Preface: I will never forget the HongEn Young Children’s English: The Three Little Pigs series. Thirteen years ago, one afternoon, when the second little pig introduced himself by saying, “I go to the University of Cambridge,” my five-year-old self pointed at the TV and whined to my mom, “Mommy, I want to go to Cambridge […]
A New Age is Upon Us Read More »
Pleasant news arrives with the autumn breeze. In the recently released June 2025 Cambridge International examination results, students at SCIE have once again demonstrated exceptional academic prowess, achieving brilliant success in the Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards. Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards are a group of awards issued by Cambridge International Education, that recognize exceptional achievement in Cambridge exams
Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards 2025 – SCIErs Achievements Read More »
Action in the world stems from independent individuals. Independent individuals can connect with each other through action, forging change in society. From personal goals and ideas to engagement and understanding within the community, everything begins with that phrase—global citizen. I am truly honored to represent SCIE in receiving this award for 2025, and I hope to
My EARCOS Global Citizen Journey: A Part of the World Read More »
At the beginning the 2024-25 school year, I decided that SCIEs Art Department should have a field trip to New York City. To expose our talented students to one of the worlds premiere center for the arts. Ten months later twelve students, Clara, my colleague from the art department and myself landed in New York
SCIE Art Adventures in NYC Read More »
It wasn’t until the airplane’s front wheels touched down at Hong Kong Airport that my thoughts finally drifted away from the sunset glow over Davenport Courtyard. YYGS lasted only two weeks—too short, so short that the hydrangeas my mother planted before my departure hadn’t even sprouted buds; yet too long, long enough for me to stand
Yale, The Title Page of a History Book Read More »
The wind of August carries with it the traces of summer warmth, brushing softly against the layers of greenery shading the campus of SCIE. Sunlight, like molten amber, filters through the leaves, scattering golden fragments across the stone paths. The steady roll of suitcases echoes like a metronome of time, opening the overture to a long-awaited
When the Gate Opens — Induction Week 2025 Read More »
June 2025 — As summer vacation arrived on schedule, the campus summer works began. Over the course of fifty-nine days — a holiday marked by frequent extreme weather, including intense heat, thunderstorms and strong winds — we carried out a series of significant transformations across the campus. Below is a retrospective account of the phases and
Symphony of Change: SCIE’s 2025 Summer Projects in Review Read More »
Foreword： The summer of 2025 proved far more humid than what I had imagined. The 1,460 days spent with SCIE ended in a rainy morning. Behind me stood the unchanged campus, yet every moment of those four years changed my heart forever… Strangeness In 2021, upon transitioning from a public middle school to SCIE, I
Praising My Imperfect Self Read More »
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 »
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
