5km², Commentary, Human Interest

5km²: Homegrown Organic Bishan Boy

By Ian Michael Yam (20A01A), Rachael Koh (20S07C), Sarah Lok (20A03A) and Michele Pek (20A01A)
Special thanks to Damien Yau for taking time to let us interview him and share his insights; without him, this story would not have been brought to light.

5km² aims to discover the unexplored places and untold stories of the Bishan community, spoken through words and photographs. Raffles Institution has been rooted here for 29 years, and many of us spend disproportionately more time in school than at home; yet, most of us don’t really explore the places around us past Junction 8, or maybe even S11. This begs the question: as residents, how much do we actually know about Bishan? What hidden gems does the unassuming 5km² area around us hold?

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2019 Performances, Arts, Commentary, Performances

Riding the Waves: Nami by Guitar Ensemble

By Valerie Tan (20A01E)
Photos courtesy of Geng Heqin (20S06S) from Raffles Photographic Society

6:25PM, 23rd May 2019.

For an LT that hardly ever sees students enter its aisles for lectures, LT2 is remarkably alive tonight. Students and parents alike fill its seats, and an unceasing wave of chatter and conversation washes through the entire space, accompanying the almost indiscernible music playing in the background. At the edge of the stage sit cardboard waves, painted deep sea blue and lined with tinsel, while four gold foil balloons spell out NAMI at its bottom. Continue reading “Riding the Waves: Nami by Guitar Ensemble” →

Commentary, RI Events, School Life

L39O: Council Investiture 2019

By Kelly Leong (20S07C) and Valerie Tan (20A01E)
Photos courtesy of Joel Leong (20S03O) and Andrew Yu (20S07C) from Raffles Photographic Society

The members of the incumbent 38th Students’ Council sat as a sea of black on stage, donning their formal uniform for what would probably be the last time. Just below them, their successors sat with their blazers folded neatly in their arms, awaiting the investiture that would confer onto each of them the status of a full-fledged councillor. Amidst the hushed conversations that peppered the tense atmosphere, several enthusiastic friends did not hesitate to whip out their phones and photograph their peers in the incoming Council, while providing words of encouragement to calm their surely-pulsing hearts.

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2019 Exhibitions, Clubs, Commentary, Exhibitions

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Kalopsia 2019

By Huang Beihua (20A03A) and Ng Jing Ting (20A13A)

It took us all of two minutes to locate the Visual Arts Centre. Located just a stone’s throw away from the entrance of Dhoby Ghaut MRT station, the glasshouse exhibition gallery was this year’s venue for Raffles Photographic Society’s (RPS’s) annual photography exhibition, Kalopsia 2019.

‘Kalopsia’, a rather wistful word referring to ‘the delusion of things being more beautiful than they really are’, aptly, if somewhat mawkishly, encapsulated the evocative sentiments of the exhibition. As chairperson Brendon Loo (19S03H) explained, “the state of delusion” the word captured succinctly reflected the vision behind this exhibition: to showcase photography as “more than just taking aesthetic photos”, but also an art form to “conjure a deeper significance and meaning”.

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Commentary, Human Interest, Student Features

Ramadan in Retrospect

By Huang Beihua (20A03A), Coco Liu (20S06L), Sarah Lok (20A03A), and Emily Ni (20S03C)

Photos courtesy of Nurinsyirah Binte Nasser (20S03K) and Nurin Hasha Binte Jubir (19A13B)

For the more astute, you probably noticed that something was amiss when you clicked on this article: all four authors have distinctly Chinese surnames.

You might be wondering why four Chinese students are writing this article, when we probably don’t know much about the Ramadan experience. To a certain extent, you’re right. Apart from being aware of the fact that our Muslim friends go through a month of fasting every year, we never fully understood what exactly Ramadan entailed beyond that.

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