Day 1 25.5.15
In the morning, we had a talk by a prestige guest speaker in the auditorium about the history of Chinatown. What we basically learned was how Chinese was in a way cheated to come to Singapore because people back in China labelled Singapore as a place with lots of wealth. Many poor people in China were attracted to Singapore after seeing how their fellow friends return back to their hometown with immense wealth and persuasion from others, and took loans so as to come to Singapore, hoping that they would strike rich and return to their homelands gloriously and give a better life to their families. However, some of them died on the way to Singapore, because of the poor living conditions on the ships, while some contracted diseases. To prevent the diseases from spreading, the others would throw the bodies of the sick and the dead into the sea, as the journey from China to Singapore is around 30days. However, when they reached Singapore, they were forced into jobs like coolies and 猪宅as they had to pay off the debts. These jobs had low salaries, prolonged working hours, and their working dormitory was cramped together with many other workers. The living conditions were bad. The superiors of these workers introduced vices such as opium, drugs and prostitution to help them 'relieve their stress', which is a trick to help them earn more money from the workers. Many workers fell to the trap, and ended up snowballing debts. In the end, they could only work in Singapore till their death and never fufilled their dreams of going back to their hometowns rich and glorious, and give their families a better life. I feel that this teaches us to not be greedy and yearn for more riches, and we should be happy we what we have. Because of their hunger for more money, the Chinese came to Singapore to work, lured by wealth, but ended up sacrificing their families and friends back in their hometowns. One should also Iearn to control himself instead of burying himself into vices such as opium to relieve their stress. Had they not fallen to the tricks of their superiors, they might have fufilled their dreams, and gone home rich and spend their time with their families.
In the afternoon, we went to the pioneers memorial hall. This hall was created to remember the efforts of the pioneers who built Singapore with their sweat, tears, money, and effort. One significant person is Mr Tan Kah Kee, who spent all his wealth into education. He believed that one should have good education to pursue a better job in future. He built many schools in Singapore and in China, and even when he is on the brink of bankruptcy, he did not close down the schools but instead continued to work hard to support the schools. This memorial hall taught us to be grateful to our forefathers who have helped to build Singapore with their bare hands, and taught us to be selfless like them, and contribute what we have to our society.
Day 2 26.5.15
In the morning, we attended a xinyao concert in the auditorium. The performers performed several significant xinyao songs. Xinyao is something like Kpop, but this time it is Singapore pop. Xinyao songs are normally about family relationships, friendships, and lesser about love. Xinyao is a culture I feel that we Singaporeans should preserve and carry it on, because it is a culture in which the older generations would be more familiar with, and this culture should be carried on for our future generations. Xinyao is a beautiful form of art and culture, even though xinyao has been less popular compared to the older days, we should start to support xinyao because it is one of a kind, and it is something we could talk about with our parents, older relatives, closing the age gap between us.
Next, we went to Chinatown. We went to Tian Fu Gong temple, in which the tour guide took us around and told us about the stories of the different gods. The main goddes in Tian Fu Gong is Mazu. Mazu was said to have powers to oversee the dangers that people have in the seas. Once, in her dreams, she dreamed that her father and brother were out fishing(as they were fishermen), and due to bad weather, they were in danger. Mazu managed to save her father in her dreams, but when she was about to save her brother, her mother woke her up and her brother died. Soon, her father returned back safely, but her brother unfortunately died. She moved up to the mountains so that she could see people from high up in the mountains, and help those who have encountered with problems on the sea. Mazu is prayed by those who would go on sea vogages, to pray that they have a safe journey.
Day 3 27.5.15
We had a crosstalk session in school. The performers communicated in a amusing and hilarious way. It was an interesting session and it was really funny. It showed us how one can communicate with each other with just words and actions and make us laugh.
We went to sun yat sen memorial hall next. We then learned about sun yat sen and his fellow comrades who assisted in the 1911 xinhai revolution.
Day 4 28.5.15
We had guest speakers to talk to us about Chinese schools in the olden days. At first I thought RV was already a legitimate chinese school as chinese is our first language too. However, Rv is actually not a chinese school, and chinese schools have been lost in Singapore. Chinese schools are schools in which lessons are fully taught in Chinese.
Day 5 29.5.15
We played games requiring team work.
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