Why Singapore must not be complacent in her achievements-Xin Qian

"We have got to build on this culture. We can do more and we need to do more as our environmental challenges grow. For example, climate change. You will remember this year earlier in February, we had our longest dry spell ever. The reservoir water levels dropped below normal; everywhere the grass in our parks turned brown. We had lalang fires all over Singapore and even one or two forest fires in the nature reserve. Fortunately, our lives were not disrupted because we ran our desalination plants at 100 percent and we increased our NEWater output to meet our needs. First of all we had desalination plants and we had NEWater plants, and that is why we could respond. We did not have to ration water as we have planned for a margin of safety, so we endured the draught and eventually the rains came and Singapore became green again. But we cannot become complacent because climate is changing. I think we can expect more such extreme episodes, more draughts, more heavy rains at different times, and we must be able to cope with it." This was quoted from Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong. Mr Lee Hsien Loong addressed the time when we had our longest dry spell. It was an achievement to us, a country with limited water resources, and yet, due to the many solutions and preparations beforehand, we were not disrupted by the change of climate. Even though we have gotten through it, we must not be complacent as we never know what more may come our way. Obstacles while continue to rise but if we remain humble, we will steadily go through them as a nation

Reflection on One and Two Child Policies -Xin Qian

">3 things I found out:

- I learnt that the reasons behind Singapore implementing the two-child policy are to create better eduction for the children, the lack of space and resources for the increasing population and to lessen the burden for families with financial problems.

- I learnt that China had implemented similar policies due to the similar problems that were occurring in Singapore

- I learn that Singapore had received some side effects from the policy that was implemented, like a decreasing population as many couples do not want to have kids

2 perceptions I have gained:

- Creating rules and policies might have unwanted side effects and consequences

- Learning from others while applying it to our own lives in your own way can help with the situations we face

1 question I have:

- Is it helping with the problem by reversing the two-child policy Singapore initially had?

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. 

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.

Xin Qian's RV60 reflections

I think it is important to celebrate RV60 in order to unite the school as one, those who have graduated and those who are currently in the school as of now. Although this is the case, many people come to practice as and when they like, thinking that RV60 is something that the school has forced us to do. Because of this, it has resulted to many inconvenience during practice due to the lack of students turning up for practice. Even on the day itself, I could still see one or two empty spots that could mess up the whole entire choreography. If the performance for RV60 was not compulsory for students, but open for volunteering, I think there would still be many students who would love to volunteer, definitely not the entire school, but I'm sure quite an amount of students would be delighted to perform. The reason for this is that even though most of the students complain during the tough and long practices(including me), a lot of us tend to enjoy ourselves, as while practicing, we are surrounded by our own family, the RVians(also including me). Especially when we learn to do a part of the choreography in sync, we feel a huge sense of accomplishment and while giving ourselves a pat on our backs, I realized that RV60 was not just to celebrate a simple birthday, it had truly united us as one like we never have before. The most unexpected CCAs like the uniform groups, clubs and societies, sports CCAs came together as one to put up a simple Wushu performance. This RV60 celebration has made me feel proud to be a RVian.

The Extra in the Ordinary: Xin Qian

This picture might be seen as a failed/blurred one to many people but to me, it is one of the pictures I feel the best about. This is actually a screenshot of a video that a parent has taken during the RV60 preview. Even in the blurry state that it is in, you can see the straight lines we split into halfway during the performance. To be able to split 200 and more students without a flaw in seconds is truly amazing to me. Being part of this item, I know how much time we took practicing on the field, under the hot sun, to be able to achieve what we did. All of us had no experience in Wushu but came together as one to practice every session. I think that a lot of people might view our performance as one of the most "imperfect" ones, but I felt that we couldn't have done better. No one knows better about how much hard work we put in more than ourselves.