On 18 Jan afternoon, 120 students from the Singapore Polytechnic Business school attended an insightful seminar on “Grooming a bi-cultural Singaporean.” Guest speaker of the seminar was Ms Low Yen Ling, CEO of Business China.
This was Ms Low’s maiden talk to tertiary students in a seminar setting. She kicked-off the session with definition of being ‘bicultural’ – the ability to toggle between the Eastern and the Western psyche. She noted what was lacking among most youths today was a good understanding on China and the Chinese culture.
Hence, to help them grab a good glimpse of China’s socio-economic progression for the past 50 years, she gave a pictorial presentation to demonstrate the changing landscape of China from 1950s till today.
Ms Low also cited recent media reports on China to emphasize the significance of keeping abreast of China’s current affairs. For example, just a day before the talk, China’s urban population outnumbered rural dwellers for the first time. This connoted to the changes in their lifestyle, consumers’ patterns, the employment demographics and their value system. Such changes would not only affect China, but also had significant impacts on the world.
To further illustrate the emergence of China to the young audiences, Ms Low shared on how the Chinese companies such as ‘Haier’,‘Li-Ning’ and ‘Lenovo’ were going global, which implied that the China factor would be playing a more important role in their future. To tap on the boundless opportunities such trends promised, she encouraged the students to strive towards becoming bicultural.
Ms Low elaborated on the 3 attributes of a bicultural Singaporean: 1) Good command of Mandarin, 2) Interest in Chinese history and cultures as well as contemporary China and 3) Immersion experience in China or China-centric entities.
She encouraged the students to upkeep their Chinese language and deepen the insights on China through immersion programme and making friends with their Chinese counterparts.
Hard facts aside, the students were also treated to Ms Low’s many personal anecdotes which were welcomed by many.
Chloe Lai, a year 2 student commented the mini-stories the speaker shared had provided insights about China, was something she liked most.
While another student, Seah Yi Ying, said,” I appreciate the current affairs, field of vision and sharing from Ms Low, which inspired me to know more about China.”