Chingay presentation

Qi Ting's colour, symbol, and picture

Colour: Red

 I chose the colour red because red in Chinese culture usually represents good luck. Like the red packets that we receive or give to people during the Chinese New Year, red is a symbol of good luck and prosperity in the coming year. I also chose red because according to myths and legends, there was once a monster called Nian who would visit the people every year during Chinese new year and terrorize the people. However one day, Nian saw a child wearing red and ran away in fear. Since then, people found out that Nian was afraid of the colour red and decorated their houses red and wore red especially during Chinese New Year so that Nian would not come back and terrorize them again.

Symbol: 

This symbol is the Chinese character fu, upside down. Fu, in Chinese represents good fortune and luck. It is upside down in this symbol because in Chinese, this would be fu dao (福倒/到), and the dao which means upside down (倒), has the same pronunciation as the Chinese word for arrived, dao (到), so this upside down fu could be read as fu dao (福到), as in luck or fortune has arrived and not the word being upside down. I, too, hope that this new year will be prosperous and that I will have good fortune this year.

Picture:

This was a photo taken in Chinatown when my family and I went shopping for new year goods. I would always like to buy a lot of Chinese New Year snacks to eat but my parents always don't allow me to eat too much or buy too much as I will get a sore throat and cough. Other than snacks, we also buy Chinese New Year decorations sometimes to put up in our house.

Ming How's three weeks consolidation

When I was first introduced to CID 2, I still felt that it was quite interesting since during the first lesson, it was very interactive and enriching. I also felt very exited when the teacher said that we were going for a OELP trip to Taiwan/China as a class this year. However, the homework of blogging did not appeal to me as much since I do not really have the habit and experience of blogging.

The most memorable lesson I have gone through was the one about using different perceptions and point of views to look at things. Specifically, the teacher gave us to two pictures for us to look at (One was a man begging by the streets and the other was a woman with a child approaching person by person for money) and made us apply the 'See, Think and Wonder' skill to write about about how we felt about the picture. The teacher also gave us an mini-activity to let us think about "If you had one dollar and you can only give it to one person to help him, who would you help?". At first, even though both people are very pitiful, I thought that the woman with the child needed my help more since it would be hard on her to support two lives. Even if she could find a job to earn some money,  it would be hard for her to find a place to settle down her child. On the other hand, the man could have went to find a job to support for himself.

However, my teacher told us that what we see with our eyes might not be really true. She told us about the real living conditions of both of the beggars. Apparently, the man had his cart which he used to use it to collect old stuff and sell it for money got stolen and so he need to have some money know to get a new cart so that he can back on his track. Meanwhile, the woman belonged to a syndicate and was forced to beg around for money with a child whom she did not even know. Only a small portion of the money she begged from would be given to her for her to live. After knowing both of their real living conditions, I felt that the man now need my help more. The man just needs a little help from others for him to get back on his feet and earn money for himself. With my small amount of my money, he can probably carry on with his life while for the woman, I do not think that just giving her money is good for her since her money would just be taken away by the syndicate. Even if I gave her one dollar, probably only a few cents would be given to her and this would not be of any help to her at all. I feel that the best way to help her is to break her off from the syndicate so that her income will not get sucked away.

In the other CID lessons, I have also learnt about the poverty in Singapore and we were also told to make more keen observations about RV. There was also one worksheet teaching us about photography. I feel that all these activities and exercises are trying to train us on our obersavation skills and inferencial skills. Probably all these skills and things we learnt now would be used once we go for our OELP trip. In a nutshell, CID lessons are still quite thoroughly enjoyable and fun for me although sometimes I might feel a little stressed about the homework given since quite a lot of homework is given at one go sometimes.

Jianing's reflection

For the first lesson, I have heard that we will be going either Taiwan or china for the OELP trip. So I'm really excited! But once I know that we will be assessed after the trip, my mood dimmed a little as we can't really enjoy ourselves. But I'm still looking forward to the trip in term 2 week 10. That lesson is also the first time our group created a blog and our first post is posted. 

And for the second lesson, we saw 2 pictures of beggars, and we have to choose one of them to help. One of the beggars is a guy who is robbed and has mouthing left. Another begged is a lady carrying a child and wearing thin clothings in the chilly weather. At first I chose to help the lady as I thought that it may be difficult for her to go to work and take care of her baby at the same time, while the guy could just get up and start afresh even though it may be tough. But after knowing their background, I chose the help the guy. The guy has only an arm, which resulted in a limited number of jobs he could do, while the lady was from a "beggars' company ", where she was asked to carry a child and let others donate her some money due to empathy. I think that I should not help the lady as most of the donations will go to the boss of that company, and in the end, the beggars get barely enough money, while their boss get to enjoy themselves with the rest of the money. And if many donated to her, the boss may think that this is a good way toe ran more money, and thus may employ more beggars to work under them. As compared to the lady, the guy has only an arm, which is really hard to find a job. In a nutshell, this lesson taught me that we should never judge anything or anyone just by the surface. 

And the lesson also touched on the topic of poverty in Singapore. And I learnt that the difference between the rich and poor is quite big. And the poor will always be poor and hard to get rich, there is something called the poverty cycle, where the poor has no money to provide their children with education, so their children will hardly do better than their parents, and thus wouldn't be able to get jobs with high salary, and so there will not be enough money to provide education for the third generation, and the cycle repeats. 

In conclusion, it was a fun time going for CID lessons, I believe there is much more to be benefitted from this lesson. And I must say, this CID lesson is a fun and at the same time, an educational lesson, that I enjoyed a lot.

Jianing's colour, symbol and picture

I choose the color white as it is the color for perfection, purity and innocence. And in color physiology, white is the color of new beginnings, so it is like the blank canvas to be written upon. So, I wanted to say that everyone should start afresh every year, as if they were 're-born', so innocent and pure like a new born child.  Its basic feature is equality, implying fairness, so during the Chinese New Year, I will invite different Chinese to come and eat with my family and I. I won't be unfair and not invite someone just because they may be poor and old.

I choose this symbol as it represents something I want to achieve in the year 2014. I want the snakes that coil around the sticks to be friends. So it is like there is a bond between each and every friend. And the wings on the top is meant to be implying that alone we can do little, but together, we can do much more. So, I hope in the year 2014, 2G can be more bonded and together, we will soar to greater heights.

I choose HongBao to be the image as I wanted to make my stand clear on the upcoming matter. Recently, I had been asking my friends if I could go and visit them during the Chinese New Year. But the first thing they said is that I wanted to get HongBao. But in my opinion, money is not important. What it really matters to me is the time that I can spend with my closest friends and family. So I wanted to voice out that don't always think that everyone put money as the first priority, some may just want to spend the time with you to bond more.

Ming How's Symbol, Colour and Picture for CNY

Symbol
Chinese characters usually have one or more meanings and some of them are particularly loved by Chinese people. Fu is one of the most popular Chinese characters used in Chinese New Year and Fu is the pinyin for good luck in Chinese. It is often posted upside down on the front door of a house or an apartment. The upside down Fu means good luck came since the character for upside down of Fu in Chinese sounds the same as the character for the arrival of Fu. I wish to have good luck and prosper this year thus I chose this symbol.






 

Color
I chose this color because according to the legends, there was this mythtical beast called Nian and it would come on the first day of Chinese New Year to look hor his sacrifises like woman and children. There was one time when Nian got scared away by a child wearing red and so people have discovered the way to fight against Nian. Ever since it was Chinese New Year, many people would use red colour things to decorate their houses to scare away Nian. Red colour can also symbolies good luck and fortune so red is the best to represent Chinese New Year since it is a very cheerful and happy occasion.

Image
This picture depicts all the cookies and Chinese New Year snacks which my mother have been spending a long time to make. The reason why I chose this picture was because it I think I would experience mixed feelings whenever I eat the Chinese New Year snacks as my mother have been spending a lot of time and effort making all the snacks. Everyday immediately after work, she would go and start preparing the ingredients in the kitchen all the way until the night. It has been very hard on her since she has been complaining about her body aching frequently. While I could be very happily munching away on the snacks during Chinese New Year in the past and taking the food for granted (吃得很爽XD), I had never showed any appreciation to my mother for putting so much effort. However...... the snacks are really too nice already, I would always be the "food-taster" for my mother and polish off everything!!

Valerie's colour, symbol and image for Chinese New Year

I chose this picture as red is a colour that symbolises prosperity and good wealth in the Chinese culture. There was also a story about how new year was begun by chasing away the monster, Nian, from eating the villages in the village by hanging up things with the colour red to frighten it away. 

I chose this symbol as it represents spring in mandarin. To me, spring means a brand new year and good luck, therefore, i chose this symbol to represent the start of the year on the Chinese lunar calendar, Chinese New Year.

I chose this picture as i felt that having a reunion dinner on New Year Eve is very important as it is the time where a family can come together for a meal. Nowadays as people get busier with their work and their own families, we tend to neglect making time to talk to one another and sitting around a table for a simple meal together, therefore i chose this picture as i felt that the significance of having reunion dinner once a year is very important.