“What is iGEM? Is it fun?” If you ask Baidu, its answer is: international Genetically Engineered Machine competition. iGEM, which has the same age as our school SCIE, has nurtured over 4,300 synthetic biology projects and more than 20,000 genetic Parts worldwide in the past 20 years. It has also witnessed the six-year growth of […]
iGEM Triumph: Together, we stride into global TOP 10 Read More »
On Thursday, 19th October, the drama department put on an Internacia Agado or International Performance. The programme consisted of several items from different cultures presented in various languages. Drama teacher Nicola Howard said she was inspired to create performances in different languages after visiting some of the language classes at SCIE and seeing how well
SCIE Internacia Agado Read More »
Whilst saner students were off taking a break from the rigours of schoolwork during the National Holidays, those of us who chose to undertake the Silver IA were instead engaged in battles of will and wit with our horses by day, and enduring subzero temperatures in Mongolian yurts by night. Nonetheless, we did so happily
Shenzhen, a vibrant metropolis, where every corner echoes with youthful strides. On the vast waters of DaSha River in Nanshan, every Friday afternoon, as the sunset casts a golden glow on the river, members of the SCIE Rowing Club can be seen rowing gracefully, becoming the dazzling stars in this scenic vista. Rowing is more
Rhythmic Rowing Gleams: The Aquatic Melody of SCIE Rowing Club Read More »
As autumn leaves descended in a poetic dance, the moon hid itself behind a mysterious veil of mist. Bright orange pumpkins were scattered around the SCIE campus, quietly signaling that Halloween was approaching. The sun, usually warm and bright, fled away, leaving eternal darkness behind. When the clock struck 6:30, people started gathering on the
SCIE Halloween Party Read More »
With the improvement of the appearance repair system of SCIE Creek, the last batch of koi carp entered the water, and the project that our whole team has worked hard for nearly two months is about to usher in a successful conclusion in a short period. I am A1 new student Frank Jiang Guanyu, an
Peace was the dominant lullaby piously believed in for the last few decades, while those violent memories lay silent. Memories of warfare, genocides, spewed blood and flesh. Under the thinly-spread clouds and rolling pastures of Brussels, we started our dive into the darker nightmares of humanity. Belgium and France What better way there is to
SCIE History Field Trip｜Days in Europe Read More »
As a Spanish student with a deep love and passion for romance languages and cultures, the real façade of a small Spanish city remained an enigma until my recent journey. Roaming through this city, home to one of the world’s oldest universities, and gazing upon the majestic cathedral every day, I felt a sense of
SCIE Spanish Field Trip Read More »
I have followed a blogger, the photos and text that she has posted are all about my dream summer. Summer in southern Italy is very, very long, so we are lucky enough to still get a sense of summer in late September. She said that Italian summers are hot, unforgettable, come and go suddenly. Just
Geography Field Trip｜Compare You to an Italian Summer Read More »
The results of the 2023 Marshall Society Essay Competition, organized by the Cambridge University Economics Society (Marshall Society), were announced in September. Peng You Frank, a student from SCIE, achieved the second place globally. The works of Chen Zanzao Jackson and Sophia were recognized as outstanding essays. Below are the sharing from Frank. The question
SCIE student won the global runner-up in the Marshall Society Essay Competition 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
