In March of last year, when I was still a candidate sitting in the interview room of SCIE, my interviewer asked me a question: What do you think is science? And in June this year, we explored the answer to this question together at the XSTREAM Science Fair held by our school. After the final […]
The most Essential Romance in the Universe Read More »
What do we do in Global Perspectives (GP)? Global Perspectives is an interdisciplinary, research-based course that stretches beyond traditional subject boundaries that promotes us to think about and explore solutions to significant global issues and global happenings in a variety of perspectives. In Global Perspectives, we learn how to process information, filter information, and analyze
Exploring the Finest Worlds in the Most Fascinating Course Read More »
On May 17, 2023, 28 students from G1 Biology Enrichment participated in a video call with the students from Malboro Gardens in South Africa. The event was organized with the vision to create owl-friendly children and owl-friendly environments in South Africa, and the mission to contribute to the conservation of owls in Africa through education.
Students Report on Biology Enrichment Activity Read More »
August 14th 2019, a group of students arrived at a school campus in Shenzhen to embark on their high school careers, a school campus in Shuiwei village. Those students were the new G1 students for SCIE and the last cohort of G1 students that would come to the Shuiwei campus. Of course, that is your
To the Class of 2023 Read More »
In the scorching month of June, we bid farewell to the graduating class of 2023, concluding the international exams for this academic year. The end-of-year awards ceremony for G1 students also took place as scheduled. On June 9th, 2023, the students and teachers of G1 gathered at the Halo Theater for the 2022-2023 academic year’s
SCIE 2022-2023 Grade 1 End of Year Awards Read More »
This summer, G1 and G2 students have been taking Trinity acting exams. The school had a tradition of taking these, but attention has been focused on Edexcel GCSE and A-level exams over the past few years. However, the drama department decided to re-introduce these in August 2023 to equip students with more vocal and physical
Challenges and Rewards of Trinity Acting Exams Read More »
In pursuit of scientific knowledge, scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery, as Stephen Hawking once said. For the G2 physics students at SCIE, this year has been a journey of scientific exploration, where they acquired critical thinking skills and experienced such moments of illumination in their path towards scientific discoveries through
A Journey of Scientific Exploration Read More »
Alexandra 2022 graduate of SCIE, studying at Imperial College London Let’s start with the application season. To be fair, I still find the application season a torturous but fulfilling time. Beginning from the summer vacation where I was about to become an A2, I’d begun to worry about my PS. I had to stay up
Truth about Application Season Read More »
Zachary 2022 graduate of SCIE, studying at University of Edinburgh My four-year study in SCIE really changed my view and attitude towards my life and study a lot. When I got the offer from my dream university, I couldn’t help recalling the days when I was preparing for the entrance exam of SCIE and my
When Academic Titans Unite, Focusing on Self-Improvement Read More »
Annika 2022 graduate of SCIE, studying at University of California, Berkeley For me, SCIE is one of the few schools that is able to achieve a balance between work and play. Before I even entered the gate of SCIE I was intrigued by this balance. Once I arrived and began my student life in SCIE,
“Super Dance” Attracted Me to SCIE 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
