Yiying's overall reflection

THEME: 

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS: PAST VS PRESENT

Although I did not go for the OELP trip, my friends have shared with me what they have learnt and experienced in China. Through their sharing, I have learnt some very interesting things about China that I never knew of.

Firstly, I learnt what happiness is to the people in China. 

My friends told me that most of the citizens in China are living happily, and that their main idea of happiness is building good relations with their families. Through some conversations with the students, my friends found out that the students hardly get to spend time with their parents due to their busy work schedules. This is why they look forward to Chinese New Year, the time when the whole family gets together.

It was after my friends told me this that I realised I was really fortunate to be able to spend so much time with my family every day. I should stop taking my parents' company for granted, and learn to appreciate their love and care that they provide me every day.

Also, the Chinese students are extremely studious, something I find standing in great contrast to us Singaporean students. They study very hard so that they can achieve their dream of attaining scholarships that would allow them to study overseas. This contributes greatly to the strong competition among the Chinese.

Singapore has many good local universities, so this means that we do not need to fight so hard for scholarships in order to get into good overseas universities. This explains why the competition among Chinese students is much fiercer than that among Singaporean students. However, we do not have an excuse not to work hard just because Singapore has good local universities, as we need to constantly improve to make our country develop and prosper. Besides, we need to have good results in order to get into our good local universities.

Secondly, I learnt that the happiness of the Chinese citizens is affected by the One Child Policy in China. The One Child Policy was implemented in 1979 to control the Chinese population.

Many students told my friends of their lonely experiences as a single child, and although I cannot fully understand and feel for them, as I have a younger sibling, I know that it can be difficult not having any siblings to grow up with. On the bright side, the Chinese might treasure their friendship with one another more, and might feel happier around their friends than we do.

I am thankful to my friends for relaying things that they have learnt to me, as it was through their sharing and presentations that I learnt so much about China even though I did not go for the trip.