24 October 2024
On Thursday 26 September, 18 Years 10 to 12 Chinese students from Ms Qiu’s and Ms Wang’s class embarked on an excursion to watch the newly released movie title Successor《抓娃娃》. The movie follows a poor family living in a dilapidated building where they struggle to survive. Their young son, Ma Jiye works hard to earn whatever he can to help his family. However, something is hidden from Ma Jiye. His father is an extremely wealthy businessman overseeing a vast empire who purposely creates a life of poverty for their son to teach him the importance of hard work and resilience with the help of various educators and mentors disguised as his neighbours. But as Ma Jiye grows older, he starts to notice some abnormalities in his life and starts questioning his reality before finally finding out the truth that his whole life had been manipulated into what his father wants, for him to study at the prestigious Tsingbei University.
This sparked an ethical debate between us, which carried over to our lunch at Chinatown at Urumqi Uyghur Cuisine, where we indulged in some traditional foods such as lamb kebabs and nan bread. Our debate spoke about the rich life experiences provided for the son while he lived in poverty in contrast to if he’d grown accustomed to a rich lifestyle.
The Chinese Continuers class also enjoyed the movie thoroughly, especially since they got to test their Chinese skills by reading the Chinese subtitles (No English of course, totally). Once the boys got to Chinatown, they went to 食库门 alongside some other Chinese students from Years 11 and 12 to eat noodles and their iconic 小笼包。The boys found their meals very fulfilling and enjoyable, specifically since they knew how to read the characters and know exactly what they were ordering (or we hoped so…). Following this delicious lunch, the boys in the Chinese Continuers class went on a 3-part task-based scavenger hunt within Chinatown, each task being sent to us through a tight-knit WeChat that Ms Wang helped the boys create. The tasks involved finding signs with different languages on them, finding certain Chinese culinary staples (such as 老干妈) and finding shops and facilities in Chinese. After completing the tasks (and lots of circles around Chinatown), the boys were able to have a bit of free time to treat themselves to snacks or, the better option in my humble opinion, 珍珠奶茶.
On the way back down to SPSC, all boys had a brief stop at the Botanic Gardens where the boys had time to marvel at the amazing artwork within.
A big thank you to the languages department especially Ms Qiu and Ms Wang for giving the Chinese students this wonderful opportunity to immerse themselves in Chinese culture.
Glen Li (FRR) and Thomas Teh (SHT)
Year 10 Students
