Category Archives: Life at Nanyang

Not Just Another Chinese New Year Party

By Rita Zhang

The Nanyang MBA Culture Club and Women in Business Club successfully co-organized the 2013 Chinese New Year Party at Graduate Hall Lounge It was a wonderful festival celebration event that gave all of the guests a happy , cheerful and maybe grand cultural banquet.

With a team of six mostly mainland Chinese people, except for one, led by Jennifer (Chen Yan), Amy, Wu Hao, Alex (Malaysian), Lily and Rayman (Lily’s boyfriend) ,we started the preparation as early as 12 noon. We went shopping at Sheng Siong supermarket near our campus. After almost four hours of grocery shopping, we managed to bring back: vegetables, beef, beers for the dinner and definitely Chinese FU Character and Spring Couplets to get us into the festive mood. It seems a short list but we ended up with so many shopping bags. However, many thanks to our classmates, Hantang Da Ge and Andy (American), for helping us to carry and deliver our food to the Graduate Hall.

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Hotpot!

At 4 p.m, we were busy preparing for the dinner at Graduate Hall kitchen. This year’s main menu is HOT POT, the must-have meal in almost every Chinese family during Chinese New Year. Hot pot is basically  a way of cooking food in a pot , mainly boiling. Meow, Amy and Jennifer’s worked hard in washing all the vegetables and cutting radish.  Albert (Indonesian) and Apiwat (Thai), for your help on our venue decoration! And yes, our Singaporean hosts, Amanda, Eng Soon, Weiming and Ingo (German)  provided the hotpots for cooking!

In Chinese poetry, a couplet (simplified Chinese: 对联; traditional Chinese: 對聯; pinyin: duìlián) is a pair of lines of poetry which adhere to certain rules (see below). Outside of poems, they are usually seen on the sides of doors leading to people's homes or as hanging scrolls in an interior. A special, widely-seen type of couplet is the spring couplet (simplified Chinese: 春联; traditional Chinese: 春聯; pinyin: chūnlián), used as a New Year's decoration that expresses happy and hopeful thoughts for the coming year. - Wikipedia
In Chinese poetry, a couplet (simplified Chinese: 对联; traditional Chinese: 對聯; pinyin: duìlián) is a pair of lines of poetry which adhere to certain rules (see below). Outside of poems, they are usually seen on the sides of doors leading to people’s homes or as hanging scrolls in an interior. A special, widely-seen type of couplet is the spring couplet (simplified Chinese: 春联; traditional Chinese: 春聯; pinyin: chūnlián), used as a New Year’s decoration that expresses happy and hopeful thoughts for the coming year. – Wikipedia

By 6 p.m., the traditional Chinese Hot Pots were set on the table. Chinese cabbage, rape, mushrooms, radish, fried tofu, vermicelli rice (thin white noodles) are laid on the table around the hot pot. While waiting for the soup stock in the pot to boil, we gathered around the table impatiently with chopsticks and plates ready to attack. At the sight of boiling bubbles, we placed the food ingredients into the pot.  And the countdown begins- Five minutes… two minutes… one minute… Hooray! It is ready! Oh yes, we have the special sauce prepared by Lily & Amy! Yummy! The sauce is sumptuous and complements the delicious food cooked hot pot style. This made us eat more! The lounge became warmer with the steam from hotpot and more than thirty people who are having hot pot together, in summer!

Nevertheless, this is the best time of the whole trimester-gatherings, enjoying with so many friends companion and enjoying hot pot

After 2 hours, we finallyfinished our dinner. We are now full and bloated. Nonetheless, we need to get into our sleek costumes for the Cheongsam Competition! Cheongsam or Qipao is a Chinese traditional costume which has been worn since the Manchu dynasty ruled China in the 17th century.

Before they wore the original qipao was wide and baggy. The one-piece dress featured a high neck and straight skirt. The qipao worn today are modeled after ones made in Shanghai in the 1920s. The modern qipao is a one-piece, formfitting, floor length dress that has a high slit on one or both sides. Modern variations may have bell sleeves or be sleeveless and are made out of a variety of fabrics. – About.com

                                      Who  will be our Miss. Cheongsam?

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Our Group gathering picture- Henry (Taiwanese), Amanda(Singaporean),Yu Qing, Anise, Amy,Chen Yan,Rita, Lily, Munchuga (Thailand), Mimi (Taiwan) and Josephine (Singaporean) and below with our German friends Julia and Stephanie –wearing traditional Chinese Cheongsam (Qipao) and Chinese Changshan.

 

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Henry surrounded by girls.

Finally, we have the winner…. No other than Henry (thorn among the roses), the only guy in traditional Chinese Changshan! The prize is a red envelope with $20! Thanks Mr. Changshan, for bringing us so much fun!

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Paloma with 2 hunks

  At 9 p.m after the contest, we started writing of Chinese FU Character. Put the red paper on the table, raise up the writing brush, dip the ink, and you can write Chinese Fu now- it is that simple??. Yes,it is that easy! You can do it! Don’t believe me? Look at Josephine’s professional gesture! Wish our Fu bring good luck and good fortune to everyone and to our Nanyang MBA! Thanks Hantang Da Ge again, for helping us to get the writing brushes, ink and red paper.

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Writing Chinese FU character

And that is how we celebrated the Chinese New year – with the company of our friends!

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festival in the Chinese calendar. It is the time to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new spring, to reconcile, forget all grudges and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone. Thanks to everyone, we have had an unforgettable Chinese New Year with you! Till the next one.

 Culture Tips:

1.       Spring Couplets – In Chinese poetry, a couplet (simplified Chinese: 对联; traditional Chinese: 對聯; pinyin: duìlián) is a pair of lines of poetry which adhere to certain rules (see below). Outside of poems, they are usually seen on the sides of doors leading to people’s homes or as hanging scrolls in an interior. A special, widely-seen type of couplet is the spring couplet (simplified Chinese: 春联; traditional Chinese: 春聯; pinyin: chūnlián), used as a New Year’s decoration that expresses happy and hopeful thoughts for the coming year. – Wikipedia

 2.       Hot Pot: Hot pot (simplified Chinese: 火锅; traditional Chinese: 火鍋; Mandarin Pinyin: huǒ guō), refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the centre of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. Vegetables, fish and meat should be fresh. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce. – Wikipedia

 3.       Cheongsam: Qipao or cheongsam (旗袍) are one-piece Chinese dresses that have been worn since the Manchu ruled China in the 17th century. The original qipao was wide and baggy. The one-piece dress featured a high neck and straight skirt. The qipao worn today are modeled after ones made in Shanghai in the 1920s. The modern qipao is a one-piece, formfitting, floor length dress that has a high slit on one or both sides. Modern variations may have bell sleeves or be sleeveless and are made out of a variety of fabrics. – About.com

Attending this intensive course is worth my sacrifice taking Nanyang – Waseda Double Degree

By Jenie Lago, Nanyang Waseda Double MBA intake 2012

Into my second trimester as a Nanyang Waseda Double MBA student, and despite my previous I.T. background, I was really looking forward to attending my chosen elective IT Strategy & IT Applications. As it is an intensive course (over 2 weeks), I know that I will have to put in more effort and sacrifice my beauty sleep, anticipating the loads of reading and studies. However, I just knew it’s going to be worth it! And indeed, it was!

The course instructor was Professor Koichi Matsukawa from Waseda University. A business owner, an academic and an author – Professor Matsukawa has vast experience in IT strategy, consulting and system integration which made the class really interactive as we were able to discuss real-life scenarios from the professor’s experience and from the MBA participants’ as well.

The most interesting part of the course  were the visits to one of the world’s largest port operator, Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Singapore who is one of the largest shipping companies in the world and lastly to Cisco who is a global leader in the design, manufacturing of networking equipment. The company visits provided firsthand experience on how information technology is utilized and managed by these companies to provide world-class solutions and services.

The picture above shows some of the participants trying out Cisco’s TelePresence.
The picture above shows some of the participants trying out Cisco’s TelePresence.

Cisco Singapore was gracious enough to initiate a call to Cisco Tokyo for the Nanyang MBA applicants to experience Cisco’s TelePresence’s lifelike video!

Students & staff of NYK
Nanyang-Waseda MBA participants & NYK Staff

At NYK Singapore,we learned the company’s real-time ship tracking system and the company’s operation here in Singapore. We even had an open discussion with the top management team to complete the experience.

With seminars and company visits completed,  we were required  to develop a business model and strategic IT application for a chosen company and present it in class. It was a very challenging task given the time constraints – did I say 2 weeks only, right? However,we were able to deliver the required business model and learned a lot from each other’s presentation.

Class participants during the presentation
That’s me! sitting on the front row, second from left.

Over all, it was an informative and challenging course. I was so pleased with the course that I look forward to taking my courses in Waseda University on the third term!

Thank You Matsukawa Sensei!

 

A different look at crisis situations – a crisis simulation competition

Front row (L-R): Sunny Jain, Aakash Bajoria, Piter Lim

The annual crisis simulation exercise at the Wee Kim Wee School (NTU)brought together students from the various schools of Nanyang Technological University :  Nanyang Business School, Communications, as well as law students from NUS plus some policy, TV and print/social media journalists from Wee Kim Wee School of Communications – it  involved more than 100 students. A group of Nanyang MBA part time students joined this competition representing the Nanyang MBA.

Participating teams were given various crisis scenarios to discuss within their respective teams- with role playing  of management roles, e.g. CEOs, SVPs, CFOs. The competing teams then hosted a “crisis press conference” where they faced the “journalists” and replied to their queries on real time .  The teams were ranked according to a select set of criteria in how best they managed the crisis and how they handled the media.

Our team of  part time MBAs was the eventual winner – Aakash Bajoria, Student ExCo VP (Part-Time) , Piter Lim , and Sunny Jain.  Who says MBAs’ can’t handle crisis at all?