YanTong

Trip Task - Heritage And Monuments
  我选择了木渎水乡来代表苏州。
  我问了在立达中学的伙伴，而导游也说过，很多当地人都认为苏州的其中一个特点就是它懒洋洋的感觉。导游说，苏州整个城市的速度就是很慢，很懒的。我觉得木渎水乡这个地方就是一个很好的例子。当我们去到木渎水乡时，它给我一个很舒服，很平静的感觉，好像回到了很久以前的中国一样。它并没有像苏州其他的部分，都已经有了高楼, 已经是个技术先进，很发达的地方了。它让我发现苏州的另一个特点就是他们很会照顾他的历史和文化。我听到了有些当地人说政府有考虑过把木渎水乡摘掉，因为它站很多可以开展成学校，屋子的地。但是，他们最终决定不要把水乡摘掉，而把他作为了一个旅游景点，因为木渎水乡这种懒洋洋，平静的生活方式和态度，就是苏州的特色和精华。

Post Trip Reflection

Year 2 Suzhou OELOP
Name	School	Class	Stream	Period of Internationalization Experience	Country of visit
Tan Yan Tong	River Valley High School	2G	Integrated Programme	20 May to 26 May 2016	China
Reflections: I chose to go on this OELP trip so I could learn more about Chinese culture and be exposed to traditional Chinese culture. Even though I am Chinese, I am more exposed to Singaporean culture rather than Chinese culture. Singapore is a multi-racial multi-ethnic multi-cultural place and to bond people of several different races and cultures together, they have to be willing to almost let go of their own individual cultures and build a new identity and culture together as a new nation. So, I think that the traditional Chinese culture has been lost quite a bit with Chinese-Singaporeans and it’s difficult to have a good understanding and learn about our history as a race. It’s also interesting to find out what life was like for my ancestors and their reasons for going to Singapore instead of staying in China or what life would have been like for them and for me if they stayed in China and never left. Many little decisions such as what to pack were made and I was just very excited to make them for myself and to feel independent. I hope to learn from this trip how to be more independent and hopefully become a more mature and decisive person. I’ve only been on one other trip without my parents and it’s nice to be on my own and let them trust me and believe that I can take care of myself. I also hope that I can learn more about Chinese culture, especially their youths’ interests and hobbies, as well as the music they listen to, because we don’t really have a lot of connection to youths in China as they all use different social media platforms and messaging apps as compared to us. They use QQ and WeChat, and we use WhatsApp. Also, Instagram, which is very popular here, is blocked there unless you download another app. Facebook and Google are also blocked there. Because of this blocking of connection via social media which is how most people contact one another these days, we have a lack of exposure towards Chinese youths, and so we often rely on stereotypes when we think about their interests. I would like to find out what music they enjoy listening to, really how stressful their school life is and how hard it is to keep grades up, and how different they are from us. I think the situation that I came across during this trip that I feel strongly about was when my buddy and her friends took me, Jiayee and Kailun to HaiDiLao without her parents or any adults. When the waitress served us drinks, she didn’t tell us that we needed to pay for them and we assumed it was free. So, when they mentioned later that the drinks were 8RMB, my buddy and her friends immediately started arguing with the waitresses and waiters about how they were looking down on them because they were children and how bad the service and servers’ attitudes were. When this happened, Jiayee and I looked at each other in disbelief as we would never have done this and would never have dared to stand up for ourselves and speak up as bravely as these kids did even though they were our age. We realised that they were much more self-reliant and independent than us. They planned everything, reserved everything and did everything by themselves and appeared to the servers as very mature and as adult as possible. They were much more out spoken and never felt embarrassed to ask the servers to do anything for them, unlike us who would shy away from asking from favours or help from the servers at restaurants. Because they live and are growing up in a bargaining culture, they are much more outspoken and daring when it comes to making sure their money is well-spent. I know that if I were in that situation, I would have just paid the money for the drink even if the server was in the wrong, just to not overcomplicate things. This really came as a shock to me because I would have never thought an adult would argue with the servers to that extent for a drink that costed less than $2, let alone a youth my age. This made me realise that even though we are the same age, the things we experience and environment we grow up in make us completely different people and the things and behaviours we consider normal are completely different. A person that I saw during this trip that taught me more than what I could have learnt in class is the lady who rowed the boat for us at Mudu Water Town. The lady asked us to pay her 2RMB each for her to sing a 2 traditional songs, and we were hesitant but felt obliged to, so we kept quiet while she continued asking us. She eventually lowered the price to 1RMB and we agreed. She explained that the song she sang was an old traditional song people used to sing while rowing the boats. While she was singing, I asked myself why I felt uncomfortable paying her the money to sing, and realised it was because it like an underhanded thing. It felt like I was taking pity on her, or as if it was something that was wrong or illegal, which it technically wasn’t. I just felt that way because it wasn’t something I found normal. Here, people just do their job and get their pay. Not a lot of people here would do, or would need to do what this lady did and ask and even pressure people into giving her extra money. She does this because she doesn’t make enough and this is the only way to get a little bit of extra cash for herself. This realisation felt similar to things we learn about people and housing geography or history, but it always was so 2-dimensional in class and it never registered in my brain that some of these thing still happen, and I was able to understand it way better than I ever would have in class. One fact that I learnt during this trip that impacted me the most is that even though the China students spend much more time in school than we do, our hours in class are much longer than theirs. Their lessons are in 40 minute periods, and they only have 7 periods. They have 10 – 15 minutes of breaks between lessons and 1hr 15 min for lunch as well as a 1hr long self-study period. It made me think whether these breaks and less class time is worth the 3 or 4 extra hours spent in school. At first, when I found out their school hours was 7am-4pm, I thought to myself that the stereotype of Chinese students being hard core muggers who only studied really hard was true, but when I found out the reality of how much they actually spent in class, I realised that even though they still had a very heavy workload and had to spend a lot of time on schoolwork to keep their grades up in such a high stress and competitive system, they are still just regular kids who hang out with friends listen to music and watch TV. I think this trip has changed me in terms of independence and has taught me a sense of self-reliance and gratitude. I have learnt to be more independent and self-reliant over the course of this week without my parents reminding me and nagging me to complete things. I learnt to get things done myself. I also have learnt to be grateful for what I have. The students at Lida told me that they were very happy and grateful for their school hours to end at 4pm because it was already considered very early in Suzhou. I realised that even though I felt that my school hours were very long in comparison to other schools here in Singapore, and we RVians always complain about it, their school hours are much longer and we should be grateful for what we have. A long term change I hope to see as well as something I learnt through this trip is I hope I’ll remember this experience and always remember to stay thankful for what I have. I used to complain and find the bad in every situation, which comes from how hypercritical I am of myself and whatever I do. Now, with a new experience, I hope I’ll continue to learn to be more thankful and grateful.

Pre Trip Reflection
From these 7 days in Suzhou, I wish to be more exposed and to learn more about Chinese culture. I've been to different parts of China before with my family, such as Beijing, Xi an, Yunnan,  Fujian, Hanzhou, Guangzhou and Xiamen, but I've never been to China with my school, and I've never been to Suzhou. I know different parts of China have different cultures and practices and even though they are all Chinese,  they are all unique and special. I would like to specifically know more about Suzhous culture and history, and learn about some of their tourist attractions such as the guan qian jie. I also would like to learn more about their food and compare it with Singapores. I want to know whether they prefer their food to be spicier, blander, or saltier.
I would also like to know about what are the interests youths have in China. for example, in rv, a lot of students either enjoy kpop, Taiwanese or western music. I want to know whether Chinese youths actually do enjoy the stereotypical cpop, or if they enjoy similar things to us.
I would also like to know more about their education system as it is very well known that Chinese students are always under a lot of stress and pressure to do well for exams and have a good future. I would like to know whether the students themselves feel stressed and whether the work load is really too much to handle.
since we are going to be seeing elderly at the park,  I want to ask them how supportive the government is and how happy they are, whether they have a comfortable life.
I also really like food and eating and love xiaolongbao. I know it is very difficult to make and requires a lot of expertise and steady hands, so I would like to try it out and see the whole process.
I hope that as a class, we will bond to be much closer as a class and as friends through this trip. I hope we all enjoy this trip together and grow as people and gain a lot more knowledge about China.

Why Singapore must not be Complacent in her Achievements
When we believe we are good enough, we tend to become too comfortable with the level we are at and we will thus not improve. Slowly but surely, the other countries and nations, no matter how small or insignificant as of now, will catch up to us and overtake us, and we will no longer be successful.   The only way to  be a consistent competitor in the eyes of other countries and nations,  we have to keep on moving, keep on coming up with new innovations and ideas to surpass other countries, and keep on improving, and getting better. Many other countries such as China have been overtaking in terms of success as a port because even though it is larger, has more land and people and natural resources and in that sense, has much more potential as compared to Singapore, it is not complacent, it keeps on moving, keeps on striving to be better than before and working hard to improve, showing that with the right attitude you can always work yourself up to the top if you stay humble and keep striving to improve. When we stop trying and start becoming too comfortable with ourselves, we end up not being seen as a competitor or as a strong nation,and will slowly become insignificant as all the other countries catch up. Instead of being complacent, we should be learning from other countries, picking up their good points and  applying it to ourselves to help us improve further.

3-2-1
3 things I found out:
1. Singapore implemented a two child policy and promoted it using the baby bonus.
2. China has recently abolished their infamous one child policy and changed it to a two child policy.
3. The one child policy is not a long term solution for problems.

2 new perspectives I gained
1.  I would be very upset if I was pregnant with a child when they just implemented the one child policy, because I would have been taking care of my unborn child but now would be either forced to abort him or her or pay a fine for his or her birth.
2.  I would be very angry and a bit confused if I had two children before the government implemented the two child policy and had just given birth to the third child just after the government had implemented the policy and started giving baby bonus to the third child onwards.

1 question I still have
1.Will Singapore bring back the two child policy to slow down the population growth rate?

Happiness, Poverty, Wealth
I was not surprised when i saw the happiness index score of China vs Singapore. I was always told by teachers, my parents and other adults that Singapore is a very unhappy country and that we are very unappreciative of what we have financially and just how privileged we are in general. However, I do not think happiness and poverty are necessarily directly linked. I think it links more in the sense that if you are a simpler person and a person that does not expect much, you will obviously be happier when you have less, because you dont find having a lot of materialistic things very important, as compared to someone who puts a lot of value on things like money or good cars and expensive shoes. I think we think of poor people as being exceptionally happy because they have less and less thus we think they learn to appreciate smaller things. However, this is not true for all poor people. If the person who is materialistic by nature is/becomes poor, they will be very unhappy and constantly unsatisfied with their life. So even though they are poor, they are unhappy. I do not think being rich necessarily makes you happy either. Some people are incredibly rich but always desire more, or do not have wealth in areas where money cant help, such as family or health. Many people say being rich means you have to work less hard as compared to children coming from poorer backgrounds because you are not trapped in the poverty cycle and therefore you are happier as well, but i think even though wealth can open some doors, it can affect many other things negatively as well. For example, a lot of people do not like wealthier people or find them to be spoiled or unappreciative, and thus richer children have to work harder to prove themselves as hardworking individuals and not just as "that rich kid who bought his way up to the top." So i think being poor does not link with being happy, and being rich does not link with being happy either.

Chingay Reflection
I thoroughly enjoyed going to watch chingay this year. As a child I always thought of chingay as either a show with a lot of stereotypical Chinese opera drama or just random floats going down a street like a parade, and neither sounded interesting. I always refused to go to watch Chingay whenever my parents would ask me if I wanted to. But on the day, it was really spectacular and I was amazed at how many people volunteer, from young children to older adults, it really was impressive.
When I was younger I thought chingay was just an event on its own, and always thought of it as weird. When I got a little older, I thought it was solely for celebrating Chinese New Year. But be able to watch this years chingay was a big privilege. There were Eurasians, Japanese, and many more people from different ethnic groups. I think the purpose of chingay is still to celebrate Chinese New Year, but in a way so that our friends of different races can join in to. Over the years, the parade has taken a more inclusive route, all starting when The Straits Times sponsored 4 Japanese pop singers, becoming a tradition for the chingay parade, and I think it happened so as to include more racial diversity in chingay. I think the organizers have very successfully fulfilled the purpose, and did a very good job this year. It was vibrant, colorful, exiting and very beautifully done.

Personally I enjoyed the acrobatic performance the best, because as a child I have always wanted to become an acrobat and it was always my first ambition.  I wanted to perform on the trapeze and impress hundreds of people. Every acrobatic performance I watch, I am stunned because they don't just perform. There's a elegant mystery and poise in the way they carry themselves. However, I also enjoyed the beautiful little girls doing the ballet performance, and could imagine how difficult it must have been for them to have remember and comprehend the choreography at their age. Being a dancer, I can relate to them and can see how much effort they had put into the performance. Some of my friends even took part in Chingay, as dancers and ushers, and described it as one of the best experiences and also a great way to meet great people. Hearing them have such fond memories of Chingay reminded me of RV60, and how hard we worked for it to be successful. I felt that I could relate to Chingay as a huge version of RV60.  In my opinion, the floats really were something special. The way they were lit up and looked so bright and happy, as an exciting way to look forward to Singapore's future and SG100. I think this really lived up to the Chingay legacy and it was definitely a stunning show with a very fitting theme. The different interests groups, from taekwando to hip hop and pole dancing was definitely interesting and opened my eyes to how many different courses and classes there are available. I've always heard about Chingay and had no idea what it was about, never watched it on television or actually knew what happened during Chingay, and being able to see the preview was a huge privilege and I was very grateful and appreciative for the experience, and it definitely made me want to try and take part in the future. I think the lighting of lanterns was beautiful and really represented Singapore's different colors and our hopes for her future. However, the thing that really stuck with me to remember is the Chinese dragon that was made of firecrackers. It was, for me, very scary as I am terrified of fire, and the whole time I was  watching the performers hold and run with the Chinese dragon I was cringing and had my shoulders all the way up to my ears and I was really scared for their safety. I also felt the same about the people walking on stilts with the fire crackers on their backs, and the ladies with the very very long dresses who were harnessed up in the air. I kept thinking what would happen if it was windy and they got tangled? and I couldn't help feel sympathy for the two men who were hanging off the side of the little egg shaped platform and because they had to stay up there and pretend the sides of the platform were drums and they had to start "playing" everytime the music started, and they could not sit down, but no one really noticed them. However, I overall enjoyed the performance, and had a great time there with friends.

#ExtraordinaryRV
The photo I chose for #extraordinaryrv is a photo that my CCA took right after RV60. Due to various reasons, we were not able to take a batch photo with all of us together. This was our very first nearly complete batch photo, and also one that was very special to us because it was right after our first performance with the dance society, and it felt like we 'graduated' into becoming a performer rather than just being a junior. We are all genuinely very close and have a very tight knit bond, which comes out in everything we do. I feel that rv60 was tough for us to adapt to, with all the intense trainings, scoldings, trying to catch up with the ever changing choreography and having to learn to pick up a lot faster than we were used to. Since we were the youngest batch, we had endure scoldings from seniors and teachers saying we were not good enough, and were much less advanced than the batches of seniors before us. Due to this, we all as a batch always dreaded trainings and cca practices, knowing that we would definitely go home having to copy the dance pledge as punishment. But as soon as it  was done and we were over with it, we immediately missed the practices and missed the scoldings and the trainings. We missed going through the same dance over and over again everyday at the multi purpose court, where our knees would peel from kneeling and we would sweat and complain about the heat and how our instructors were fickle minded and kept changing small details. The journey was definitely not easy, but we loved it. It made us feel like we were finally part of RVDS and we finally understood the meaning behind the both infamous and famous dance pledge.
立化精神，立德立功，化愚化顽。
团结，服从，人真是人生的一种美德。
应具有舍己为群的精神，才能符合团体生活，
并从舞蹈中学会坚持。
Despite us really hating the process, the outcome was worth it, and we finally truly learnt the meaning of working together as a cohesive team.

 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Self Introduction

My name is Tan YanTong, and I am 13 going on 14 this year. I don't really have a big passion for anything due to being in multiple activities such as piano, art, dance and music. However, something I do really enjoy which seems to be a big fear for many people is public speaking. I love standing in front of people and entertaining them with improvised stories such as during the story challenge, which i took part in in primary 5, or just speaking and sharing my views. I am a very American influenced person from a very traditionally Chinese family. I have an older sister and an older brother, and have always hated being the youngest because I like things being done fast and perfectly, and am such a impatient control freak. My siblings are both rather relaxed and take everything very lightly, whereas I am the complete opposite. I'm competitive, analytical and impatient, even with myself. I am constantly annoyed with myself when I don't understand a topic right away or if I spend more than 3 minutes on a question. I am a complete ambivert, and am both extroverted and introverted. I have a fear of deadlines, ladybugs, heights, and dying.
Being from the dance society has given me many insights to what it means to be committed and passionate. I never regret joining dance because it has given me opportunities to meet some people that I truly connect with and enjoy being with, make effort to hang out with and are friends with them not just because I am forced to be with them everyday.