By Lerraine Neo (26A01A) and Matthew Han (27A01A)

On the surface, Jade Loong (25S06K) and Elizabeth Ling Sheng Ying (25S06N) are typical Science students. They both have PCME as their subject combination. Elizabeth takes H3 Chemistry. Jade “loves math” and was a Math Rep. 

Yet, they both found themselves in the Raffles Archives and Museum (RAM) CCA. “Very simply, I like museums,” Elizabeth says. For Jade, she stumbled onto RAM’s museum space in RI Y14 on the first day of school, learnt about RAM as a CCA, and found it really cool. Both wanted their CCAs to be less science-oriented so that they could explore different interests and strengths. 

This mix of coincidence and circumstance brought these two individuals together, and allowed Jade and Elizabeth to kickstart their batch project: The Lim Bo Seng Project. 

Going behind the lens of Lim Bo Seng 

In conjunction with SG60, the 2025 batch of RAM members chose to work on a heritage project centred around Lim Bo Seng, as he was not only a war hero but also a Rafflesian. They wanted to uncover the hidden stories of Lim Bo Seng beyond his WW2 stories and highlight his contributions to the nation. 

For Elizabeth, the biggest milestone of the project was getting the first draft out. “It really felt like it was going somewhere.” 

Researching for such a heritage project meant frequently visiting the National Archives and the National Library to search through their archives and sources. A highlight of their research process involved interviewing Lim Bo Seng’s descendants, whom they met after a history lecture. These interviews provided Jade and Elizabeth with personal stories and anecdotes that enriched the already well-known historical facts about Lim Bo Seng. They recounted a touching story about Lim Bo Seng’s wife, widowed after the war, standing at the gate with her daughter every day waiting for her husband to come home after the war as she was uninformed of his passing. 

“We tried to go past his achievements and contributions, to explore him as a person,” Jade said. “To look at the other aspects of him, rather than just his actions in the war. Whether it was an accurate representation—Most of the information was from records or family anecdotes, so hopefully it’s as complete as it could be.” 

Additionally, the RAM members even planned an overseas trip to Ipoh in late 2025 to learn more about Lim Bo Seng’s life. They visited sites such as a roadblock in Gopeng, where he was captured by the Japanese in 1944, and Batu Gajah, where he was subsequently imprisoned. 

Trials and Tribulations 

As A levels inched closer, the work began to pile up. Even Elizabeth, who’d been working on the project as a form of stress-relief to escape revision, started feeling the stress.

“To juggle a large-scale project like this in Y6 was not very easy,” she admitted. “Especially after TPs—it kind of just feels like you’re permanently going in and out of the ISH. It would get very stressful at times.” 

The sheer magnitude of the project guaranteed a heavy workload. It didn’t help that some members of the team were preoccupied with other commitments, or otherwise unable to contribute as much as Jade and Elizabeth would have hoped. As Elizabeth puts it: “Initially, we had a very nice division of labour. It was very nice in the slides, but it didn’t really work out.”

The two girls ended up doing most of the research, with more experienced members of the team (mostly those who’d been in RAM as RI Y14 students) carrying out interviews. They “exported” the transcribing of the interviews to their juniors, hoping to offload some of the more tedious parts of the project. But the work just kept coming.

“We had so much work to do: research, transcription of the interviews, captioning; our CCA teacher would make us check and if anything was wrong, we would have to change it instead of going back to the original people who did the work,” Jade recounted. “And this was during TPs and prelims period, so the workload was quite heavy.” 

The team also had to apply for a grant from the National Youth Council in order to fund the printing and publishing of their book, bringing another onslaught of administrative tasks. They also had to present a live pitch of their project, something neither of them had done before. 

“It was kind of stressful,” Elizabeth reflected. “The pitch took place in a room with a lot of people. There were other people with other projects, so we got to see some of these university students with their big projects—and then there was us.”

Their saving grace came in the form of Elizabeth’s deskmate, who stepped in out of passion and interest, going on to write a large majority of the actual manuscript. When describing the process of watching her deskmate work on the manuscript in class, Elizabeth’s face did its best to convey a mix of admiration, horror, and awe.

“It was a really short timeframe for him to write it,” Jade marveled. “The original plan was to split the book up into sections for different groups to write. But it ended up being one person.”

“It was probably for the better,” Elizabeth joked. “He’s a better writer than us. I suspect you may see a few of his GP essays in KS Bull.”

Afterthoughts and future plans 

Despite the numerous struggles and obstacles, the team successfully published Behind the Lenses: The Many Faces of Lim Bo Seng late last year, and have continued with planned outreach events into the first quarter of this year. As part of their grant, the project is obligated to wrap up by May.

“We’ve met the goals and objectives we listed out in our proposal, but I felt we could have done more,” Jade reflected. “Maybe an exhibition—Maybe if the whole CCA was more involved, rather than just the core team, we could have done more.”

There’s always more to do. Another source to read, a new perspective to consider, a grander exhibition to plan and put on. In RI, we seem to always aim to go bigger, do better. But it’s impossible to do it all, and constantly shifting the goalpost often means we forget to celebrate how far we’ve already come. So the real question was: were they happy with what they had done so far?

“Definitely,” Elizabeth told us. “It’s really cool to be able to go to the national library and see a book which has your name on it.”

“It was quite nice to see everyone celebrating the project and our efforts during the book launch,” Jade added. “And I got one of the members of Lim Bo Seng’s family to sign my book!” 

For Elizabeth, the most important part of the project wasn’t the book or the outreach events, but the bonding opportunities it created for RAM, and especially the core team. The aforementioned overseas trip to Ipoh, where they conducted further research, brought the team closer together. 

“I’m quite happy with the way I left RI; I made some really good friends here,” she said, reflecting on the wealth of human connection over her two years in the school. “There were definitely some painful experiences, like clocking an unhealthy number of hours on YPT, but ultimately when you look back, you’ll fondly remember the hours you spent mugging with your class in the library. There’s a sense of camaraderie when you see the whole class mugging together.”

Jade, meanwhile, appreciated the leadership crash course this project gave her. She realised that leading isn’t about doing the work, but rallying everyone to play their part and have a sense of ownership in the project. 

“What happens to Lim Bo Seng after—we’re probably going to hand it over to the juniors, so they’ll play a bigger part in deciding what happens to the project,” Elizabeth said. “If they decide they want to take it further, we’ll definitely be happy to help, but we’re letting them decide.”

Conclusion

Two years isn’t a very long time. For Jade and Elizabeth, it was just enough to write a book, study for A levels, and perhaps most importantly, create memories with their friends. 

“I stepped into RI expecting myself to only focus on studies. And I left quite satisfied as I developed myself more, and explored my interests more,” Jade shared. “Manage your time well and don’t be too focused on any one aspect; have a good balance of everything.”

“Try and do other things outside of mugging,” Elizabeth advised. “Mugging can be very boring and very painful. I enjoyed the other things I did, like RAM. In RGS I was very academic focused, even my CCA (Cogitare) was academic-focused; contrasted to my time in RI, when my main CCA wasn’t that academic—that was a very good change for me.”

We constantly hear about how short JC is, how much content there is to cover, how close the A-levels are getting. It’s undoubtedly scary to branch out in a time like this, where every day seems to count, and time spent trying new things could have been time spent studying. But as Jade and Elizabeth have shown, it isn’t about the mugging, or the hours, or the fear. 

It’s about the courage to do something new, to stretch yourself further and see how far hard work can fuel your passion. To find time and chase your dreams, even when the challenges pile up. And to always remember your goals, and celebrate every achievement, no matter how small.  

When asked for closing words, they quoted two-time Olympic Champion Yuzuru Hanyu: “Don’t you think it would be boring if I held back what I could do?”