✿ Woon Yi

Introduction
Hi my name is Woon Yi. My hobbies are eating and sleeping ^^ My favourite book series is Percy Jackson and my favourite stall in the canteen is the yong tau hu stall because there is a wider variety there. My CCA is concert band, like in primary school, and I play the trumpet.
During the holidays, I came back for several practises for band not only to prepare for RV60, but also a concert that my CCA would be having around early May. We have practised really hard and I really hope that we would not disappoint our conductor, the audience and ourselves. Jiayous >< Despite the many practises, I went for a week-long holiday to Taiwan with my parents and grandmother. It was winter there so it was rather cold compared to Singapore. It was a really enjoyable trip as I saw many new things that I could not see in Singapore. One difference between Taiwan and Singapore is that there are many huge mountains there and that in Singapore, the highest "mountain" we have is Bukit Timah Hill. Even though I had already been to Taiwan in December, I really do hope that we are able to go again during OELP as a class ^^

Extra in the ordinary

This picture shows the fourth level of block E. Everyone is having lessons in their respective classrooms. No one is walking along the corridors and it is very quiet. It may seem like a very mundane picture, however, if we think deep into it, we realise that everyone is learning in their respective classrooms. Every student of every class is learning something that might prove useful to them in the future. I know it sounds very weird and normal, yet when we try to link this to our everyday life, we can see so much more. Imagine everyone you walk past on the street, from all walks of life, with a different story to tell. Do we really take time to think deep into the things we find very normal or mundane? Everything has a different story behind it.

RV60 reflections

It didn't take a genius to know that most of us hated the RV60 practices. Many of us dreaded the long hours of practice and some even tried to 'pontang'. My social media feed was flooded with fellow schoolmates complaining about how tiring the practices were and how it was unfair that we were dragged into all these long practices. The RV confessions page were filled with long 'essays' on how the whole program was ridiculous. Reading the remarks had only cause the anger in us to bubble even more furiously. Honestly, in concert band, we didn't have many practises for RV60 since the audio was already pre-recorded. However, hearing from my friends involved in wushu, they were spending long hours in the scorching sun repeatedly practising the same moves, many of the people in performing arts had pictured their situation to be worse than it really was. Perhaps, you could say that RV60 practices had its advantages. For one, it had brought many RVians closer together. It had indeed been a common for many of us to chat about. Our school spirit was strengthened through the common hate for a object. Many students had been upset that our lessons had been cut short to attend practises. The funny thing was that all of a sudden, studies had become so important to them XD Are we really upset by the fact that we couldn't learn anymore or was it that we are just looking for something to complain about, which is one of the 'infamous' traits of Singaporeans, and that is to

never be satisfied. That aside, after the two weeks of daily RV60 rehearsals, we could finally display our full performance to an audience that were not the teachers-in-charge nor the performers ourselves. It was our parents. I guess the school had decided that it would be a good idea to showcase it to our parents because they were not confident that it would run absolutely smoothly, we weren't good enough for the actual audience, the alumni, and parents would think that anything their child had put up as impressive. Furthermore, before that, we never had a full-dress rehearsal that included all the performers. On the preview night, I did not anticipate a grand performance. In my head, I imagined it as me just having to stand on the crowded stage crammed with the other performers from CO, string ensemble and band, ending the night behind sweaty and tired and returning home. Unexpectedly, when we were cued to walk up the stage, I had an uneasy feeling inside me. For the first time, I began to worry about the outcome of our performance tonight. Sure, I knew that I was standing at the last row of the stage where nobody could see me and was no important, yet I felt this pride of being able to participate in this big event. From the stage, I could see the FSD clearly. It was my first time viewing their performance as well. The feeling was overwhelming and everything was so jittery. Including the wushu, dance, drums, table boys, choir, marching contingent etc. performances, it was around one and a half hours. It may not have been a long time, but during that

short 90 minutes, I felt pride in being able to be a part of this. On the actual day, the uneasiness had faded. It was mainly just wanting to show what we have to the alumni, wanting to make them proud and being worthy enough to live up to the good name of our school. Perhaps it is quite shameless of me to want to take credit for the performance when I had just been complaining before this. But when our graduated CCA seniors said how proud to say they are the alumni of River Valley, it really heartened me. The process, was school spirit, and the result, was school pride. The experience that RV60 had brought was really one of a kind, being able to bring both those elements to us.

Does being rich bring happiness?
As cliche as the answer may sound, no, being rich does not necessarily bring about happiness. Poverty is not a major problem in Singapore, thankfully, for our government take measures to help any people in need. Yet, Singapore is one of the unhappiest countries. As a quote I heard from somewhere before, it is indeed more comfortable to cry about your problems in a Mercedes than on a bicycle. However, the situation would be different if the people were different. If the man on the bicycle had once been a wealthy merchant that had lost all his riches overnight, it would indeed be a not-so-pleasant feeling. If the man on the bicycle, however, had been someone from a poor village with nothing to worry about, he would not have known about the Mercedes and would perhaps feel happy with the little joys that he have, like the bicycle. Sometimes, people from the slums do not get to leave, and they spend their whole lives there. Riches and luxuries like cars or swimming pools may be just a story that they've heard from the success of those who managed to leave. Take Dawan's aunt for example, in Sing to the Dawn. She was an average village girl who went to the city for the hope of a better job. Many things that she had seen in the city had seemed so foreign to her, and it had

impressed Dawan when she heard what was in the village. With wealth brings about stress. Going back to the two men on bicycles and Mercedes just now. One simple thing that the owner of the Mercedes had thought about that the bicycle man didn't have to worry about was petrol. The man with the bicycle did not have to worry about the fuel of his mode of transportation, for it was his own two legs that limited where he could go. When riches bring about many things, it complexes things, and the more complicated things are, the more things there are to worry about, bringing about stress. Another factor that might affect the happiness is your surroundings. Take two child, equally unwealthy, one in Singapore and one in the slums. When the child of Singapore is able to see how fortunate everyone around him is, he would naturally feel unsatisfied. Yet when the child of the slums sees that everyone around him is the same, he would feel satisfaction even more easily. Finding a piece of candy on the floor may be the highlight of his day. In Singapore, we tend to take what we have for granted, and also we are hard to satisfy. Nothing is ever enough. This brings about unhappiness, and sometimes, being rich is not such an amazing thing afterall.

Chingay Parade 2016 - Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore

A few weeks ago, on 30th January, the Year 2 cohort attended a National Education show - Chingay 2016! A week prior to the show, a talk had been given during our CCE periods by one of the people in charge of this year's Chingay performance. The enriching talk had given me an insight to Chingay, ranging from the history, core values, motto, performancers etc.

The skyview of Chingay 2016 - the weather was good !!

First off, the history of Chingay.
During the talk, they had explained that in 1973, firecrackers have been banned due to safety measures. That caused some unhappiness to arise among the people as they had believed that this ban would dampen the mood of Chinese New Year. In response to the issue, the People Actions Party (PAP) had organised a street parade from Jalan Besar to Outram Park that included many signature floats, acrobatic acts, lion and dragon dances, stilt walkers, in attempt to bring back cheer to the public during Chinese New Year.

4 years later, in 1977, Malay and Indian groups started joining the largely Chinese parade. This was to mark the stance that the overall flavour in the parade had changed to become largely multicultural.

*Teleporting back to 2016*
For Chingay 2016, I think the purpose was to celebrate our nation's growth and legacy in 50 years as a multi-racial community that will sail to greater heights in the future as a united community. During the performance, I had seen many breathtaking performances, ranging from floats, to stunts, to synchronised dances etc. One thing was for sure, and that was that the performers had put in alot of effort to prepare for this major annual event, because we are their first batch of audience, and their performance was almost perfect, from our view. One thing that really captivated me during the event was the wide variety of performances. Firstly, the multi-racialism. Not just the four major ethnicities of Singapore, but also performances from Japan, Korea etc. had been spotted performing! This year, 14 international groups from 9 countries will be participating in this event. Perhaps it is because it is rarer for us RVians to experience bonding between different races as we are a Chinese school, but this had been very heartwarming to me. They had come not just because Chingay had changed to be largely multicultural, but also because they wanted to celebrate this occasion with us, and because 2015 had been tough, for the whole world, and we could commemorate the beginning of a new year together.

Performers of different races

Japanese culture performance

Not just at the multi-racialism of the performance, but I was also shocked at the ages of some of the performances! There were many elderly performing some taiji acts and were dressed in vibrant bright red dresses and little girls around the age of 8 performing ballet and Indian dances. This wide age range of performers surprised me because it showed how Singaporeans are spontaneous in volunteering to come and chip in their effort to put up this major event.

Little Indian children performing a dance on the mini-float

Elderly performing their taiji

Elderly in bright colours performing an exuberant dance

Looking back on the first Chingay

The original purpose for Chingay was to cheer the Chinese up for Chinese New Year from the ban of firecrackers, but now its relation to Chinese New Year had lessened by alot, and its performers and audience had not only targeted towards Chinese but to anyone who had the passion to play a part in the event from all over the world. This change was inevitable due to the fact that Singapore is a multi-racial society, and that races would have influence on each other whether we like it or not, for we are one Singapore, and "barriers" like race, religion, language, do not exist in Singapore to cause disagreements, but instead, to build on greater bonds to help us flourish and prosper further together as a nation.

I felt that the organisers had indeed fulfilled this purpose as this event had a silent and acknowledged tightening in the bonds between each Singaporean. This event was able to show us how smoothly the organisers were able to put together this event despite differences between performers. This emphasised the importance of racial harmony to Singaporeans and looking back at how we have been able to change Singapore from a fishing village to the modern city we are today, it is because of the effort of each and every one of us, igniting the passion in us to strive for another 50 years of excellence. The racial harmony in Singapore is not something we are to take for granted, but to be seen as a blessing.

Initially, I had expected such an event to be a boring one, as the performance aired on television every year and I had expected this year's to be no different from the previous years. I was definitely proved wrong, and this event had been an unforgettable exposure. I believe that this event should be more recognised as one of the specialties in Singapore and should be viewed by all Singaporeans as a prideful occasion.

Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore

Why Singapore should not be complacent:
We are very fortunate to be able to live in this first world country. What is even more surprising is the fact that we have developed so much within the short period of one generation. Our grandparents and great-grandparents have worked hard and strived to achieve the modern facilities we have today and it was certainly not an easy journey. By being complacent, we would have brought shame to their efforts. Not only that, but we do not have the right to be complacent either. We might be a first world country, but so? We are not the best. And as long as we are not the best, we cannot judge others. And there is no such thing as the "best" really, just the perspective you view it from. Being the first few from the top only means that we have greater to fall. Like how the Qing dynasty fell because of its Sino-Centric worldview. Learn from our mistakes, and be sure not to repeat it again.