During the Spring Festival holiday, my father was invited to teach a doctoral course on cultural heritage and rural tourism at Silpakorn University in Thailand. Curious about what doctoral classes entail, I decided to attend. After several days, I gained a new understanding of tourism and heritage, as well as how tourism development can benefit […]
I was fortunate enough to enroll in IG’s Global Perspective course, which proved to be an eye-opening experience in cross-cultural understanding. The course offered numerous research and activity opportunities that allowed me to expand my social skills, interpersonal connections, and knowledge. Participating in the Traditional Clothing Day initiative was a valuable lesson in teamwork and
A Journey of Multicultural Understanding Read More »
On the third week of the second semester, came the annual SCIE Humanities Week. This is a grand festival during which all humanities students and teachers learn new concepts together and embrace the harmony and conflict of varied viewpoints. During this week, students, teachers and special guests from outside the school carries out a series
A Marvelous Adventure: SCIE Humanities Week Read More »
During our AL sociology field trip, we listened to Professor Xie Ailei from the Faculty of Education in Guangzhou University on how it is like to be a educational sociology researcher, and we gained a brand-new understanding of how Chinese rural college students fit into the academic and social habitus of the elite 985/211 University.
Talk with Education Researcher｜Sociology Field Trip Read More »
Day 0 On Tuesday at 5:30 PM, everyone gathered at the south gate of the school to do the final check before departure, and then took the bus together to Hong Kong International Airport. Board a plane from Hong Kong to Istanbul, about twelve hours away; And then a flight to Belgrade; Finally, at 8:10 local
SCIE Economics Field Trip to Serbia Read More »
Last month, I had the honor of participating in a music competition. As part of a trio, including myself as the pianist, a cellist, and a violinist, we showcased our musical talents. Winning an award in this competition was a tremendous honor for us. Here are my experiences and feelings about the competition. The preparation
SCIE Student Won an Award in the 11th HK International Chamber Music Competition Read More »
The world immense, I love it with my minuteness. The world immense, we greet it with joyfulness. The world immense, we adorn it with a brilliant tomorrow. The world immense, we embark—towards new love and clamor! Prologue | La La Land: A Love Letter to Dreamers La La Land is often celebrated for its montage-like ending,
Embark—Towards New Love and Clamor! Read More »
As the Year of the Dragon approached, SCIE hosted the first semester awards ceremonies for the 2023-2024 academic year in the week. The G Level awards ceremony was hosted by Summer, Head of G1, and Roche, Head of G2, while the A Level awards ceremony was hosted by Michael, Head of A1 and Amanda, Head
2023-2024 Awards Ceremony Read More »
The thick night glues heaven and earth together, Stars mix with lights, and the Milky Way connects with the canal. Our small stilt house becomes neighbors with the moon palace. We set out from the campus on January 10th, embarking on the first biology study tour after the pandemic in the gentle afternoon sunlight. With
A Hymn of Life – A1 Thailand Biology Field trip Read More »
On the 18th of January, 2024. SCIE held the first academic communication activity with the students who graduated from SCIE as well in 2022. This activity is mainly focused on music composing majors. The topic is about sharing composed projects and introducing the diversity area in the music field. The sharer is Jason, who is
Sharing by Jason from Peabody Conservatory 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
