or religion. We often celebrate other races' festivals, through that, we can learn more about one another's cultures and have a better understand of one another's culture. This is why Singapore is a harmonious country, we took the initiative to get a better understanding of other's cultures and accept them. Let's take our HDB flats as an example, if we were to look at one storey of the HDB, it is very rare to see that every flat on that storey belongs to one particular race, I'm sure all of us have neighbours of different races. It is arranged in this way because the government want us to learn how to accept and learn from other races' cultures, by doing so, Singapore will then be a peaceful and harmonious country.

What Forces Can Help Us Understand China's Culture?

Singapore may be a small country, however, it has a diversity of languages, religions and cultures. Here, we live together in peace and harmony and also celebrate one another's festivals. In this way, we can better understand one another's cultures and know one another better, and I think this is what makes Singapore special and makes Singaporeans stay together as one. This is one of the forces to understand Singapore's cultures. We can make use of this force to help us understand China's culture, likewise, we can observe the things we see in China and have a good chat with the people there to understand their culture better.

Self-introduction

Hi everyone! I'm Ivy from 2I (Yr 2017). I'm born in Indonesia but I'm now living in Singapore and I'm already a Singapore Citizen. Although shy sometimes, but I'm an outgoing person so please don't be afraid if you want to be friends with me. (I'm really very friendly hahaa). 

My hobbies are singing, watching dramas (especially K-dramas), hanging out with friends and listening to music (especially K-pop). I really really really love K-pop. Other than family, friends, food and money, K-pop is my life <3

When listening to K-pop songs, I don't just appreciate the music, I also appreciate the lyrics. So far, my favourite K-pop group is BTS aka Bangtan Sonyeondan aka Bulletproof Boy Scouts. I fell in love with them since their debut in 2013 and I really really really love them and respect them. They taught me certain values that are useful in life. At first, when they started their career, not many people know them because they are under a not-so-famous entertainment company. But now, if you are to go around and ask what is BTS, I'm sure that most of the people will tell you who they are. Despite the fact that they were not popular at first, they worked very hard all these years and are very successful now. They taught me that no matter what happens, we should never ever give up. Instead, we should endure the hardships and persevere on. I love listening to their songs as they always spur me on. I want to be just like them, being a successful person in the future and in order to do so, I need to work hard and never ever give up! And I hope the same goes to you guys too, never ever give up on yourselves!

Chingay Reflection

~On the 21st of January, Saturday, I went to the F1 Pit Building to watch the Chingay NE Show together with my batchmates, teachers and some seniors. Before going for the Chingay NE Show, most of my friends and I were very excited about it as it was the first time we were watching a Chingay NE Show for the most of us, including myself. While we were waiting at the school foyer for the bus to pick us up t the F1 Pit Building, it started raining suddenly. It was bad news for us as we had to watch the performance in the rain. Not long after, the bus came and we set off for the F1 Pit Building. On the bus, my friends and I prayed hard for the rain to stop before the Chingay NE Show.

          

~To our disappointment, it was still raining when we reached our destination. The helpers at the Chingay NE Show led us to our seats and gave us ponchos to wear. Before the show started, some people were very upset about the fact that we had to watch the show under the rain, however, my batch was very united, despite being from a different class, they cheer them up and managed to chill them down. I was happy to see that happening and I really wish them my batch will continue to be like this for the next 4 years of school. 

~After some time, the Chingay NE Show started off with firing firecrackers and we clapped enthusiastically and cheered at the top of our voices. The atmosphere was amazing and the parade was soon filled with coloured lightnings which made the parade very beautiful. The first item that came out was a huge tiger sculpture, after listening to the emcees of the show, I finally understood why the tiger sculpture was there, the reason is because the first Chingay Show started in the zodiac year of tiger, 1973. Afterwards, there were many items being put up by the performers. All of the performances were amazing, there were performers from other countries such as South Korea and Japan, which made the show to have a very cultural atmosphere. 

~One thing that gave me a deep impression is the performers walking on stilts. They were walking in the waterway. Some of the performers fell down and were having a hard time to stand up on their feet, that causes the other performers to have a hard time to walk as the walkway was partially blocked. Some of the other performers started to fall down because of that. The helpers standing at the side saw the situation and carried them out of the waterway.They also made sure whether the performers were not hurt after carrying them out of the waterway. The performers that fell down went back into the waterway after they regained their balance and continued their performance. In this performance, I see teamwork and perseverance. The helpers helped the performers who fell down to get up on their feet again and the performers did not give up easily after failing once, they persevered and continued performing.

~After watching the Chingay NE Show, I learnt that Chingay epitomises the dynamism of Singapore's vibrant and multicultural society. The word Chingay is equivalent to the Mandarin zhuang yi (妆艺), which means "the art of costumes and masquerade" in the Hokkien dialect. Chingay is a street parade is now a national festival, celebrated by Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians alike. In Chingay, we can see the different cultures of Singapore and the world. Here age, race, language and creed are no barriers. Here, we celebrate together as one. I hope that Singapore will be more united and maintain the harmonious relationship among the different races.