Reflection on One and Two Child Policies - Wan Jing

3 Things I found out :

- Singapore started the Two-Child Policy before China started the One-Child Policy .

- Aging population is when there are more elders than children .

- An aging population will post stress to the future generations .

2 Perceptions I have gained :

- There is both pros and cons to the policies .

- When we try out something new , there will always be an outcome that might not be in our favor .

1 Question I may have :

- How long would it eventually take to reverse the aging population ? 

Chingay reflection by Si Yan

I think the purpose is to celebrate Chinese New Year and also the fact that people of different races and ethnic groups can come to celebrate this special occasion. With all its voice and gaiety, would compensate for the ban on firecrackers, a customary New Year practice to drive away evil spirits. 

The first chingay was just a grand show in the year of ox, depicting aspects of Chinese New Year, dragon, lion dances, martial arts and street opera. Chingay has changed and it has adopted a multicultural flavour since 1976. The organizers have succeeded in making this change happen, because this yearly street parade is now a national festival, celebrated by Chinese, Indians, Malays and Eurasians alike. The different cultural dances emphasizes on this point, showing that people from different races come together to make this a wonderful performance. The Chingay Parade would well be a treasured glimpse into the different cultures of Singapore and the world. Now, age, race and language are no barriers. Here, we celebrate together as one.

My thoughts and feelings:

The chingay celebration performance was magnificent. The colourful floats were really nice. I'm amazed by how people from different races and ethnic groups come to together to make this a wonderful performance. I know that they have put in alot of effort in practicing and perfecting their skills and I really hope that more people would go and watch their performance on the actual day. The gymnastics was my favorite as it was really cool to see them hanging on the ropes and doing stunts in the air. Many of the volunteers who helped out in this event also played a great role in maintaining the place, and I really appreciate it. Even though it ended quite late, I was still glad that I had an enjoyable evening. However, I was sad to see that some of the students did not clean up after themselves and cleaners had to pick up the litter for them. In the future, I hope that people can remember to clean up after events. 

Jing Wei's reflection on Chingay 2016

The purpose of the first Chingay was to compensate for the ban of firecrackers a customary New Year practice to drive away evil spirits.
Chingay 2016 is different, its intend is to bring all Singaporeans together and move together in building Singapore's next 50 years. There are participants from all over the world and from all races, it shows harmony. It was also colorful with festival dresses that were the culture of many, the programmed intend to bring people together as one regardless of race, religion and language.
I think the organizers of Chingay 2016 had successfully accomplished this purpose, I can tell this from people singing along with songs, and pledge to make a better Singapore in the future. The atmosphere was brought up and flows into every Singaporean's heart, warm and soft.

Chingay 2016 Reflection - Pin Shin

In my opinion, Chingay 2016 was to celebrate Chinese New Year, and also to start the next 50 years towards SG100. The show is also to showcase Singapore's unique multiracial society.

The first Chingay Parade was back in 1973, was organised by the PAP, featuring only simple performances such as lion dance, flag bearers, clowns and juggling acts. The parade then also was not located where it is today, it was a 3 kilometre road from old Victoria School to Outram Park before moving into the housing estates, then to Orchard Road in 1985.

This year's Chingay featured more foreign performing groups, together, the Singaporeans as well as the foreigners put up a fantastic Chingay 2016. Without anyone of them, it would not have been a success!  This year, we had light bulbs painted and drawn by students showing Singapore at SG100. I believe that it displayed the theme really well, and was a good way to lead the audience to think about what SG100 would be like. In my opinion, Singapore at SG100 will be a more racial harmony, more developed and more advance country than today! I think that Chingay is a good way to unit Singaporeans together, too!

In conclusion, Chingay 2016 was a successful one, marking the start of the journey towards SG100. 

Chingay Parade 2016 Reflections -Xin Qian

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I think that the purpose for Chingay 2016 was to celebrate and mark the first year of Singapore's next 50 years towards SG100, therefore, explaining the theme,"Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore", to pledge to live by the core values of our founding fathers, and to move forward as a nation to be a brighter Singapore.

The first Chingay held in Singapore was came about when Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister as well as Chairman of the People's Association, started the event to compensate for the ban of fire crackers in Singapore and celebrate the Chinese New Year by the noise to chase away bad spirits. However, now, it is not just about celebrating the Chinese New Year, it is also for everyone to celebrate the New Year together, and that includes all different races. Many foreign countries have also been invited yearly to participate in the Chingay Performances. In today's Chingay celebrations, regardless of race, language or religion, we come together as one and celebrate the New Year. I think this is because we live in a multi-rational country, our friends and neighbors around us are from all different races. Our country wants us to be able celebrate the festive occasion with all our friends, and not just the Chinese race in our Country.

I think the organizers have successfully shown Singapore that in the next 50 years, SG100 will show a bigger, brighter and better Singapore. The cubes that were hand-drawn by Singaporeans really play a big role in bringing out the theme. It showed us how and what Singaporeans wanted the future Singapore to look like, and that we would work hard as a nation to achieve the dreams of every Singaporean that are drawn carefully and thoughtfully on each of the light-up cubes. 

Chingay 2016 Reflection - Wan Jing

I think that the purpose of Chingay 2016 was to celebrate the new year of 2016 and also to celebrate the fact that we have passed a milestone of SG50 in 2015 together as one country despite of the difference in races . In my opinion , " Lights of Legacy , Brighter Singapore " means that we should keep moving on and look foward to a better amd brighter future Singapore .

I think the first Chingay was to just celebrate each and every New Year that we experienced but I think now Chingay is to not only celebrate each and every New Year but also to celebrate the fact that we are sucessful as a country . 

There are many more different segments of different people performing , such as Parkour segment , the Chinese segment , the Malay segment and etc . It shows that we are able to live togther sucessfully despite experiencing many differences . 

Happiness and Poverty -Xin Qian

I think that we are a happy country. I think that being rich doesn't necessarily mean you will be happy. I go out with my family to parks and see families getting together happily. Going to a simple park does not require money like going to USS, but it is the people who we spend the time with that matters. However, what adds on the happiness is that we can live our daily life without constantly worrying about if we have sufficient money or daily necessities to survive. We simply need to appreciate and be contented with what we have to live on happily. If someone's happiness depends on money, that is just greed. Money can't buy everything in the world, definitely not happiness.

Happiness and Poverty -Pin Shin

In my opinion, being wealthy or not does not necessarily relate to your amount of happiness. It depends on your mindset. For example, Singapore's HPI score, which is a score that measures a country's happiness level, is only 39.8, whereas China's HPI score is 44.7! Compare to China, Singapore is not only a more developed country, but also a more wealthy country! However, I have friends who are always positive and happy. Thus I think that it is the mindset and personality that is affecting whether or not we are happy. We can be poor yet happy over small things such as being in good health, kindness of strangers... We can also be extremely rich yet puzzled by not being able to get a limited addition bag... I believe that it all depends on the mindset.

Happiness and Poverty - Wan Jing

I think being rich does not necessarily bring us happiness . I feel that when you are poor , you will see the world in a different light and definitely learn how to really cherish the things you have and not take it for granted . Money cannot buy you everything , it is limited to some things . It might make you happy if you have money but I do not think it is true happiness like money cannot buy love .