Today's EXIT event was a great success. My friend is another step closer to God and there were a lot of salvations. I thank God for his wonderful presence there! I hope that I can invite more people to such events and services in future. There's worship experience coming up soon ... that seems to be equally as exciting as today's event. The drama today was really fantastic. The actors and actresses were really capable and their acting was incredibly realistic and stunning at some junctures. Most importantly, I'm glad that many lives were impacted, and many wounds were healed.


I can't stare too long at the monitor's screen ... it's getting somewhat too strenuous for my eyes. I need to sleep soon too. There are little clumps of black dirt growing in the spaces between my keyboard. I heard that the germs on the keyboard might be similar or more potent than those found in the human anus. And surprisingly, there are more germs in your mouth than in your anus ... according to a radio broadcast I heard some time ago. Let's not talk about that now. Let me just turn my keyboard upside down and beat some of the dirt out. Here I go ... Pak Pak Pak!


The very short one week holiday has begun. I wish Singapore had 4 seasons. It would be so much fun to experience spring, summer, autumn and winter for a change. I haven't seen snow before in my lifetime. Perhaps people in other temperate countries are wishing for the opposite of what I wished for. It's just human nature for us to be interested in things and bored of old things. Sometimes this is evident in animals too ... and maybe even some types of plants.


Well I wanna exercise this week even though I have to clear my homework. I'm left with one E maths Paper 2 which I will hopefully finish by tomorrow. Then I would have to finish 2 more chemistry papers, my higher Chinese essay assignment thing and type out more history essays and begin memorising them and finish off my physics definition list and do a lot of things and I need God's help and motivation to get them all done by next week. And I really must stop watching anime and reading manga. But I want my 3rd book of Rhapsody in Heaven ... why isn't the simplified Chinese version out. Even the traditional Chinese version is sold out ...


I went to get 2 teacher's day gifts for my piano instructor and my Chinese tutor today. I purposely wrote Japanese characters on the "teacher's day card" for my Chinese tutor ... I will make tomorrow's lesson interesting. Oh Gosh ... I haven't finish the tuition homework. And my piano exam is coming soon too. Never mind ... I shall go to bed now and hopefully all things will work out. I just need to believe in myself and God ~ Heehee... so typical of me to type such a post and think like that.


I love myself and I hope I always will... but of course I must love others too! Ooh ... let's get lovey dovey ... One kind word or deed can turn some one's life around. Feeling hurried, worried and flurried? Giving a hug and sharing a kind word are both great stress relievers you know ... Good night everyone ~

Happy Teacher's Day ~
幸せな先生の日
教師節快樂
행복한 스승의 날
щастлив ден за учители
سعيد المعلم اليوم
sretan dan učitelja
šťastný den pro učitele
lykkelig lærers dag
gelukkig leraar dag
onnellinen opettaja's day
heureux de la journée des enseignants
glückliche Tag des Lehrers
Δάσκαλος ευτυχισμένη μέρα
खुशी के दिन के शिक्षक
felice di insegnante di giorni
fornøyd lærerens dag
szczęśliwy dzień nauczyciela
feliz Dia dos Professores
fericit profesor de zi
счастлив День учителя
feliz Día del Maestro
happy lärarens dag

We celebrated it on the 29th August (today) since the short holidays start next week.
The concert was fun. We each bring something unique to this world, just as the teachers had, therefore we each have something to offer others.

I just finished the essays for peace treaties including part twos ... I have to keep adding to my collection of essays .... the set is almost complete though. But there's still detente, Deng and a few, Stalin's purges and a few other significant aspects of history that I have yet to cover.


I just changed the song again ... I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it. Fly away by Thyme ... it's the theme song to a new anime called "Things That Are Important to a Mage ~Summer Sky~" ... the name sounds cheesy but the plot is really interesting and I love the realistic visual effects. I rate it 9/10 so far ... but the series is still incomplete and is currently airing in Japan. So unfair ... my friend got to go to Japan next week ... I wanna go too xD


I have a unique taste in music so I don't know whether people would like this song or not. But the melody is so catching and it feels like I've heard it somewhere before. I started playing high street5 and its surprisingly fun. The variety of songs they have there is way better than that of audition sea. But you have to use the in-game currency to request for songs from the DJ in the game ... or you could just let the DJ randomly pick songs for you to dance to without payment. It's a fun game but the trouble is that its very laggy ... especially with a computer like mine with only a 480 MB random access memory card.


I bought new manga yesterday... The title of my new series is called Rhapsody in Heaven. It's so nice to read and the plot is intriguing but I still prefer the earlier series that I read. I haven't purchased the 3rd book and final book in this series. The traditional Chinese version of the 3rd book is out in comics connection but I prefer waiting for the simplified Chinese version to be released some time later this year. (Or maybe I should try other comic outlets) The 2 new mangas are to reward myself for successfully completing the exams without passing out!


I shall go do something constructive now (hopefully). Gloom and happiness are both contagious! Which are you spreading?

THE EXAMS ARE NEARLY OVER!~ At least most of it except for one more biology paper 1 on Monday and higher Chinese paper 2 tomorrow.


Everything went well. I'm aiming for As for my maths and hopefully my sciences but I do hope for more room for improvement. I made a few stupid mistakes here and there and I need to work on a few areas. Sometimes it's good to be stupid because it makes life more intriguing and it makes you somewhat humble unless you have some weird complex which is prominent amongst people like me.


I dunno what to say. My head is like throbbing and I'm thrown into disarray and everything seems so imaginary and fake.


Oral today was pretty fine and I'm aiming for at least 33 or above. I'm glad every thing's almost over and I can shift my focus from my studies to other things in life at least for the time being.


Life is stressful this period. I don't know what the future holds but I can hope that God will plan the best for me and my friends and I can pray that I choose the best paths in future. I just wanna appreciate the present, work on my weaknesses and hopefully only remember the good things and the useful lessons of the past ... because I probably forgot those experiences that I didn't make an effort etching into my mind or recording it somewhere ... and at least I don't think that I have short term memory less.


From the way I'm posting today you can tell that I'm a really unpredictable character. I don't even know how many selves I have. I change frequently from different selves that have no precise definition. It's like a mixture of peanuts and chocolate sprinklers in jelly. What a screwed analogy ...


And so life will continue going on. I will continue trusting God. I will continue hoping that even if I'm constantly changing, I won't forget the things I wanna keep close to be currently and I will change for the better in not only my perspective, but also in God's perspective.


That's enough. I'm going nuts LOL. I feel so lightheaded today but it seems there's still a load somewhere. Okay time to stop posting nonsense here. Well at least it seems like nonsense in my view of how the majority of people who read this post (though the majority is probably a single digit number), would feel about it.


Many people don't understand the great pleasure and enjoyment and satisfaction that comes from giving of oneself, one's time or one's resources. Try it and experience the aftermath! Oh WOW ....

The first week of exams has finally concluded. But the second week has yet to begin. I've generally pleased with the standard of all the papers so far and I think I should fare fairly well for each paper. There were a few careless and unthoughtful mistakes here and there but other than those, I'm quite satisfied.

I'm holding back my urge to watch anime and buy manga and play games. I'm bored of studying but I have to do so to keep up with my expectations, and the expectations of others. I can't wait for exams to be over.

Papers left are : Geography, Higher Chinese, E/A maths Papers 2s, Physics and Biology

History went well as all the questions I spotted came out. Maths and Chemistry today was okay. English was okay too except the comprehension which was very tricky and the summary which I overwrote.

I'm gonna rest for a while today then embark on an exciting imaginary journey into the wonders of natural vegetation, rivers, coasts and all those kinda stuff. And by midday tomorrow I would be immersing myself in ancient Chinese proverbs and those free essays from Chinese students.

Here's a complete set of essays on Japan's Foreign Policy in the 1930s for everyone to enjoy... Hopefully it won't bore you out.

Japanese Aggression in China (Overview) 1931 to 1944

The Japanese Foreign policy began due to economic and social changes in Japan, resulting in slow development, banking crisis, unequal distribution of wealth, unemployment and social unrest. The military was discontented due to failure of peaceful economic expansion, the government giving in to western demands for inferior disarmament ratios, and the reduction of their military budget. The boycott of foreign goods and labor strikes in China threatened Japanese investments. USSR was also interested in East Asia threatening Japanese dominance. This led to a revival of the Kokutai by 1930, a national ideology that unified the people.

Invasion of Manchuria 1931

The Manchurian Incident in 1931 aimed to get raw materials like coal and oil and to set up a base for invasion on china. It resulted from unhappiness with the failure of the government to expand peacefully. It was essential to consolidate Japanese rule from USSR and KMT.

On 18th September 1931, a few radical Kwantung Army officers planned an explosion on the South Manchurian Railway, blaming the Chinese and using it as an excuse to seize Mukden. The attack was well planned by middle ranking officers of Kwantung army. Top military leaders didn’t stop it despite knowing. Chinese Commander Zhang Xueliang believed that the incident would be peacefully settled by negotiations, ordering no resistance of the Kwantung Army. 3 months later, all Manchurian provinces were under Japanese control. Manchuria became a puppet state called Manchukuo due to restrains from party government and emperor.

The easy success of the Kwantung army in conquering Manchuria caused growth of ultra-nationalism and militarism in Japan, boosting their confidence to expand into northern china. It caused the rise of “dual diplomacy” where the military increasingly controlled Japanese foreign policy, especially towards the Asian mainland. Japan’s position in East Asia improved as the supply of raw materials for industrialization could be guaranteed to an extent. The policy of peaceful economic expansion in 1920s was replaced by one of armed territorial expansion. The success raised the position of the Japanese military, army morale and they enjoyed high reputation.



Expansion into North China 1932 - 1935

In 1932, after the formation of manchukuo, the manchukuo boundary was extended to the region south of the great wall via the occupation of Jehol by Kwantung Army. Tangku Truce was signed in 1933 between Kwantung army and Chinese officers, sanctioning Japanese extension of great wall areas. The zone north and east of Tientsin-Peking area was to be demilitarized. From 1933 to 1934, Japanese penetrated Eastern inner Mongolia, establishing their control. Japanese forced Chinese officials in northern china to sign 2 agreements, the Ho-umerzu and Ch’ing-doihara agreement in 1935, resulting in the takeover of Hopei and chahar, sealing Japanese control of northern china. Councils were set up to replace GMD with Japanese influence in north china.

Marco Polo Incident

The Marco polo incident triggered the outbreak of war, with rise of Japanese militarism and imperialism. China prepared to resist further Japanese aggression by the 2nd United Front between CCP and GMD. On 7 July 1937 at Marco Polo bridge, some Japanese soldiers accidentally ran into conflict with Chinese troops while the 2 sides were searching for a missing Japanese. Japanese military officer tried to enter a town nearby to find the Chinese responsible for opening fire first. The Chinese troops refused them entry and fighting broke out and spread.

Top military Japanese leaders wanted a peaceful settlement, ordering local Japanese commanders in china to work out a peaceful solution. Commanders prevented peace instructions from being carried out and continued the conflict. The Chinese suspected that this was another Japanese plot to commit aggression. Nationalist opinion in china was against the Japanese. Chiang Kai shek moved GMD’s best German trained troops to peking, announcing a no retreat policy. Due to strong Chinese attitude, ultra-nationalist emotions ran high amongst the Japanese and the Japanese government adopted an equally forceful policy against the Chinese.

The Japanese demanded recognition of Manchukuo and the demilitarized North china, suppression of anti-Japanese movement and the formation of Sino Japanese anti-communist alliance. Chiang refused and attacked Japanese naval forces in shanghai, sparking the 2nd Sino-Japanese war.



2nd Sino Jap war

In stage one of war, from July to December 1937, Japanese army advanced quickly to occupy the major parts of north china. Chiang concentrated his best troops to fight Japanese fleet in the shanghai areas, allowing Japanese army in north china to move south quickly and capture nanking.

In stage two, Chiang moved the capital inland to hankow. In 1938, Japan advanced further into central and south china, capturing canton and hankow in October.

In stage 3, Chiang moved the capital further inland to chongqing. A lack of manpower forced Japan to stop occupying the major cities of coastal and east china. GMD believed that by trading space for time, China would wear out Japan while waiting for western aid.

END here if timeline is 1931 -1939.

A general deadlock followed from 1939 to 1944 as neither side wanted to advance. This was because Japanese troops were tied down in china; too much money was spent on war. Discontent with lack of victory aroused in Japan.

Japan tried to win the war by encouraging Chiang’s rival Wang Ching Wei to set a national government where he would rule china and cooperate with Japan. They applied pressure on foreign powers to stop all material help to china but failed.

Japan tried imposing the New East Asian Order, aiming to replace GMD with a friendly Chinese government, eradicating feudal rule and communism. It aimed to replace western imperialism with the “Imperial Way” where the emperor was the ultimate leader. Japan also wanted to control the region, including China’s foreign policy, police and army.


P2 Aggression questions

Why did Japan invade China during the 1930s?
Why did Japan pursue an aggressive policy towards China in the 1930s?
What were the reasons for Japan’s aggressive policy towards China?

1) Japan was facing economic and social problems.
- Japan was an industrialized nation by 1930s.
- However, it did not have raw materials
- Japan had to buy these from the west
- The Great Depression gave Japan problems as it could not sell its manufactured goods to the west, thus it could not earn enough revenue to buy the raw materials.
- Hence Japan looked towards China, especially Manchuria which had resources like coal and iron.
- Japan adopted the aggressive policy for her economic survival, as Japan could take these resources for free,

2) Japan wanted to protect investments in china.
- Much of her investments were in China, especially Manchuria
- However, Japan’s investments in 1930s were threatened by rising nationalism in china, as seen in labor strikes and boycotting of foreign goods in Chinese workers against Japanese employers.
- Japan’s military was afraid that china was getting stronger and would challenge Japan’s control of its economy.
- Therefore, Japan saw that it was time to act before China was too strong for her, thus pursuing her aggressive policy towards china to protect her interests in china.

3) Japan was afraid of unified china.
- At this time, the nationalist government under Chiang had unified china after ridding the warlords.
- Chiang turned his attention to Manchuria.
- He wanted to re-establish nationalist control over north china, thus taking over political control and drive out Japanese there.
- Hence Japan had to move into china and embark on her aggressive policy towards china.


Why were the Japanese initially successful in their war with China in the 1930s?

1) Chiang was more interested in fighting the communists than the Japanese
- He saw the communists as a bigger threat to the government
- Likened the Japanese as a disease of the skin but the communist as a disease of the soul.
- When Japanese moved into Manchuria and came close to the great wall, Chiang appeased the Japanese by signing the Tangku truce instead of fighting them.
- He preferred to trade space for time, giving up territories to Japanese in hope that the west would come to his aid.
- Chiang turned his attention to exterminate the communists in the extermination campaigns instead of stopping the Japanese aggression.
- This gave the Japanese initial success as Chiang had to split his army to fight the foreign and internal enemy.

2) Japanese were initially successful due to Chiang’s mistakes.
- Chiang’s troops did not defend major parts of north china.
- The nationalist army mainly fought Japanese naval forces at Shanghai.
- Much of GMD’s strength was wasted by this move.
- Chiang’s best troops were defeated here.
- This allowed the Japanese army to move from north china south to capture nanking.
- The fall of the capital was a big blow to the morale of the nationalist army,
- Hence, early Japanese success was due to Chiang’s wrong strategies.

3) The nationalist army was weak and did not receive any aid.
- Morale of troops was low due to lack of training, which caused defeats.
- Troops were recruited and trained in the south; hence they were unfamiliar with northern terrain.
- There were poor resources compared to the Japanese Army.
- Troops were not well treated by officers and many resorted to retreating rather than fighting the Japanese.
- Soviet Union sent no aid to china.
- Hence the Japanese army was successful due to the weak army,



Why did the Japanese Campaign in china run into difficulties?

1) Japanese had no manpower to control the whole of china.
- China was a vast country.
- Japanese could only control a limited area, not even all coastal cities
- Chiang’s strategy of trade space for time led to a stalemate with both sides not gaining nay leverage. Japan could not break it. Instead, the war dragged on and it spent large amounts of money totaling 4 million dollars a day.
- This cripple the Japanese economy hence it couldn't win the war.


2) GMD/CCP formed the 2nd united front.
- In 1936, the 2 rivals agreed to end differences, joining forces against the Japanese.
- Japanese then faced a bigger army from the Chinese.
- CCP controlled the vast countryside and launched guerrilla attacks on the Japanese with the help of peasants.
- CCP was very successful in liberating areas previously under Japanese control.
- Hence, with the combined forces of GMD and CCP, Japan could not take over the whole of china and was eventually defeated.


3) The GMD began to receive American Aid.
- In 1941, USA declared war on Japan for bombing Pearl Harbor.
- American supplies began to reach Chongqing via the Burma Road.
- American bombers smashed the Japanese sea trade and cut off supplies from reaching china.
- Under successive American attacks, the Japanese were forced to retreat in the Pacific Ocean and could not give much reinforcements to its forces in China, culminating in her defeat.

Life isn't a contest; it's a chance to do the best you can with what you have.

I'm squeezing time to blog. I'm currently in the midst of heavy preparations for the exams. This is just a little breather to entertain myself. I'm glad that I finished all the A maths practice papers given to us. I'm left with Elementary maths papers only ... which I will do sometime next week.


Today was national day. We watched a video on the history of Singapore and it included a footage of Mao and Sun Yat Sen ... which we studied in the history of china. The concert was not very entertaining but we had quite a fun time singing along recklessly to the National day songs.


I shall now try my best to give as detailed an account as possible about my knowledge on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.


The cultural revolution had its roots in the ideological battle between the radicals and the moderates over which path the CCP should take. After Liu ShaoQi became President when Mao gave up that post in 1959, major positions of state were filled by moderates like Liu, stressing the practical need for material prosperity and concentrating on problems of economic recovery and planning for modest progress. They were pragmatic socialist rulers rather than communist idealists.

Radicals like Mao wanted to pursue social equality which depended on mobilising the energy of the masses and intensifying the violence on class struggle to develop true communism. They felt that the moderates' policies were an unacceptable version of true Marxism - Leninism and this betrayed the real revolution behind Marxism.

In 1962, Mao launched the Socialist Education Movement, trying to get people on the right road to communism. The "Four Clean-Ups Campaign" was launched against slackness in economics, politics, ideological thinking and organisation. From 1962 to 1966, Mao urged the CCP to keep in touch with ordinary people and avoid the "capitalist road". Most of the time, his advice fell on deaf ears but in 1965, he gained great support from the PLA head and defence minister Lin Piao.

Every PLA soldier was given a copy of "Quotations from Chairman MaoZedong", also known as the "Little Red Book". Mao had the support of the 4 million strong PLA. Hence Mao was strong enough to launch a super-campaign against capitalists and reactionaries, known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966.

The aims of the revolution include to revitalise revolutionary values and indoctrinate the young with communist ideals to ensure the success of socialism, as this generation had not experienced the early revolutionary struggles. To eliminate leading cadres whom Mao blamed for deviations as these bureaucrats had grown increasingly comfortable in office and resistant to popular feeling. It was also to have a revolution in the superstructure, transforming a bureaucratically run machine to a more popularly based system led by Mao.

The cultural revolution began among students in Beijing who formed into military groups called Red Guards in Summer 1966, aiming to rid all capitalist and bourgeois influences in schools and colleges. Schools and colleges were shut down for 6 months so that a new education system could be created to make young people more aware of communist ideals and make it less elitist. Mao encouraged the Red Guards to attack traditional values. As events gained momentum, he appealed to them to attack the highest personnel of the regime. Those who lose positions include Deng XiaoPing, Liu ShaoQi and Zhu De. Red guards soon used violence to achieve their aims, burning bookshops and libraries, closing museums, art galleries, churches, etc, and shaving the heads of women with western hairstyles.

Mao encouraged all these, saying "To rebel is justified." The red guards were given help in the campaign, with PLA support and no police opposition. Soon, they went wild. As for much of 1967, the country was in a state of virtual civil war as Red guards fought against reactionaries and later amongst themselves as they argued with one another. Throughout the Revolution, the Red guards followed Mao's every word, read and memorised the little red book; Mao's statues and pictures were put up everywhere.

In September 1967, Mao attempted to restore order and schools and colleges were reopened. Students were called to return to their studies. PLA stepped in to stop the remaining violence of the red guards. In order to get rid of the huge congregations of red guards in cities, Mao encouraged them to go to the countryside. In all, some 18 million did.

By 1969, order had been restored in most areas and the cultural revolution ended. The cost to China had been high, a generation of Chinese were not well educated, farming was badly disrupted and industrial output fell drastically.


Give for the joy of giving, knowing that you are the one blessed by having the ability and resources and will to help another.

I went for the Singapore Garden Festival today. My camera screwed up so I couldn't take good photos. The exhibits were beautiful. And it was the first time that I ever saw a butterwort. I saw sundews, pitchers and flytraps before but the butterwort looks cute. There are flies stuck to its sticky petal shape leaves. I have a weird fetish for carnivorous plants. I used to own 2 Venus flytraps but both died after several months. My current pitcher plant has 2 babies but it seized to develop anymore pitchers. I'm not sure why but that's probably due to the unsuitable "pitcher-developing" environment that my cramped balcony offers.


I liked the school garden exhibitions. There were innovative mini gardens created by students from all over Singapore. There was one made of used paper bags, another made of wood,pulp and some complicated architectural structure, and others made of paper fans, shells, straws, etc ... I find it so exciting and thrilling to view the exhibits.


The top exhibits were those that portrayed more than just physical beauty of the exhibits themselves. They were the ones that expressed outrageous creativity and reflected on the importance of mother nature, life or philosophy. There was one particular exhibit made completely of plants and recycled paper/wood. There was another first prize entry shaped like a giant robot with flowers sticking out ... another called "Birds of Paradise" had 3 birds sticking out of a nest of green.


The larger displays were situated on the top floor of the convention centre. These were the works of renowned artists, florists and interior designers. I especially liked the circular water gardens, hedged fence of flowers and the Beijing Olympic designs. There were more sculptures that I was very impressed with but I can't remember their names ... There was also a small eatery and a bookshop selling books about gardening and the types of plants around the globe.


I have to do work soon ... hence I shall upload 2 pictures ... hopefully the quality of the pictures won't be that bad.


If you take it for granted that others know how much you appreciate them, they will probably think you take them for granted. Put thanks and appreciation into words and actions.