Li Ruoyu (Carl) 2020 graduate of SCIE, studying at Emory University with a double major in Physics/Economics It has been almost two years after graduating from SCIE, during which period of time the world is more than unpredictable. The global pandemic and a series of geopolitical and social factors have combined to make us the […]
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Anny Qiu Class of 2022, London School of Economics and Political Science 1. Those repeated “no”s finally got a “yes” When I chose the direction of my major, I used the method of exclusion. It was not until the end of G2 semester that I accidentally took the Further Mathematics lessons that I realized that
Be Thankful for Everything I’ve Met, Run Expectantly to the Next Station Read More »
Allen Wu ■ Graduated from SCIE in 2019 ■ Studied at Emory University in the United States When writing down this text, I was in a century-old teaching building in the center of Copenhagen, Denmark. The warm sun reflected from the outside into the window and to the study room I was in. The tik-tok
Escape and Letting Go: A Deserter’s Journey to Denmark Read More »
Emma Graduate of class of 2022，The London School of Economics and Political Science From the middle school to the international high school, my grades have never been the top, and I always “missed” the dream school at that time by a few points. But after all the dust settles, looking back, this may not be
Emma: No Fear with a Clear Direction Read More »
Nina Graduate of Class of 2022, The University of Manchester 1. About SCIE ♦ Decision of my Major After entering high school, I do not have an exact university application’s direction, so I refer to the subjects I have studied, which are more interested and good at to choose for the college major. Compared with
Nina Ning: The Best is not Always the Best for Yourself Read More »
Crist Graduate of 2022, University College London 1. Application season is a process of self-cultivation As far as I remember, rumors about the application season, from skipping classes to the preparation of interviews, have been lingering in my ears since the first day I spent in SCIE. However, all of those were too vague for
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I think the value of freedom is that it creates more possibilities, and I’m glad that SCIE offers such freedom, giving most students the opportunity to choose what they want to do and apply for the major they like. In junior high school, I found the school administration too harsh, repeating the same life every
Hajar: The Freedom Given by SCIE has Enabled Me to Find My Interests Read More »
Gary Class of 2022, The London School of Economics and Political Science One As a social science student who studies Sociology, psychology, history, and economics, (and mathematics in A1), I’ve always been asked about my course selection and how I cope with so many essay-based subjects in the past year. It is unusual to choose
Gary: Maybe, I Mean Maybe, I Can Choose Four Essay-Based Subjects Read More »
Frisk Class of 2022, Imperial Collegen London The experience in SCIE contains many memories and illusions. Time past so fast that I could not react I actually graduated from this place. I will tell my story and hope it can help you a little in your application. I completely had not any preparation in the
Frisk: Rough Road for Application Read More »
Yun Class of 2022, The Australian National University I originally wanted to write about my application experiences, but I thought I was not qualified to do so in front of some Oxbridge students preparing to write applications, so this article changed from a strict application introduction to a funny life record. I began to realize
Yun: My Funny Life At 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
