During the 8 days trip to Suzhou and Shanghai, I went to SIP, museums and other exhibition halls.The OELP trip was a wonderful experience, I enjoyed my time and I learnt about China in the aspect of history, culture, systems and national issues.
At the Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park, I observed that the infrastructures are quite similar to Singapore’s. This is probably due to the collaboration between Singapore and Suzhou. However, there are also China’s flavors in them. After the visit to SIP, I felt that the SIP is a project to create a stronger bond between Singapore and China, to create a ‘bridge’ between the two countries so that both countries will benefit. This will act as a springboard for Singapore to break into the China market. Not only that, China is an upcoming power, if China’s economy continues to grow, Singapore will also benefit from it. Singapore depends on export and import. When China’s economy grows, they will bring more import to Singapore. The free trade agreement will also bring Singapore more profits. On the other hand the loss of the SIP project also served as a lesson for Singapore. Singapore learnt that collaborating with other countries is not black and white. Firstly, we need to understand how the people in that country work, what is their culture, so that we will not have miscommunication. I think that this also applies to us, even in school as a student, I need to understand other people’s thinking and respect them so that we will not have arguments and hence we can work together efficiently and have a better learning environment. For example, during a group project, we need to understand our teammates so that we can meet an agreement so as to continue with the project.
I have also learnt about the education system in China during the school immersion programme.From Xin Hai Experimental High School, I can see that although they tried to follow Singapore and develop the students holistically, but they are still more focused on academic. Their CCA is only around 45minutes, unlike us which is around 2 hours. They are very competitive. They are all aiming to be perfect and the best. One of the students achieved 90+ for his test, but he is not satisfied, he wanted to get a 100. I think that this is the result of the competitive learning environment and the forceful learning methods used on them. But, this also has positive impacts on the students. Because the students are serious about learning, they are proactive. They take out the material needed for the next lesson beforehand, without anyone reminding them. Unlike most of us, we need the teachers to prompt us before we do anything. Furthermore, they take things as they are, they don’t complain when the teachers give them homework, spelling or tests. Unlike us, who always tried to bargain with the teachers when homework or spellings are given to us. I think that the students’ positive attitude towards learning is something that we should learn. With the positive attitude, we will do things wholeheartedly and hence absorb more beneficial knowledge and skills from whatever we do. I also learnt how important bilingualism is. Because of the skill, I am able to communicate with the students in Xin Hai easily. By mastering both languages, in the future, we can collaborate with people the China and US market, which are both one of the biggest market in the world, easily without language barrier.
During our stay in Suzhou, we also went to the Humble Administrator’s Garden. The Humble Administrator’s Garden showed me a more tradition and historical side of Suzhou, different from the modern Suzhou that I saw in the SIP. From the visit, I felt that the Chinese were very creative and they instil meanings into their structures. For example, because of their traditional belief, they built curved hallways so that ghosts cannot pass, however this also create the concept of 一步换景.Another example is, they chose to use lotus because lotus grow in muddy pond. This symbolizes even if the society is corrupted, even if the future is dark, they can still overcome the obstacles and be successful. I think that creativity is something that we lack. Whenever we are given a project to do, most of our ideas are boring, only one or two are able to come out with creative ideas. I think it is because we are too ‘fixed’, we cannot or don’t dare to think out of the box. Creativity is something we should learn, so that Singapore will continue to develop, improve and have new attractions hence the other people will not get bored of Singapore and continue to come to Singapore.
At Shanghai, we went to Lu Xun Memorial Hall and I have a deeper understanding of China’s history. At the Memorial Hall, I watched a video titled “生命的路”. Through this video, I learnt more about Lu Xun. I understand how Lu Xun became who he was from Zhou Shu Ren. I learnt about his suffering and how the Chinese felt how China in the past. He was a nationalist; he wanted a China for Chinese. So he gave up being a doctor and became a writer instead. He used simple Chinese for his work so that everyone could understand. Through his works, he spread the message of loving their own country. In his life, he met many difficulties, but he did not give up. His preservation is something we can learn from. 正所谓：天下无难事只怕有心人。只要我们用心去做，不放弃，我们就能成功。I feel that we cannot take setbacks, whenever we meet an obstacle, we give up. We should learn from Lu Xun and preserve on and overcome the obstacles we face so that we will be able to achieve our goals. If not, we will lack behind other countries in this competitive world where everyone want to be at the top.
At the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, I learnt about Shanghai’s culture and history. As compared to Suzhou, Shanghai is more developed and modern than Suzhou, while Suzhou has more traditional China flavor. Shanghai is multi-cultural because of the influence from the west when Shanghai port was open to the other country after China’s loss in the war. The reason as to why Shanghai is the most vibrant city in China is because of its geographical location, their economy and culture. Their port is the best in China hence it attracted a lot of foreigners after it was opened to other countries. Many foreigners from all over the world came to Shanghai and stay rooted there. Due to this there is a wide spread of many different religions and cultures. From what I have learnt from the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition, Shanghai is planning to build more train lines so as to improve the transportation. And are also planning to build a green and environment-friendly city and one of the methods is to have better transport that is energy saving, have lesser emission, efficient in resource utilization and more.
I feel that Shanghai is very similar to Singapore. Both countries are multi-cultural, have a very good port. One of the differences id that Shanghai is a lot more polluted than Singapore. But, Shanghai is already working on reducing the pollution. I think that soon, more and more people will choose Shanghai port over Singapore port. Shanghai is a very competitive city and is constantly improving and developing. Although Shanghai might be a threat to Singapore’s economy but at the same time, they can bring benefits to Singapore. They can bring their export to Singapore and Singapore can set up business in Shanghai and bring back the ideas to Singapore. Furthermore with Shanghai constantly improving, this can also keep us on from slacking and continue to upgrade ourselves.
From the visits to Suzhou Museum, Shantang Street, Shikumen Museum and Chenhuangmiao, I think that Singapore is lacking behind China in terms of heritage and culture preservation. Although Singapore also has many historical sites but not many younger Singaporeans visit them. Many teenagers forget about our history and our culture in the past, they only look at new and modern things. Singapore should spread our history and heritage so that the younger generation will not forget what our forefathers had done for us. One method is to hold an interesting event in heritage site to attract more teenagers to visit and learn about Singapore’s history.
Now, in order to further develop my bicultural orientation, I will read more international-news on China to keep myself updates with what is happening in China. Not only that, I will try to read more of Lu Xun’s works to understand more about the Chinese history and culture in the past.
Overall, I feel that this trip is very meaningful. I have learnt more about China and saw the differences between Singapore and China. Without this trip I would not have known about our strong relationship with China and the benefits of it. In the past, I always felt that there is nothing we can learn from China because Singapore is a developed country while China is a least developed country. I have learnt to not look at things through tinted glasses. I have benefited greatly from this trip. I will be looking forward to more of this kind of trip.
-Zhang Linli
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