Week Five

It is the second last week in wuhan.

Monday

Discrete Mathematics Lesson (Trees)

Tuesday

We had the other half of the IS lesson on chinese traditional thoughts by director An. We were taught more on taoism and buddhism. It was said that the doctrines of confucianism and taoism complement each other, running side by side like two powerful streams through later Chinese thought and literature. I learnt that taoism advocates a more carefree flight from the responsibility and conventional duties of society and they turned to nature for the secrets of life. Taoism is often pursued by them in their private chambers or mountain retreats, seeking to get rid of the cares of official life and the pains in social experience.

The word Tao means “a way” or a “road”. Sometimes it denotes the “channel” of a river. In general, it means “the way to go”. It includes to the standard procedure of things, the correct method of their operation and behavior. In our daily life, we can often hear dao. Example:

• 白道黑道门道
• 道德道理行道

All these (dao) are what we often encounter in our life. The taoists are situated mostly in the Wudang mountain where many taoist monasteries can be found there. The mountain is known for practice of mediation and chinese martial arts. Wushu is originally from taoism. Here is one video of wudang wushu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmOnNcRBSjE Through the lecture, what interest me the most was the story of The Happiness of Fish(鱼之乐). The meaning behind of the story was trying to explain that either anyone of us will be able to understand one's feelings fully. I felt that it was so true because no one can understand someone else feelings so clearly than himself or herself.

其实鱼也好，我也好，我们谁也难以知道对方的感受，却往往将自己的感受转移到对方的身上，以为对方就是这么想的.

This sentence made me reflect on myself. We should not put our own feelings towards a situation and think that it is also the same feelings others have towards it. This is because we are not them and we are unable to experience how they feel.

The lecture have also touched on the topic of buddhism which is my religion. I did not know that buddhism was founded by prince Siddhartha, son of king suddhodana (pure Rice King) of kapilavastu in central India. (present-day Nepal), between the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. prince Siddhartha was also known as sakyamuni which means “the wise man of the Sakya clan”. He had given away the luxurious royal life and meditated under the papal tree and had become Buddha, founder of Buddhism.

One of the question asked during the lecture was : "How should we deal with our human desire." My answer to this question will be self-control. We need to control ourselves from temptations and think twice before making a decision. Then, we will be able to deal with our human desire. We have to think whether the desire will bring us more advantages or disadvantages.

Mid Autumn Festival Celebration




After the IS lecture ,we had a mid autumn festival celebration with the school of foreign language students. They organised some interaction games and was held at the staff clubhouse. There are gym, singing lounge and many other facilities available for use in the clubhouse. The way how china celebrate mid autumn festival is almost the same with how we usually do in singapore. We eat mooncakes but one thing which is different from us is that they play fireworks. They not only play fireworks at night but also in the morning. The small celebration lasted for about 2 hours only but i guess everyone had fun that day because around 80 people occupied the room. So, there was alot of noise and everyone was very active during the games.

Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomelos together. Accompanying the celebration, there are also additional cultural or regional customs, such as: Carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns and fire dragon dances. In china, they called it as the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the other hand, we called it as the Latern Festival or Mooncake Festival in singapore.

Wednesday
Whole day of Discrete Mathematics Lesson ( Revision, Recursion)

Thursday

Shopping at Lu Xiang, Guang Gu






On thursday, we went for shopping at Lu Xiang Guang Chang and Guang Gu shopping mall. Lu Xiang Guang Chang is a shopping mall that is somehow similar to our Takashimaya in Singapore. The items sold there are mostly branded and are considered expensive. The day we went to Lu Xiang Guang Chang was the first day of their Huang Jin Zhou period which is our children day. I noticed that they can spend their money to around 500rmb. I find it weird because i once heard before that their pay in china are not so high and i wonder why it seems very normal for them to spend so much money in a day. But, i guess that Huang Jin Zhou which is the china national day ,is a happy occasion to the china people and it is somehow similar to our chinese new year where we will spend large amount of money to get new clothes.

Friday
Shopping at Lao Shu Jie.

Saturday

Saturday was a special day for me because it's 3rd October 2009. It was my birthday and i swear i had the best 18th birthday celebration in wuhan. One of the best gift i have gotten for this year birthday is to know more ICT people. They are a bunch of funny and sociable friends. At 12am, the girls came to my room and sang me a birthday song. They gave me a big brown teddybear which i always love to have one. I was very touched but they gave me an even bigger surprise at night.

After a steamboat dinner with a big group of people, they led me to the karaoke lounge. They booked a room and sang me the second birthday song with a cake and there was a friendly singing competition between keling, eliza and i. It was really the very best birthday celebration i have ever had in my life. My mother called me in the afternoon and when i heard her voice, i cried because it was my first time not spending my birthday with my family. However, this celebration by all the ict friends made me forget about my unhappiness and gave me what i need which was warmth.










Sunday
Mugging for final test which is on monday.


Random Pictures



Dropped our shampoo inside the toilet bowl. Our saviors(kim and gladys) came to help us out in the middle of the night. It was a very bad and scary experience.

• Will update next week journal soon.