Reflections—Bryan Goh (7)

Throughout this journey, before the journey and even after, i observed many things, things that i never thought would even happening.
Before the journey itself, i learned that being prepared for the worse is a important skill. I learned that because, my group decided to meet at mcdonald's before the trip, to plan. However, we realized one thing, mcdonald's did not have wireless@sg. Amazingly, all the mcdonald's we had visited before had, however this one at Clementi Mall didn't. Fortunately, i brought my mobile modem, which allowed me to log in to the internet to know more about our task, use google maps to plan our route.
During the trip, i also realised that even though it was not the peak hour, trains were still very crowded, signifying a trend that i think is that companies do not always start and end at a specific time, but now they have more flexible timing, so that the employees will be more motivated to do their work.
At the Singapore river, we didn't know we were at first, but fortunately, we managed what we learned about map reading into the context, and we started off pretty soon. Along the way, we realised that the Singapore River's water was brownish, as if there were lots of mud, and even worse, we saw a cleaner dumping water in a garbage bin into the river itself. I have never expected something like that to have happened in Singapore.
At the ACM, we learned that it would be important to pick up the key points instead of investigating everything as we were running short of time, one thing that i can relate to this is actually time management, as we had spend lots of time around the river, taking photos and lesser time at the museum which we shouldn't have done.
Later on, we realised that we were supossed to take a photo in the beginning, but we forgot, so we had to back trek, and wasted lots of time just for that photo. So, it's important to read everything in great detail before embarking on something new.
However, i felt that this was a great field trip although we should have been given more time

Reflection - Oh Sher Li

For me, the experience of going to the museum was a very new and unfamiliar one, as I rarely travel to the city area. We also had no idea about the task before it was actually released, so it came as a surprise that we had to travel to the city. We nearly got lost at the beginning and did not know which bridge was the correct one. As we had lack of Internet access and shortage of time, we did not read the instructions very thoroughly and ended up not taking the photo at the beginning of our “journey”, as stated in the task.

I have always been rather timid when it came to museums, so I did not really look forward to the museum trip. However, it was not as bad as I thought it would be as the museum was very well decorated and furnished, and as we visited the gallery on China, it was more of an experience of getting to know more about my own culture than being afraid most of the time. 

After the trip, I learnt more about the culture of the Chinese civilisation, and how to read maps accurately, otherwise it will be difficult to find the way to places.

Reflection - Cheng Ngee

I enjoyed walking along the trail the most, as we got to see many different sights and scenery that we do not usually see, and along the way, being in the group made the task all the more fun since we get to talk, and crack jokes along the way to the end. A few challenges we faced were that beforehand, no one knew that we needed to go to City Hall to complete the task, and therefore no preliminary work was done for the task. We also had no idea where the museum was, so we nearly got lost. Also, at the very beginning, my group was in-between 2 different bridges. Which was the Coleman Bridge and the Andersen Bridge we did not know, and we wasted time trying to figure out which was which. An area which my group could do better was to give out proper instructions and tasks to each member before we entered the museum, and read the instructions. We did not settle on which tasks each person should complete, and therefore we had many overlaps of the same artifacts in the museum. Also, in the beginning, we were supposed to take pictures of our group at the start and end of the trail. We did not manage to take a photo of the start of the trail since nobody looked through the instructions carefully, and we had to travel back to the start just to take the photo.

Reflection - Chan Jing Jie

I enjoyed going on a field trip out to the Singapore River and Ancient Civilisations Museum. During the trip, we had fruitful learnings experiences, and absorbed lots of new knowledge. In the process, my group had lots of fun, chit-chatting, joking and laughing(of course :X). Going into the Ancient Civilisations Museum gave me a WOW-sensation. I did not know that it was so nicely made into, and I had a good time taking a look at the beautiful and eye-catching artifacts.

However, during the whole journey, some challenges were encountered. As we did not know of the requirements of the task beforehand, hence, we could not plan out the route that we would be taking. At Singapore River itself, we were unsure of which bridge was coleman bridge and anderson bridge. During the process, we were also confused on how to go to the ancient civilisations museum.
I think this eLearning Task could be improved if we know the task beforehand, so that we would be able to do our own research, which gives us a foundational knowledge of Singapore River and the different bridges. Like this, we would also be able the plan the route before embarking on it.

Singapore River - Past and Activities

Before Singapore was cleaned up,Singapore river was a dumping ground for the street hawkers. There were hardly any marine creatures living in the river during that time. Later on in the late 20th century, the government embarked on a project on cleaning the river up. From then on, the river was given a new lease of life.

Since then, many shophouses, shopping centres and companies were established. The singapore river today is flourishing with life and there are many activities that are still held on the Singapore River. Activities like the Annual Dragon Boat Race and the Adopt -a -duck race is still held on the Singapore River. And along the Singapore River, there are many different type of activites that takes place.

Singapore River

It will not change its shape, as the river banks would be required to change before the shape of the river will be changed. Also, the Singapore River is a part of the Marina Reservoir, and the government would not be intending to change the shape of the river.

Sketched map of the area

Technological Aspect

In the past, clothes of the people were hand-sewn, without the use of machinery. Intricate designs were sewn onto clothing of people of higher positions, such as officials.

More Artifacts on the Cultural Aspect

Cultural Artifact

The 3 brushes shown above are calligraphy brushes meant to write or draw calligraphy according to their sizes. The largest one is to write single-letter words in big script while the middle and smaller-sized one is meant for writing the phrases in a 3 by 3 script. (九宫格）

In ancient China, the brush tips were made of bamboo and animal fur or tails. They were mainly made of wolf and sheep fur. Nowadays, the brush tips produced are much less authentic then before, making use of poor quality animal hair, therefore reducing the durability of the brush and thus making beginners discouraged when they use a bad brush. 

There are many different kinds of fonts for calligraphy such as 楷书，草书，and many others. Nowadays, 楷书 is more popular with beginners as it is very similar to what we are writing in chinese now, therefore making the task of learning easier. 草书 is more advanced and requires more skill, concentration and flair.

Social Aspect

You may not be able to see, but on these artifacts, there are chinese words carved on it.

Behind the construction of these epitaph, there is actually a story. It was a story that shows that filial piety was the motivation of the construction of these epitaph. The main message is to show that filial piety is practiced not only in this life, but also in death and beyond.

Basically, these two artifacts are meant to show Filial Piety in China. There was once, Confucius said "游不父必，母有游在方。” This statement means that "While our parents are alive, one must not travel afar. If one must, one's whereabouts should also be made known."

Other Information regarding the Social Aspect:

China has had a centralised system of power-- Where the emperor ruled from the heart of the Middle Kindom.

The Chinese Society has always been fairly meritocratic and upwardly mobile. People of lower social status could move up through society, especially through education.

Map of The Place We Went :D