What is Hot and Cool to the Youth in Singapore

Wesley's Reflections & Thoughts on CNY

I have learnt we should not look at things from the outside. Like the woman in the picture from a few lessons ago, she did not really deserve much piety as she was from a syndicate. When we give money to her, it is as if we are giving money to the syndicate.

The symbol i have chosen is horse. It is because it is the horse year in the chinese zodiac, and is appropriate as a symbol for chinese new year.

The year of the horse...

The colour i have chosen is red. Why? It is because red is frequently seen during chinese new year as 'ang pows' or red packets. It is also seen as an auspicious colour by the chinese.





The image i have chosen is of a reunion dinner. In my opinion, flinging yu sheng is one of the most important parts of the reunion dinner, as it shows a family's unity.

Clarissa's Reflection and Thoughts on CNY

                     

      I had learned at least one thing in every CID class over the first 3 weeks. The main aim for the CID lessons is to prepare all of us for the OELP trip to either Taiwan or China in May. Out of the 3 lessons, I feel that the 2nd lesson was the one that had left the deepest impression on me. The topic of the 2nd lesson was: A picture paints a thousand words. In this lesson, the teacher had showed us 2 different pictures, both consisted of 2 people, a man and a lady with a baby asking for help or money from passers-by or tourists. Based on the pictures, we were told to choose who would we help. Of course, many in the class chose to help the woman, with the reason that the lady was more pitiful as she still have to support a baby while the man could easily find a job. However, it was later known that the man was really in need of help; he had been abandoned as a baby and was handicapped. Also, someone had stole his trolley which consisted of everything he had. The lady was part of a group of people who would bandage their body parts or carry babies and go out to the streets to beg for money from tourists at tourists attractions. 

    From this lesson, I had learned that there is always something more complex than anything you see, there will always be something that you do not know and there will always be some hidden story behind. I had travelled overseas with my family before, and I had definitely witnessed sights where people begged for money, and I had learned to be careful.

Thoughts on CNY:

Colour: Red
Why?: Chinese New Year is a festival for the Chinese, and red was considered as an auspicious colour. From mid-January to probably the end of February, you would see the colour red nearly everywhere; be it decorations or clothing or even food packaging.

Symbol: (the huge image on the right)



Why?:
Even though 2014 is the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac, I did not want to choose a picture of a horse as a symbol. The animal changes every year, and I wanted to choose something that would represent CNY, no matter what year it is.
I feel that this symbol meets my need. The word '福' stand for blessing. When it was put upside down, we call it '福倒了   ', which sounds the same as 'blessing is here' in Chinese.

         <-------Image

Why?: To me, CNY is a time where the whole family reunites and spend some much-needed quality time together. On the eve of CNY, the whole family gathers and have a sumptuous reunion dinner together. Then on the next day, they would go together as a family and visit close friends and relatives.