E&C Week Reflection- Xinhui

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.

Food- Xin Hui

When you come to Hefei, the Luzhou Roast Duck must be the first recommended cuisine by the local tour guide. Luzhou Roast Duck originally was served to the royal court as the imperial dish. Until the period of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), this cuisine could be found being cooked by local families.

You will be attracted by the duck's golden yellow shininess, crisp skin and tender meat. Compared to Beijing Roast Duck, it has moderate fat and salt, rich taste, and plenty nutrients.

In 1987 it was awarded to be the excellent food by Anhui province and commercial ministry. In 1983, it got the gold medal of the first session China Food Expo.

 2. Li Hongzhang Hodgepodge

It’s a popular dish named after Li Hongzhang (1823-1901), a top official of the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) from Anhui province, who made strenuous efforts to modernize the country that ended in several major rebellions. He became a leading figure in China's relations with the Western powers.

Li Hongzhang

It is said that when Li Hongzhang visited the United States, he invited some American friends to have dinner. After the entrée, Li mixed together all the ingredients he had left over and cooked up a new dish. All his guests praised the delicious concoction, and asked Li for its name. Li told them, in his distinctive Hefei dialect, that the dish was called "Zasui,” or “hodgepodge” in English. From then on, the dish was known as "Zasui,” or “Li Hongzhang Hodgepodge,” and became popular in both the U.S. and China. Its main ingredients include sea cucumber, fish maw, squid, bamboo shoots, dried beans, chicken, ham, egg yolk pudding, and pigeon eggs, liver and so on.

Cao Cao Chicken is also called Xiaoyao Chicken, and it is a famous local dish of Hefei.

It is said that Cao Cao as the General of Wei Kingdom stationed the army in Xiaoyaojin of Hefei. He was extremely busy with the military and political affairs that he was overtired and caught the illness. During the treatment, the kitcheners followed the words of doctors to add the Chinese traditional medicine into the chicken and made this chicken to be a medicine. Afterwards, Cao Cao gradually became better and often needed to eat this kind of chicken, so people called this chicken Cao Cao Chicken.

4. Lord Bao Fish (or Bao Gong Fish)

Lord Bao Fish is another well-known Hefei dish. This fish was originally found in a moat called Lord Bao River; hence it got the name Lord Bao Fish. This cuisine is a traditional cold dish - tender meat and dark reddish crisp skin.
In 1958, when Chairman Mao Zengdong visited Anhui province, the famous kitchener Liang Yugang specially cooked this dish and was highly praised by Chairman Mao.

Golden Age of Singapore-Xinhui

I feel that lee kuan yew has provided for we singaporeans a home, a safe harbour. Singapore, who parted with Malaysia in the merger, could obviously not stand alone, fight by itself, let it survive. Singapore, was a place with no resources, no hope, but with and increasing population. Lee kuan yew knew that Singapore had only manpower, so he made use of that to help Singapore. He belived singapore best resource was human, thus when the british troops left singapore, he set a law for men at the age of 18 to serve national service, better known as ns. At that time, there was no more british singapore could rely on, and lee kuan yew saw the need to have people to defend the country, thus he made use of our manpower to protect our country. Singapore without him would mot be what it is today.

China economy- Xinhui

China economy is very good. However, due to its huge population, the gross income for every person is very low. Because manpower in china can be easily sought after at a low cost with china's population, investers go to China to build factories and manufacture goods. Other than the manpower, th land in China is vast and is cheaper compared to countries in Singapore. Tax rates are very low also. However, despite china economy, many people are suffering because they gross income for every person is very low, and thus many people do not have enough in China. The rich and poor gap is ever widening because of this.

1 child policy -Xinhui

Reflection(26/1/2015)

I think Singapore face similar issue about our population but unlike China, we have too little newborn babies. Birth rates in Singapore has been dwindling as our ageing population has been increasing by the day. The Singapore Government is trying to encourage more couples to have children by providing bonuses and subsidies. Furthermore, every SG50 baby would have a bonus baby package and a special birth certificate, spurting more couples to give birth to a new baby in conjunction with Singapore 50th year, the year of 2015. Many couples refuse to have more children because of financial stress they may face. Singapore economy may sooner take for a downfall because of short of manpower, and our Government would have to recruit more foreign talent, causing unhappiness among many Singaporeans, and causing them to lose faith and trust in our Government. I thought maybe we should reflect on ourselves why our Government have to recruit foreign talents instead of reapproaching the Government about this matter. Maybe we can have more children so that our Government do not need to recruit foreign talents? Or maybe we can stop more Singaporeans from migrating overseas in search for better future? Although the Government have provided couples with subsidies for their children, it is still not enough, because 1 million dollars is the average to raising a child. Hence, youngsters nowadays would have to solely provide for many ageing family members, causing them to have financial and mental stress. Thus, they would also not want to have children because they are worried about having heavier financial burden. I think the Government can provide couples with more subsidies like medical fees for children, and more yearly allowance for students, which can reduce parents financial stress, and spurr them to have more children.

Poverty- Xinhui

Poverty

I think poverty is very common in the world, especially in third world/ developing countries like Africa. In singapore, poverty is commonly found too, and the Singapore Government has been stressing on the widening difference between the rich and the poor. However, Singapore Government has implemented different taxes on how much one earn per year, a fair tax amount to pay. I think other countries should implement this method so that the rich and the poor would be charged accordingly, and the rich and poor would not widen.

Cid lesson

I think what we see may not be what is true,and it may not be the fact. Thus, we should not only believe what we see but know more about the background.