Humans of RI

Arts, CCA Events, Student Features

A House, Full: The Odyssey 2026
Reading Time: 7 minutes

By Lerraine Neo (26A01A) and Koh Shin Robbie (26A01A)

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra concert hall, RICO’s chosen venue for this year’s ArtSeason concert, has a maximum capacity of 750 people. That’s by no means a small number; 750 hours is about a month’s time, $750 can buy 150 McDonald’s value meals, and 750 metres is only 78 metres short of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. 

It takes a certain confidence to book such a large external venue. To believe in the support of your friends, the effectiveness of your publicity materials, your own ability to draw crowds and sell tickets. RICO’s confidence did not stop at the size of their concert hall—their setlist, consisting of duets, solo concertos, medleys and ensembles on top of the usual orchestral pieces, posed challenges in both logistics and performers’ skill. 

All this from an orchestra which—until as late as March—was struggling to recruit enough members to pad out their ranks. Where, then, had they gotten the confidence to plan such an ambitious concert? 

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Features, Humans of RI, Student Features

Setting Sail on a New Voyage: 46th Students’ Council Investiture
Reading Time: 8 minutes

By Rebekah Yew (27S05A) and Saadhana Kalimuthu (27A01C)

All photos courtesy of Daniel Lo Kai Ngee (Lu Kaiyi) (27S03F), Edward Tham Ming Hong (Tan Mingkang) (27S07B), and Khoo Zheng Yuan Orlando (27S06F) of Raffles Art and Photographic Society (RAPS)

A Formal Affair With Warmth

The PAC had never looked so prim, so proper, so formal. On 28 May, the 45th and 46th Students’ Councils gathered for the much-anticipated investiture. But beneath the stiff collars and ceremonial gravity, something warmer was already happening: councillors slipping notes and small gifts into one another’s hands, quiet exchanges of gratitude for the past year and before the weight of responsibility fully settled in.

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Arts, CCA Events, Features, Student Features

Raffles Street Dance Showcase 2026: Timeless: A Journey through the Eras of Dance
Reading Time: 7 minutes

By Lee Yi Ning Megan (27A01B) and Tran My Linh (27A01B)

All photos courtesy of Raffles Art and Photographic Society

From nostalgic 2000s hits to energetic Bollywood numbers, Raffles Street Dance’s (RSD) latest showcase, Timeless: A Journey Through the Eras of Dance, proved that dance transcends generations.

Held on 6 May at the Performing Arts Centre (PAC), the showcase brought audiences through different musical and dance eras from the 1980s to the present day, blending genres, styles and cultures into one cohesive performance. Inspired partly by the concept of different “eras” popularised by Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, the idea for the showcase emerged spontaneously during a practice break.

What began as a casual conversation gradually evolved into a full-fledged exploration of how dance styles and music have transformed over time. For the RSD Exco, the theme Timeless also reflected a broader cultural nostalgia.

“A lot of old songs are coming back,” Riddhi Pradhan (26S06C), Secretary of RSD explained. “People are yearning for the 2010s and the 2000s, and I think our CCA shares that same feeling. We enjoy both old music and new music, and we wanted a theme that could cohesively bring all these songs and styles together.”

Rather than restricting themselves to a single genre or aesthetic, the dancers embraced the diversity of street dance across decades. Each item was carefully crafted to embody the identity of a particular era while ensuring it still flowed naturally into the overall programme.

The ending pose of “The OGs”, a throwback piece to bands such as MC Hammer and Backstreet Boys.
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Compilations, Culture, Features, Humans of RI, Special Editions, Student Features

To Speak the Language of Home: Raffles Dialects
Reading Time: 9 minutes

By Koh Shin Robbie (26A01A) and Tok Kai Xue Traven (26A01B)

In 1959, Singapore saw the first of many key developments to its education system: a bilingualism policy. Its premise was simple—English, as the language of international business, would be mandated to be taught in all schools. Alongside this, the study of one’s mother tongue (namely Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil) would also be made compulsory to ensure students did not lose touch with their cultural roots.

In an instant, dialect languages were taken out of official usage. Radio stations switched to purely official languages, and an entire Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched with vigorous dissuasion of dialect use.

Photo from a speech by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Source: Zaobao SG
Text in the background translates to “Speak Less Dialect”.

For Mandarin, however, this line of reasoning proved rather ironic. In the face of institutional pressures to adopt Mandarin as their home language, what would happen to the dialect-speaking households which relied heavily on Hokkien, Teochew or Hakka to communicate on a daily basis? How would the precious, dialectal tongues which served generations upon generations of ancestors manage to maintain their relevance?

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Compilations, Features, Go Where?, Humans of RI, Nature Features, Special Editions, Student Features

Wading Through the Wetlands with Project Naturalia (CE01 Spotlight Special Edition 2026)
Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Cherie Khoo (26S03B) and Tara Sim (26A01C)

$3.50 might only be able to get you one meat + two veg at the Caifan stall in the RI canteen, but for 50 cents less, you could spend your Saturday morning on an insightful guided tour to Sungei Buloh led by our very own Rafflesians from Project Naturalia. 

After discovering his newfound love for nature walks and cataloguing wildlife from attending an international course on ecological research in Malaysia during GAP Semester in Year 4, this VIA project was founded last year by Koshik Basak (26S03J) and heartily supported by many of his friends from Y14. 

Some of the Project Naturalia members with their tour’s attendees

Since then, their love for animal discovery and nature has shone through the development of Project Naturalia and its team’s dedication to providing guided tours to the community. This project sets itself apart from typical nature walks by teaching participants how to truly appreciate the world around them—going beyond a jog through your neighbourhood park or the obligatory school learning journey to the Botanic Gardens to learn about sustainability that most of us would rather sleep through.

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