Project Narrative
Information About Our Site
Teachers: Mr. Tang Hung Bun and Mrs. Tina Neoh
Students: Tan Lay Shan (leader), Chong Siew Men, Ellince Sutopo,
Yam Pei Yu, Jeanette Yap and Yap Jun Ting
Project Overview
Category 2: Community groups and Special Populations
Singapore is a highly urbanized country situated strategically at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, an island of 646 square kilometers. A multi-racial society of four main races - Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian, the size of the population is about 3.5 million. Besides the four main races, there is a particular group called the Peranakans, which are unique to the geographical regions of West Malaysia (namely Penang and Malacca) and Singapore. Therefore the cultural environment of Singapore is a rich blend of these many races. Singapore used to be very unevenly distributed with different ethnic groups living in different districts. The Chinese used to live in Chinatown, Malays in Kampong Glam, Indians in Little India and Eurasians in Commercial Square. As for the Peranakans, they lived in the Joo Chiat and Emerald Hill areas. However, over time, these different ethnic groups no longer live in distinct areas. This is due to government housing policies which encourages a mixing of the races in the housing estates.
Our project, "Return to your Peranakan Roots", caters to both Peranakans and non-Peranakans regardless of age. We chose this particular topic because our interest was aroused by the fact that our school, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School, is a Peranakan school. Before we entered SCGS, we knew nothing about Peranakan culture. Some of us did not even know that such a culture existed. We then realised that the Peranakan culture is actually dying as few still practised the customs. The younger generation in particular are detached from their roots and show little interest in learning about their heritage. A large number of the students in SCGS who are of Peranakan origin hardly know anything of their culture, so we decided to build a website on Peranakan culture to bring them back to their roots.
In our website, we will give you some insight into the heritage of the Peranakans and hopefully provide an opportunity for both young and old to get in touch with their roots. We hope to share our knowledge of the Peranakan culture based on our research through this website and unite the Peranakans so that this unique culture will not disappear.
We worked on our Cyberfair project both from home and in school. From our homes, we accessed the Internet using 56KB modems. Our local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) include SingNet, Cyberway, and Starhub. In school, we obtained Internet access via the Local Area Network in the school's computer lab.
CONTENT/LANGUAGE OF SITE |
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| Problems | Solutions: |
| We ended up with too much information and did not know how to start the project. |
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| We had to adopt an approachable and friendly tone for our project. |
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TIME MANAGEMENT |
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| Problems: | Solutions: |
| There were too many distractions like schoolwork, projects and ECAs. |
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| The team members had heavy commitments in other
activities such as National Day Parade rehearsals, third language lessons, ECAs, etc. It
was almost impossible for the team to find a suitable time to meet together.
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TECHNICAL ASPECTS |
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| Problems: | Solutions: |
| The interviews on cassette tape were not clear and when converted into *.wav file and then to Realmedia file , were also not clear. |
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| We had problems writing and using javascripts as they did not always work in the way we wanted. |
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MOTIVATION |
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| Problems: | Solutions: |
| Our team suffered a lot of setbacks, and experienced frustration and anxiety as the deadline drew nearer. |
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6. Our Project Sound Bite :
"All opportunities are learning opportunities"
Project Elements
As we come from a Peranakan school, doing this project not only enabled us to know and understand more about the Peranakan culture, but also the history of our school.
Through doing this project, we have also learnt many skills which will come in handy in the future. These skills are acquiring new knowledge (National Education), understanding the demands of project work, teamwork, interpersonal and interview skills and IT knowledge.
During our research, we gathered a lot of information and materials, sometimes, too much. We had to learn how to extract the important information and the materials we wanted. This helped developed our research and analysis skills.
Working as a group was not always easy. As we came from different classes, we did not know each other well. At first, we were shy and did not dare to speak out and express our ideas. Slowly, as we get to know each other better, we opened up. As a group, we sat down and discussed things thoroughly, learning to compromise with one another’s ideas. We learnt to focus on the end-objective, which is the completion of the web-site, and overcame our difficulties.
In terms of interpersonal and interview skills, we learnt how to communicate with external organizations via telephone conversations, interviewing personnel and writing faxes and e-mails. We realised that doing this project has undoubtedly developed our thinking skills and strengthened our mental ability to work under stress and pressure.
Through doing this project, we are now more proficient in applying a wide range of computer software like Paint Shop Pro, GIF Animator, PhotoImpact among others.
Though much time was sacrificed to complete this Cyberfair project, it was worth while.
Microsoft Frontpage
was our primary web-publishing software as all of us were trained in using this software in school. Basic word processing programs, Notepad and Microsoft Word, were used to type all our text which was then saved in HTML format.As for our graphics, we used various programs such as Paint Shop Pro and Ulead PhotoImpact. Both are graphic editing softwares used to ‘touch-up’ and enhance the quality of our graphics. The former was used to create and design our titles for the webpages, while the latter was used to compress the file size and edit pictures. Gif Animator was also used to animate various elements of our project such as titles, icons, the main door on the main page and certain graphics. Real Producer was used to convert wave files into real player files.
Chat programs like Mirabilis ICQ and Hotmail MSN Messenger helped us greatly as it allowed the team members to conference at the same time. Using these programs, we could communicate and discuss in the comfort of our homes and yet get important things done.
We made frequent trips to our own school library as well as the National Library and other Communitiy Libraries to do research. We borrowed relevant books and looked up previous newspaper articles on Peranakan Culture which were on microfilm in the Reference section of the National Library.
Recently, the Arts Central channel on television aired a programme on Peranakan culture on 8th March 2000. We took the opportunity to enrich and enlighten ourselves with the programme about a Peranakan girl returning to her roots.
Telephones
enabled the team members to communicate effectively. As we were in different classes and could not meet often, the telephone was our only way of communication. We called each other up and discussed our project with each other. Telephones were also used to make appointments with interviewees, Mr Peter Wee of Katong Antique House, Mrs Susan Teo of Blue Ginger Restaurant and Mr & Mrs Ng Ek Khiam. The reason why we wanted to interview them was to find out more information on Peranakan culture, as well as to let them share their lives, history, views and experiences about the Peranakan heritage.
The digital camera, cameras and scanner were indispensable throughout our entire project. We felt that using the digital camera saved a lot of time and trouble compared to a conventional camera as we did not have to develop film and could directly upload the graphics onto the computer. However, the quality of the pictures produced by the digital camera were not as good as those produced by the conventional camera. Therefore, for certain pictures, we had to resort to using the camera. After developing our pictures, the scanner came in handy.
Throughout our entire project, we found the telephone, email and computers the most valuable tools. They enabled us to communicate efficiently and effectively between the team members as well as with the teachers.
Often, we had to make appointments for interviews with various important people. This was done via the telephone and email. We frequently had to contact different administrative staff to fix an appointment date.
Once that was done, preparing for our interview came next. We had to make sure that we were well-prepared. We even role-played an interview to give ourselves more practice and to develop our interviewing skills.
Going for the interviews were indeed enriching especially the interview with Mrs. Susan Teo of Blue Ginger Restaurant. She was very forthcoming and gernrous with her knowledge of Pernanakan cuisine. During our interview with Mr. Peter Wee, a member of the Singapore Peranakan Association, he explained and described to us the importance and significance of the Peranakan culture.
Our aim of the project is to let the younger generation Peranakans have a deeper insight into their rich heritage and to bring them back to their roots. We wanted to create an awareness amongst the non-Peranakans and Peranakans that this once flourishing culture can perish if people don’t make a continuous effort to save the culture, which is now about to perish. Interviewees themselves voiced concern about the Peranakan Culture's slow disintegration.
Many of our Peranakan classmates were curious about this webpage which we were doing. Therefore, we invited them to evaluate and give comments on our site. They said that this website has created awareness amongst them - the younger generation Peranakans. They also said that they now saw the need for preservation and revival of this unique culture. Teachers in our school community were very supportive as they often rendered their help by lending us costumes for snapshots, and giving us critical advice and views on the website. Also, for the audio clips, our Peranakan teachers offered us their voices by reading out the Peranakan words.
Not only did we gain support from the school community; the Peranakan Community was very extremely supportive. During the project, we had to interview various people from commercial organisations, Peranakan families as well as the Singapore Peranakan Association. Mrs. Susan Teo of Blue Ginger Restaurant was eager to know more about this project and gladly arranged the interview. Mr. Peter Wee of the Peranakan Association and Katong Antique House, supported us by agreeing to be interviewed. He also arranged for a group of old Peranakan ladies to play the old Peranakan favourite, Cherki. The interview with Mr. and Mrs. Ng was very enlightening as they shared about their past experience and their views about being Peranakan.
By doing this project, we had CyberFair Collaboration Meetings where we established a close working relationship between the various students. Not only did they give critical advice on our site, they gave us comments on how to improve our site, which was most helpful.
In the midst of the project, we encountered a lot of problems and we had to seek advice from various people. Take for example, at the very start, we could not decide on the angle to take on our topic. The teachers were invaluable in helping us to think through the problem. Also, we often faced technical problems due to our limited technical knowledge and once again, our teachers advised us on the books and materials to read and explore. Furthermore, our International Ambassador ( Mr. Goh Beng Yeow ) and students from other schools gave their frank and straightforward comments during the Collaboration meetings.
We had to seek help from other students who could draw the main door for our project. We are extremely grateful to Chan Shu Yin, who sacrificed her time to paint a life-like picture of an authentic Peranakan door for us.
Actually, when we first embarked on this project, we thought it was going to be another boring History lesson. However, we realized that the Peranakan culture is actually a vibrant culture! After we did our research, we learnt that it is a culture with a very rich history.
The group derives a great sense of satisfaction and achievement by knowing that we are enriching and enlightening people all around the world about this unique culture via our competition Webpage. Hopefully, it will stir up interest among Peranakans and non-Peranakans alike to realize how much less enriching our lives would be should the Peranakan Culture (or for that matter, any culture!) disappear. Our hope and prayer is that the Peranakan culture will be able to remain for many more generations and that this website will help in some small way to preserve such a rich and colourful heritage.
