Introduction: Once I thought happiness was a clear path – getting into a good university, finding a good job, and achieving “success” step by step. After coming to SCIE, I had my first experience of staying up all night, more time to think about the meaning of life, and to present a conclusion on eight […]
Wu Sitong: In an uncertain world, be your own coordinate Read More »
To SCIE students, ‘Peer Support Division’ must come to their ears as the name of a familiar friend. When SCIE students come across obstacles, they have more than just teachers, counsellors, and tutors, they also have a team of peer supporters from the SCIE Student Leadership Body, all working together to construct a safe, close-knit
At SCIE, we have a special team of Peer Supporters… Read More »
Time at SCIE resembled an exquisitely crafted hourglass.Its gilded sands flowed, at times with such urgent haste it sparked anxiety: the frantic clatter of keyboards before deadlines, the desperate urge for “one last glance” at notes before entering the exam hall. At other moments, the stream seemed to stretch into eternity, suspended. Our time felt
To the Duality of Time: Chronicles of Insight from a SCIEr Read More »
In 1896, the Aegean breeze kissed the first Olympic waves in human history. Fourteen national flags fluttered beneath the Acropolis in Athens, as 241 warriors etched an eternal mark in the river of time with nine sporting events—”Citius, Altius, Fortius.” These three Latin words are like ancient seashells that, even a century later, still echo
Eight Warriors, One Goal! SCIE Triumphs at SISAC！ Read More »
During the labours’ day holiday, or so-called study leave, five SCIE students from G1 and G2, who are passionate about geography, met in Shanghai and explored our fantastic planet that we live on, in a carnival of geography called International Geography Bee. Quiz Bee For someone who had never participated in a quiz bowl competition
A GEOGRAPHY CARNIVAL Read More »
June 23, 2025, Shanghai — Hurun Education, the international education platform under Hurun Report, officially released the HSBC Hurun Education Global Highschools 2025 ranking. Shenzhen College of International Education (SCIE) was ranked No. 1 among schools in China, and 46th globally, making it the only school from China to be included in the global top
HSBC Hurun Global Highschools 2025: SCIE Ranked No. 1 in China, 46th Globally Read More »
01. Intro Good morning, esteemed guests, proud parents, dedicated faculty and staff, and of course, my incredible fellow graduates. How do you define the Class of 2025? My instinct was to find quick, tidy answers. G1, gpa defying? G2, covid defying? Al, attendance defying? Yet at the point of graduation, I realized some things are simply too
Growing Up Is Never Easy, but We Made It Read More »
Good morning, distinguished guests, we are here to celebrate the Class of 2025, Good morning A2！ It is traditional in graduation speeches to offer words of wisdom or advice to the graduating class, so I shall be traditional now and offer you a simple piece of advice. “Good Mornings”. It is important to greet people,
Principal’s Speech: Set Sail with Hope and Heart Read More »
June marks the beginning of summer, a time of harvest, and a starting point for new journeys. On June 13, 2025, G1 students and teachers gathered in Halo Theatre to celebrate the end of the 2024–2025 academic year with a formal yet warm End-of-Year Ceremony. The ceremony was hosted by Mr. Henk, Head of G1, with Principal Mr.
SCIE G1 Year-End Celebration and Awards 2024–2025 Read More »
On 18th April, Oxford Professor Sir John Ball delivered a special lecture titled “The Story of Perelman and the Poincaré Conjecture” at SCIE. Mr Mathew Thomas, Head of the Mathematics Faculty, gave some inspiring introductory words, likening Mathematics to a walk in a forest where there are no obvious routes, but maybe multiple routes or even dead-ends; Mathematics is an exploration
Oxford Professor John Ball on Perelman & the Poincaré Conjecture Read More »
My essay is on the recent development of China’s mental health care system and how it can help address this question. Though, I actually parried the question raised by the prompt, and I did not in the end emphasise too much that more care should be devoted to the socially vulnerable. Rather, I intended to underscore the complexity and ambiguity in any employment of these two notions — “socially vulnerable” and “responsibility” — in the concrete working of society. Through my study I discovered that the train of legislative efforts made in the 1980s to 2000s to legally recognise, to enhance public knowledge of, and to erect new asylums for, “the mentally ill,” in fact coincided spatiotemporally with government efforts in putting new agendas of foreign policies and city development to work. Thus, the recent development of China’s mental health care, from scratch to full maturity, is not solely the consequence of “humanitarian effort,” but also of some other ulterior motives. In my conclusion, I hinted that any answer to this question would entail empirical investigation into the concrete working of social institutions, and depending on the nature of this “socially vulnerable” group, claims of “responsibility” may be leveraged as veils for other purposes.
Before starting my research I did not by then have a well-formed hypothesis, but I did have Michel Foucault’s intriguing study on madness in mind. Due to the rather peculiar nature of the object of my study, I was not able to apply the sociological theories (Marxism, Functionalism, e.g.) I learnt in class to my own research. I must thank my sociology teacher for his encouragement and provision of many textbook resources and classical studies done in the field of mental health care. In addition to that, he prepared a statement of the school for my application to conduct short interviews at a local mental health hospital — this application, however, though quite expectedly, sank into oblivion — without his help this project would be very difficult.
I made a documentary “The Definition” about the situation of elderly in Shenzhen to enter this competition. As I have some previous knowledge in filmmaking, learning from TBU studio, I though it would be meaningful if I combined my filmmaking skills with sociology knowledge. In the meanwhile, after learning the very first chapter of sociology, The Family, I found out that the situation of elderly in the UK is different from that of elderly in Shenzhen. For instance, elderly have the responsibility taking care of their grandchildren and dance in the park for entertainment is distinctive in China. Therefore, I decided to make a documentary to record the interesting culture.
I learnt a lot during the preparation for the competition. I learned a lot about how to carry out an individual primary research when I was filming “The Definition”, which helps a lot in my current sociology study. Also, I understood sociology theories better. For instance, postmodernism used to be only a vague theoretical perspective for me, yet it amazed me knowing that elderly people participate actively in public activities can be considered as view of postmodernism.
Most importantly, I realized filmmaking can make some impacts on people, portraying problems of society. Experience of BSA opened my eyes and led me rethink about my future major in college. I want use my skills and knowledge to help more people, so I will probably try a major with humanity and filmmaking combined instead of pursuing the dream of being an artist alone.
Learning sociology gives me a new perspective in seeing how the world works, and it also lets me care more about the vulnerability in the society. Thank you to my sociology teacher, Richard Driscoll, who gave me lots of inspiration such as filming the dancing in the park, which is interesting to British people, and recommenced lots of sociological books about the elderly.
By listening to his advice, “The Definition” eventually divides into two parts: one is about the elderly in nursing home and the other is about people dancing in the park. Also, there is many interviews in the documentary to give a more well-rounded perspective.
I would like to thank my Math teacher Michael Jin and my friend Franchaska, who helped me with the voice over. Also, thanks to my family members, especially my dear grandmother, who gave me lots of insights related to the issue of elderly.
I made this documentary just before the deadline, thus it’s not so perfect. I’ll probably elaborate some shots and reedit it in the future.
If you are interested, you can click the link below and watch it.
Teng Xun Video：https://v.qq.com/x/page/u0862usad2v.html
Bilibili：https://www.bilibili.com/video/av38188271?from=search&seid=10452775157822232568
