INSIDE

Features | 10

SEVERE AIR POLLUTION IN BEIJING Recently, Beijing issued the first-ever “Red alert”, the most serious warning on a four-tier warning system that was adopted in 2013...

Entertainment | 8

CLUBS LAUNCH THEIR CHARITY EVENTS As the school year progresses, more and more clubs are carrying out the plans for their charity events, among them are SAGE, CFK, and CSC. These clubs...

ART FOR CHARITY SMIC has once again host-ed a successful Art for Charity program. On December 12th at the Z-art Center right here in Zhangjiang, the Art for Char-ity exhibition displayed and...

Sharks Sports | 12START OF HS SOCCER PRESEASON The soccer season for 2015 had officially ended last month. However, our coach and players of the High School varsity boys’ soccer team hesitate no more, and started the preseason right away...

XinLang

Editorials | 4

VOLUME XI, ISSUE IV THE SMIC PRIVATE SCHOOL, SHANGHAI DECEMBER 2015

ScholarTHE SMIC PRIVATE SCHOOL

Sharks’Schedule

DECEMBER18 25-27 11-14 14 16 20 23

Christmas Concert

campus news | 2

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS The long-awaited 7th Star Wars movie The Force Awak-ens will be first releasedin cinemas on Jan. 9th in mainland China and on Dec 18th in NorthAmerica. The director J.J....

This December, Christmas spirit was evident all around our school—from snowflakes hung throughout the hallway ceilings to festive music played in the locker area—it made it

seem like the holiday season had truly arrived! Per usual, Christmas grams were extremely popular. However, there was a new highlight this year: the first high school-wide Secret Santa

event held on December 24th. Secret Santa is a western holiday tradition that involves gift exchanging with a dash of anonymity; it is a great way to kick off the festive season with a fun but inexpensive way of showing others how much you care. Originally, Secret Santa started with an American philanthropist, Larry Dean Stewart, who spent over 20 years doing random acts of kindness for those who were less fortunate. People soon caught on to this idea and it eventually became a contemporary Christmas tradition, even after Stewart’s death. Inspired by the story of Larry Dean Stewart’s generosity, there are web sites dedicated to the organization of “Secret Santas” worldwide. These people perform random acts of kindness: such as buying coffee for people in the mornings and even bringing food to the homeless in their area.

Psych Club Brings Santa to TownIRENE CHANStaff Reporter

Eight years. For eight years now SMIC has participated in the Giving Tree, a charity event run for the sole purpose of helping migrant children right here in Shanghai. This year, 700 bags were contributed by the SMIC community.

The Giving Tree organization is run through the Shanghai Community Center, but for SMIC, through the Com-munity Service Club. The Giving Tree organization does extensive research in the spring to find migrant schools and

calculate the needs of the families in the school. This year, on Thanksgiv-ing Day, November 26th, SMIC got the chance to go to Bluebell Primary, a school close by, to deliver the bags.

Continued on pg 2

Giving Tree and CSC Help Kids in NeedKATIE HOANGCampus News Editor

Continued on pg 3

Photo Courtesy of Community Service Club

DECEMBER

Christmas Holiday

1-3JANUARY

New Year Holiday

JANUARY

Final ExamJANUARY

Last Day of Semester 1

JANUARY

HS SISAC D1 Basketball Game

JAUNARY

Report Card Distribution

JANUARY

SAT

Students of Bluebell Primary open their gifts

Seniors show off their gifts Photo Courtesy of Sally Park

campus newsDecember 2015

campus newsDecember 2015

XinLang ScholarXinLang Scholar2 3

Winter Formal 2K15: A Night Under the Sakuras

For SMIC, the idea of a Secret Santa Event was first brought up in Psychology Club, It turned out to be a big success! Over 70 students signed up and on the 24th, all gifts were delivered by the club before everyone left for a short Christmas break. It’s the first time that the entire high school has been invited to participate in such an event. “Through this event, the psychology club promosted the

importance of love and warmth. It was successful,” commented psychology club treasurer, Raphael Lee (10C). The only other school-wide Secret Santa event occurred over 10 years ago but it was only for teachers. “It was psychology’s first big event advised under Mr. Canfield. This was a big success and we really did not expect our small idea could bring such a happiness to all,” said

Brandon Lee (12B), Pyshcology Club president. Mr. Henry Canfield, the club’s advisor, said, “I just love the idea of sharing and giving and holiday time, so it’s really fun and special to me and my family. So sharing that kind of holiday spirit is a great thing and is just a small way that we could do that within our school high school community.”

Psych Secret Santa (Continued from Front Page)IRENE CHANStaff Reporter

Cafeteria to Provide a World Tour of TastesKATIE HOANGCampus News Editor

IRENE CHAN Staff Reporter

“Here’s a bouquet of 11 flowers. Hold them up in the mirror and you will see the 12 most beau-tiful things in the world.” “Do you have a name? Or can I call you mine?” These are just a few of the cheesy lines floating around the school late-ly as many prepared themselves for “A Night Under Sakuras”—a magical night hosted by the Student Council otherwise known as winter for-mal. December 19th was the night that prepared us for a new year of excitement and added to the beautiful, festive season here in Shanghai. “I’m actually quite pleased with the way winter formal turned out. We went through a lot of trou-ble securing our venue...but I thought everything

worked out pretty well in the end. Overall, student council put in a lot of work preparing this event and we’re really grateful for all the stuendents and teachers who came and helped out,” commented Geenie Choy (12A), student council president. One of the most exceptional events for many during win-ter time is the winter formal and, because of it was open to all high school students, many freshmen and sophomores were excited to join. According to quite a few, one of the most amusing segments this year was when everyone formed a dance circle and dif-ferent people joined in and just danced and goofed off. Many students recalled Alexander Kim’s (11B) and Kevin Zhu’s (10B) exciting dance off, it

seemed to break the ice for everyone so it was eas-ier to just let go and have lots of fun. The Japanese themed food was well-catered and very delicious. “We really loved it, the venue was really good and everything looked great. We were really sur-prised when we won and we’re gonna remember this wf [winter formal] for a long time,” replied the newly elected royalty, Charlie Chang (12B) and Ally Matsuda (11C). The prince and princess were Owen Chang (11A) and Kylee Peng (11A). At the end of the day, everyone was very tired but it also proved to be a great end to another amazing year, as we bid adieu to 2015, we welcome the start of 2016.

Students and teachers who eat in the cafe-teria may have noticed a few changes as of late. One day of each month, the cafeteria chooses a theme related to a country, serves traditional food, and even plays music com-mon to that culture. Over the past months, the cafeteria had been serving foods from Mexico and Korea, such as burritos and rice cakes. France was selected for the month of De-cember and Japan might be next month’s des-tination. This year, there is a new vendor for SMIC: Eurest (which also happens to be the vendor for international schools like SAS Pu-dong and Concordia). Eurest, along with the new food, brought this international food day idea. They have been doing the international food day idea for around two to three years for the other schools and decided to bring it to SMIC as well. The company decides the food of the month by having a discussion with the staff and coming up with a random country. The idea behind this was for our student body—which represents over 20 different countries—to be able to experience cuisines from all over the world. Eurest wanted the students to feel like they are actually in that country with the traditional music and the food. They would also like to have more students eating lunch

in the cafeteria because they enjoy the food. “We hope to get the students involved every month. If the students are from a foreign coun-try, maybe they can give ideas on what to have and what is count as traditional. For example, the music is very hard to find for the theme since we do not understand the language, so if there are suggestions for foreign songs [of the chosen country], then students are wel-comed to tell us,” suggested Celine Zhang, the SMIC cafeteria manager from Eurest. They will have a message box on the coun-ter at the Deli Marche Cafe and students are welcome to write their comments about their experience. “Hopefully they are good things,” commented Ares Zhu, the District Manager for Compass Eurest Company. Quite a few students seem to like this idea of spending a day at another country. Na-than Chu (8B) said, “It’s pretty creative be-cause last year, the food was all the same. It adds a better feeling to the atmosphere in the cafeteria.” Students from high school also agree with that statement as Luke Chong (9A) pointed out, “The selections are good and there’s a variety; but I think they should add a bit more of a cultural taste to make us feel like we’re at the country.”

Quiz Bowl Club Offers a Tournament of MindsWENDY PARKCo-Editor in Chief

On December 4th, our own Quizbowl Club host-ed its first Quizbowl tournament for SMIC students. Quizbowl, if you didn’t know, is “a trivia game where two teams compete with each other [and try] to answer the question faster,” said Jane Park (11B), the secretary of the Quizbowl Club. In Quiz-bowl, students are required to first press the buttons and then respond with correct answers. This event can be hard for those who did not prepare rigorous-ly for the tournament, because questions come out from a broad range of topics. For example, chairs might ask questions related to history (ranging from Asia to Africa) or they might even ask science re-lated questions. In the club, the advisor or officers prepare the members by asking sample questions. This year’s Quizbowl was hosted after school, in room A206. Participants formed one freshmen team and one Senior/Junior team. Both of the teams worked hard and were competitive; how-ever, the senior/junior team, composed of Bo-han Lou (12A), Jason Wang (11B), Kevin Yu (12B), David Cheung (11C) and Vincent Wang (12A), won the game and received about 180 RMB as their prize. Kevin said, “I felt extreme-

ly proud being one of the most major contribut-ing members to the intense round of questions.” According to Jane, “it was a good start with po-tential to become greater once it is publicized well

enough.” However, the club generally believes there is still room for improvement. “While I think this event did spur some interest, I definitely hope to see more competition,” stated Marisa Vaughan (11B), the president of the club. This year, Mari-sa said, “most people did not even know what

Quizbowl is,” and so it was very hard to get peo-ple to participate in the event. “We tried to make it more popular [by] offering free CoCo bubble tea drinks and having no entry fee which, I sup-pose, did help, but not as much as we had antic-ipated,” continued Marisa. She believes that their low numbers might be connected to poor PR. This was confirmed by Kate Lee (11C) who said, “I did not really know about the event. I think next time, with more advertisement, I might participate.” However, the Quizbowl team has its next goal in sight. Marisa said, “Quizbowl is hoping to host our own tournament at SMIC where other schools around Shanghai or even schools from around the world can participate. We would also like to get to the semi-finals of these competitions again.” “Quizbowl is really fun and addicting. I would recommend people just trying it before decid-ing not to join. And even if you feel like it is too late to join, it is not. Many universities, such as Yale, Harvard, and UCLA, have their own Quiz-bowl teams and tournaments,” concluded Marisa.

Giving Tree and CSC (Continued from 1st Page)KATIE HOANGCampus News Editor

Student Creativity Offers More than SatisfactionSALLY PARKCo-Editor in Chief

This event had two parts: the stuffing party and the distribution. For the stuffing party, numerous students and teachers went to help fill the bags with toys and other goods by forming a human assem-bly line. The distribution, however, happened on the date mentioned above. First, there was a pres-entation from the students at Bluebell Primary, and then the students from SMIC and some other peo-ple from the church distributed the stuffed bags to each class—ranging from grade one through five. Though the day of distribution was a cold one, those that attended quickly forgot about it. As Jen-nifer Lee (11B), Treasurer of the Community Ser-vice Club, expressed, “If you think of the kids that

smile when they get the gifts, you feel warm inside.” This warmth stayed with the officers even after the distribution. As Tanvi Hegde (11C), Co-Vice Pres-ident of the Community Service Club revealed, “The day after giving tree my Ayi came home and told me that her friend’s kid got a bag. She told me that the kid was so happy and he was playing with the transformers the whole day and also using the markers we gave them to do his homework. I told the officers [this story] and they were so happy.” The success of this year’s Giving Tree, accord-ing to Mrs. Sharon Ma, the Community Service Club advisor, was mostly due to the officers. “They shopped on Taobao, they found the gifts, they did

most of the publicity throughout the building, they went into the homerooms talking; and I [also] felt like the students in the middle high school did the majority of the work which is really exciting.” Along with MHS ET officers, representatives (or leaders) from the Chinese Track middle high school, elementary Chinese Track and English Track really encouraged people to contribute too. Overall, the Giving Tree went smoothly and according to plan. The students really enjoyed distributing the bags and, most importantly, the migrant kids at Bluebell Primary received some much needed living items, and a bit of holiday joy.

SMIC has once again hosted a successful Art for Charity program. On December 12th at the Z-art Center in Zhangjiang, the Art for Charity exhibition displayed and sold our students’ artwork. On top of this, various creative performances were held at the Shanghai Children’s Art Theater, with over 350 students participating. According to many of the 800 people that attended the program—both participants and audience—all enjoyed the event. Art for Charity is an annual event that has been hosted by our school since 2004—an event where students are able to sell their artwork and perform their talents. All profits are donated to different groups of disadvantaged children in China. This year, with help from numerous participants and at-tendants, the program was able to provide support and love to abandoned children in Hunan province, orphans that the Hostetler family from XiNing have adopted and helped, and the ZheJiang XinHua Com-passion Education Foundation. “All proceeds are donated to [both] help disadvantaged children and, at the same time, show our love for those children,” said Ms. Cindy Li, the Director of Art for Charity.

Many of our students contributed their time vol-untarily: through art, performance, or as a student helper. Students from kindergarten to high school contributed over 2000 pieces of art, including bags

and cards. “I enjoyed this event quite a lot. It is a very unique and creative way to fundraise money,” said Henry Han (12A), one of the student artists. Some unique works of art attracted much atten-tion. One of the auction items, “Sun Flowers”, an oil painting by Ryan Lei (CT4B) was painted so

well that many thought it hard to believe that it was done by a fourth grader (this item sold for 5000 RMB). Another oil painting, “The Dream”, by Vic-toria Liu (10B) was a popular attraction during the display. According to Ms. Li, Victoria used a very special painting technique to emphasize confusion teenagers face during teenage years (it sold for 8000 RMB). Beside these paintings, artwork from many other students that were sold helped make the 2015 Art for Charity program a success. “[This was] a wonderful and meaningful event for our students to learn how to help people by doing what they are capable of at their age, such as painting cards or other artworks, participating in performance, and volunteering helpers on site and so on,” comment-ed Ms. Li. “[We] highly appreciate their love!” Ms. Li, after another great year, concluded with these remarks: “Many thanks for your love and sup-port to the Art Charity Program, which will help those children in need!” Like these students and sponsors, it is worthwhile to start a new year pro-viding helping hands to others with our warm heart.

Art work contributed by students

Photo Courtesy of Ms. Cindy Li

Photo Courtesy of Sam Phoa

Student Council members show swagKing and Queen: Charlie and Ally Prince and Princess: Owen and Kylee

Poster Courtesy of Quizbowl Club

Mr. Wu joins in cafeteria fun

Photo Courtesy of Mr. Boldt

EDITORIALDecember 2015

XinLang Scholar4

SALLY PARKCo-Editor in Chief

Recently, Beijing issued the first-ever “Red alert”, the most serious warning on a four-tier warning system adopted in 2013. This is not the first time China has had to deal with bad air quality. China has been suffering from severe smog for years, which is largely the outcome of increasing gas emissions, coal burning, dirt, and other sources. Despite such severity of pollution, the public awareness of the current air pollution in China is very low and

not much significant improvement has been made. Thus, the government should devote

more in dealing with the pollution and carry out campaigns to increase public awareness in China. The readings of Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) particles went over 300 micrograms per cubic

meter recently, and are only expected to rise. In response, Beijing has ordered all schools to suspend classes, ban outdoor construction, restrict certain types of vehicles on the road, and stop operations in some factories. In order to try and solve such an environmental emergency, the Chinese government has established measures that cut coal burning, limit car emissions, and set yearly quotas for local governments. However, such efforts have obviously not been effective in reducing the air pollution. For one, China needs to enforce stronger regulations on factories that contribute to the current polluted state. When the G20 Summit was held in Beijing in 2014, the Chinese government banned all the factories in Beijing from running during the Summit. The change was incredible. The hazy, smog-like atmosphere became so extremely clear and clean that it was hard believe it was the same city. China could surely reduce air pollution just by establishing stricter regulations on factories or limiting the number of factories per provinces. China may hesitate in enforcing such harsh punishments and regulations on factories for fear of affecting its economy negatively. However, China should think of its people’s health, even if such regulation could discourage economic growth. It is a government’s responsibility to keep the country clean and safe, and prohibit anything that may threaten public health. The government should not allow unsafe operations in factories

behind the excuse of improving the living standard of China, while much of the population suffers from chronic illnesses due to constant exposure to serious air pollution. The economic growth of a nation is important, but the government needs to remember that people come first, not the economy. Since the fatal effects of air pollution are slow and not visible, not many people take the current problem seriously enough. Because of this, China needs to carry out and support more environmental campaigns that raise public awareness of air pollution and its effects. For example, a Chinese artist Nut Brother created a brick out of Beijing smog after spending 100 days walking in the city with his industrial vacuum cleaner. Many people, especially Beijing citizens, were shocked by his “artwork” and, because of it, realized the severity of the air they were inhaling every second. Also the government can educate its people on how to protect themselves, such as wearing a mask in the streets and turning on air purifiers. I strongly believe the current air pollution levels in many cities around China are reaching unlivable levels. However, I also believe that this problem can be resolved if the government would clean up or limit its factories and also support campaigns to raise public awareness of the pollution.

Important information from Huffingtonpost.com

China Must Act as Pollution Reaches Alert Level

Photos courtesy of Thespiritscience.net

A local shields herself from pollution

Staff Editors

Staff Editorial: Stereotypes Negate Individuality Have you ever received only toy cars for Christmas if you are a boy and Barbie’s if you are a girl? Has anyone ever thought that you are good at math or eat Kimchi everyday just because of your race? Stereotyping is so common that people start to believe in it and think that this type of thinking is the norm when it is not true at all. It is one of the biggest limitations that we can put on ourselves—stopping us from achieving all we can. Furthermore, judging people based on stereotypes limits who we are—our true identity and individuality. One of the most common categories of stereotyping is by gender. We often learn our gender roles through our peers and our interaction by observing social norms. “As a little boy I was often told by my friends that men were not supposed to cook or do chores. I was laughed by my friends when I told them that I knew how to fry an egg. When I was in elementary school I often watched television, and noticed that toy commercials aimed towards young boys all featured items oriented towards boys—ranging from toy vehicles to action figures to plastic swords,” Brisson Lam (12A) commented. Although stereotyping males in this way is expected by the majority of society, this does not make it true of every man. Any man could cook and do chores just like women, and any boy can play with various toys. On the other hand, women have been suffering from severe discrimination for ages (which starts with the way we think). Women were not given the chance to participate in the outside world, where they can gain independent experience and insight. They were required to stay at home and become housewives, devoting their whole lifetime into chores and house work. Women are also limited on their choices of career, especially in field such as politics and business. Such social

expectation limits individuals’ vision for their own capacity and constrains each gender to fulfill their corresponding expectations. Being male or female is only part of our identity, and does not define entirely who we are or what we should do. Stereotyping of different cultures is probably the mildest of its kind. You may be familiar with such phrases as “Japan has many creepy variety TV shows”; “You get fortune cookies from Chinese restaurants”; “American food

is all about hamburgers”; “Germans are dull and very organized”. On most occasions, you automatically ignore those statements or just laugh at them; however, they can have a negative impact. “I feel uncomfortable when my friends always give me spicy foods, although I don’t like them,” explained Ken Kim (9B) about how would he feel if he were to hear the typical Korean stereotype-Koreans eat spicy foods. “When I was in the US during my sophomore year, my American classmates were afraid of discussing Chinese culture with me. They feared if they told me any wrong impressions about China, they would be “racists”, despite the fact that I wasn’t sensitive about those things; but I actually welcomed such interactions so that we could understand each other’s culture better, and could be closer

friends as well,” Michael Chen (12A) expressed. Furthermore, the film industry is also encouraging the use of stereotyping in our society. Hollywood is one of the biggest places of stereotyping, from characterizing black people to be in the drug business to white people as businessmen. Asian women are often seen as “dragon ladies” and Asian men as techies, math whizzes, or martial arts champions. Latinos are portrayed as maids and gardeners. And the entire character is built on exaggerated accents that people have to fake in order to get the role. It is only in recent years that the film industry has started to offer a point of view that is not entirely white and male. The film industry is finally starting to notice the changes that had to be made, but even then, more drastic changes still need to be made so that we show and celebrate who we really are. On the other hand, stereotypes are also found in many schools and they sometimes focus on certain group of people. In SMIC, there are several different stereotypes surrounding the Korean population. For example, many people believe all Koreans like Kimchi and spicy foods. Yes, it may be true that many Koreans like Kimchi and spicy foods. However, that does not mean every Korean have those kinds of characteristics. We all differ, and we want that to be recognized, and valued. This is why I believe it is inappropriate to think of Koreans (or anyone) in these generalized ways. It limits our understanding of people and might also prevent us from knowing them more deeply. To answer the question: Are you judged the second you are born? Yes, but it does not have to be that way. By doing that, it is destroying our uniqueness and individualism. People are not given opportunities to achieve what they were meant to.

Photos courtesy of Ronalfy.com

OPINION/ARTSDecember 2015

XinLang Scholar 5

TheXinLang Scholar

Printed Monthly, except Feb, July, August. Printed by QiuZhi Print, Shanghai

Created by the Journalism Class at the SMIC Private School, 169 QingTong Rd., Pudong New Area,

Shanghai, China, 201203

WENDY PARK, Co-Editor in Chiefwendyseyeon@hotmail.com

133-1168-7125SALLY PARK, Co-Editor in Chief

sallysjpark@outlook.kr186-1697-1733

JEFF BOLDT, Faculty Advisorjeff_boldt@smicschool.com

AMBER ZHAO, ENTMT Editorhappyamber2013@163.comBRISSON LAM YAT SUM,

Campus News Editorbrisson.lam@hotmail.com

KATIE HOANG, Features Editorlovebeingkatie@yahoo.com

MICHAEL CHEN, Sports Editorchenmuen@sina.com

LANNIE DENG, Staff Reporterlannie-deng@hotmail.com

IRENE CHAN, Staff Reporterblinkxs@outlook.com

JANE XIA, Staff Reporterjane_200049@hotmail.comKEN KIM, Staff Reporter

mestink@naver.com

VIVIEN SUGuest Writer

Letter to the Editor: Response to “#PrayforParis”

Saturday morning, after waking up early at a team sleepover, I went on Instagram, as per usual, and browsed through the posts in my feed. It jumped out at me straightaway—the trending hashtag #prayforParis. I immediately Googled for news and discovered that, while my team and I were sound asleep, the city of Paris suffered six terrorist shootings and four suicide bombings. I was completely in shock. My heart sank, and I sat on the mattress staring at my phone for a good five minutes, hit hard by the news. When I woke up the next morning, I went on Facebook and noticed that many of my friends had filtered their profile pictures with a translucent flag of France. YouTube was a similar experience; the logo had changed to display the the colors of the French flag. There was an outpouring of sympathy and grief, as well as signs of solidarity for the Parisians who suffered the tragic terrorist attack, overwhelming various social media platforms. As I woke up to a second day after the senseless massacre, the discussion about Paris took a turn. A myriad of comments emerged on social media, criticizing the “selective grief” that dominated the world in the aftermath of the tragedy in Paris. The comments pointed out that while the everyone was busy watching the events in Pairs unfold, at least 41 were killed and 239 severely injured in two suicide bombings in Beirut before the attack on Paris; a major earthquake hit off the coast of Japan; and a series of bombing in Baghdad killed at least seven people and injured 15 others. But these tragedies were overlooked in the shadow of the Paris attack.

The comments all conveyed a similar message: because we don’t show the same level of grief, it means that we don’t value these lives as much. And it is true. We don’t. We turn our faces away from abuse and discrimination if it doesn’t directly concern us. We find it harder to grieve for people with whom you don’t have a connection. Finding out about the attacks in Beirut and Baghdad was far less shocking to me, because I had no emotional connection or familiarity with the cities of Beirut and Baghdad. Paris is the city of love, and even people who haven’t visited the city feel a stronger, closer tie with Paris, simply because we are hit harder when the threat feels more familiar and closer to our home. It is merely human to value lives differently. Even sadder was how fast the discussion on Paris turned political. What started out as a platform to express grief transformed into a hot debate about whether or not we should be changing our profile pictures on Facebook. It seemed counterintuitive—people nitpicking about showing empathy for Paris rather than standing together to support a city in need. So take your empathy, and your selective grief if you must, and use it to fight. Use it to remind yourself of the broken state our world is in and ask yourself how you can help. Reflect on why you don’t feel as shocked when tragedies happen in places other than the West. Educate yourself, as well as others, on everything that’s going on, and pay attention to the world more closely. Prove to the world that you can be better than the terrorists and better than your yesterday self.

SALLY PARKCo-Editor in Chief

A Christmas in China: Mind the Gap

OPINION/ARTSDecember 2015

XinLang Scholar6

The Xinlang Scholar can certainly be considered a success over the years in SMIC. Students have readily scoured the pages of the newspaper as it was released at the end of each month, some eager to hear about their respective sports teams or clubs, and others just interested in general information. Then there are those who are interested in the happenings and issues within the school or even worldwide, which would bring them to page 4 in the newspaper – Editorials. Although students read these writings to know more about the issues, they are also focused on the stance that these writings take, as well as the persuasiveness of the text, thus wanting a reflection that takes into consideration their views and portrays an accurate, fair picture. This preference that students have brings them into conflict with some writings, one of them being the recent editorial written about the locker area situation. I, as well as many others, believe that the accusations and points made do not take in the larger picture, and we thus feel the need to defend ourselves. The editorial was written about the trash and the different personal belongings placed there by the students that have made the environment in the locker area unappealing, and called for the students to clean things up. However, I believe

that this places the whole blame upon the students who, though they are partially to blame, are not wholly responsible; the school also plays a part. While students are the ones doing the actual littering, it is the school that is not providing the students with the environment that would naturally lead to the “conducive environment” and “better impression” advocated in the editorial. Moreover, achieving these goals would benefit the school as much as it would the students. Therefore, I believe that it is only fair, and ultimately a whole lot more persuasive, to also lay out what the school can do to bring about a lasting change. Concerning personal belongings, it would be right to say that students have limited choices. Either they carry them around all day, or they place them in the locker area. As students bring bags full of sports equipment for training or umbrellas on rainy days, it is unrealistic for them to be carrying these things around. Therefore, they have no choice but to place it in the locker area. Moreover, while the school may protest that there are other choices to make, these choices are all inconvenient and thus raise the question of the school’s genuine interest in cleaning up the locker area. So, concluding that the locker area is the destination for these items, what can students

do? This is where the school can come in and create larger lockers for students to have adequate space to put all their belongings in, much like the lockers provided by SAS, which are twice the size of those in SMIC. Of course, this would be something to turn to only when truly serious about solving this issue. As for the trash that litters the locker area, while students are the main culprits, I believe the school can take some steps to promote change. To be specific, it may improve facilities by installing central heating and air and even carpeting the floor. These two changes alone would promote the students’ psychological instinct to keep things clean while, at the same time, effectively creating a better impression on visitors. We students are certainly part of the problem (namely the litter), but are we the only part of the solution? In order to truly bring about change to the locker area situation, I believe the information I’ve raised and the side of the issue regarding the school’s possible contribution should be presented as well. In this way, the students will feel that their changes will be matched by those of the school. And though I mean no disrespect to the writer, including such items in this editorial would have been more accurate and fair, and therefore more appealing to

DANIEL KIMGuest Writer

A Letter in Response to ‘Locker Area’ Editorial

JEFF BOLDTFaculty Advisor

The Other Side of Penguin: Kung Pao Christmas

entertainmentDecember 2015

XinLang Scholar7

Photo courtesy of BBC

Long Awaited Sherlock: The Abominable BrideLannie DengStaff Reporter

Adele’s New Album 25 Receives Critical Praise

After two years of dreadful waiting, finally it is time for the Sherlock Christmas Special: The Abominable Bride. This special is set to air on January 1st of 2016, exactly two years since the premier of Sherlock season 3. Sources also say that this Christmas/New Year special will even-tually air in China as well, but the date is not yet set. Unfortunately, even though there are approx-imately ONE AND A HALF years till the ex-pected air date of season 4 (2017), the news of this special is still something to look forward to. This season sends Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and John Watson (Martin Freeman) back to Victorian London where they attempt to solve the mystery of a ghost bride. The ghost was once Mr. Ricoletti’s wife, but after she takes her own life, she reappears on the streets. According to fans, Benedict Cumberbatch was seen on set wearing the iconic Holmes’s deerstalker hat and

pipe. Contrasted from the Sherlock regular sea-sons, which is set in contemporary London, the fans wonder if this new episode will live up to their expectations. Benedict Cumberbatch expresses his opinion in an interview with BBC: “I don’t really know how the fans are going to react to it,” he says. “We haven’t disappointed fans in the past, it seems, so hopefully this won’t. I hope they enjoy it.” SMIC students are eagerly anticipating The Abominable Bride Christmas special as well. Rose Min (12B) is one of them, and she comments, “I really can’t wait to see Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in their roles in the original [books’] Victorian setting.” Former SMIC stu-dent, Evelyn Wan, also expresses her opinion of the new episode. “I really look forward to [the special]! The fact that it’s set in the Victorian era gives us a whole new outlook on the show itself, and besides, who doesn’t enjoy more Sherlock?”

Evelyn continues, saying, “The directing and cast-ing [in Sherlock] are all superb. The adaptation of Sherlock from the original stories is also twist-ed to make it more modern—and it’s done well.” For those who have never watched, Sherlock is a BBC television show based on Sir Arthur Co-nan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes book series. Every season of Sherlock only consists of three episodes, and each one is around 90 minutes long. As a crime drama, Sherlock has received praise for its quali-ty, and was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe. The Golden Globe and the Emmy Award are both accolades for excellence in the film and television industry and have been rec-ognized by the entertainment field as some of the most prestigious film-related award ceremonies. Sherlock is suitable for anybody who likes a little mystery and suspense, and even if one doesn’t, it will provide entertainment for all.

Michael ChenENTMT Editor

After four years of silence, British singer Adele Adkins finally released her newest album, 25, on Nov. 20th, shaking up the music market. The al-bum has been the best seller according to the UK based Official Charts data since its release, beating rivals such as One Direction’s Made in the AM and Justin Bieber’s Purpose. The album contains 11 songs, one of which is the widely known Hel-lo. Most of the lyrics were written by Adele her-self, but some are collaborations with other writers. In general, the critics have praised her album. Mu-sic critic Neil McCormick from the Daily Telegraph gave it five out of five stars and said, “25 is crammed top to bottom with perfectly formed songs – ele-gantly flowing melodies, direct and truthful lyrics

and richly textured production – all sung as if her life depends on it. There are deep, resonant piano ballads...a brace of slinky, playful pop belters…and some spooky, thunderous, big production dramas.” However, a few critics pointed out that Adele did not try to innovate on her previous success. Alexis Petridis from The Guardian is one of them. Petridis commented, “[25] reprises the themes of its prede-cessor – there’s no sign of Adele using her com-mercial clout to buy herself room for adventure.” She rated the album three out of five. Entertain-ment magazine Rolling Stone gave the album a five out of five, and Billboard rated it four out of five. These professional critiques are only for refer-ence but, in my opinion, the album is not bad. Some

SMIC teachers and students offered their view on the song, Hello. Art teacher Ms. Ashley Hayes praised it for its charged emotions, “It’s one of those songs that [sticks] in your head forever.” Eng-lish teacher Mrs. Sharon Ma said, “I like Hello”, and then poetically characterized Adele’s continu-ous success, saying, “Adele is like fine wine—she gets better when she ages.” High School student Tanvi Hegde (11C) had a slightly different opin-ion: “[Hello] is a good song but too dramatic.” Though the songs themselves are over-ly extended and sometimes too sentimen-tal, I think 25 will be many people’s favorite, thus continuing Adele’s tradition of success.

entertainmentDecember 2015

XinLang Scholar8

The Force Awakens: CAN YOU FEEL IT? Michael ChenENTMT Editor

The long-awaited 7th Star Wars movie The Force Awakens will be first re-leased in cinemas on Jan. 9th in mainland China and on Dec 18th in North America. The director J.J. Abrams is under pressure to take the time-honored series to a new height, as he did with Star Trek. Common audiences like Lin-da Lee (12A) wondered how the storyline would continue after the Rebels gave the Empire a fatal blow in Return of the Jedi. “I’m curious how the plot is going to go on, considering the last episode, which the bad guys were de-feated,” stated Linda. As the audienc-es were looking forward to the new movie, excited fans have already been speculating and discussing about the movie’s plot based on the final trailer. Some reckoned that Luke Skywalk-er is in serious trouble since his face never shows up in the trailer, or Rey might be the daughter of Leia and Han Solo. Although director Abrams has revealed very little about the new movie, the Star Wars official website does put out pithy character and set-ting profiles on The Force Awakens. The Force Awakens starts approxi-mately 30 years after what happened in Return of the Jedi. Although Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill who starred in the original trilogy would reappear in the film, many new characters are under the movie’s spotlight as well. If the trailers are any in-dication, it seems that our new protagonists are Finn, who appears to be an ex-Stormtrooper, Rey, a female scavenger who lives on the desert planet Jak-ku, and Poe Dameron, an X-Wing pilot. On the other side, our new antag-onists belong to a group called the “First Order”, which seems to have res-urrected from the Empire because it too uses Stormtroopers, TIE Fighters, and Star Destroyers. Among them, Kylo Ren is described as “a dark warrior strong with the Force”, General Hux, a general in the First Order, and Cap-

tain Phasma, who “commands the First Order’s legions of Stormtroopers.” Kylo Ren is easily identified in the trailer as the masked guy with a cross-shaped red light saber; he has that frightening deep hoarse voice that refreshes the memory of Darth Vader. In the trailer, he speaks to the helmet of Darth Vader about “finishing what you started” and “no one will stand in our way”. Then how did the life of Rey and Finn crosses each other? Based on both the official trailer and the special edition made for Mainland Chinese audi-

ences, Rey first encounters Poe Dam-eron’s spherical droid – BB-8, and separately Finn lands on Jakku and is later discovered by Rey. Afterwards, the First Order jets attack them for un-known reasons, but perhaps their aim is Poe’s droid BB-8. Though neither trailer shows much about the conse-quent events, they do offer a glimpse at splendid aerial combats and ground assaults which occur in at least 3 dis-tinct locations. In one quick tilting shot, Resistance X-Wing Fighters are flooding toward a star destroy-er in outer space. Before that, green forest scenes intercut snow scenes,

and intense combats are everywhere. In another noticeable shot, Finn holds a blue light saber in snow and starts his dual with Kylo Ren. Could the Resistance survive under the looming of the First Order? Who is Finn and where is Luke Skywalker? Is Finn using Luke’s light saber? All questions will have proper answers on Jan. 9th. Even if you are not a Star Wars fan of haven’t seen any of the 7 episodes, the movie is worth your ticket money for sure. Our Athletic Director Mr. Bates, went to Hong Kong for the international premiere and said, “the movie can easily be enjoyed [w/o familiarity with the series] due to the story of Rey, the performances of the actors, and the visual quality of the film.” So quit torrenting and purchase a Star Wars: The Force Awakens ticket.

Photo courtesy of Starwars.com

Our Most Popular Christmas Foods and DrinksLannie DengStaff Reporter

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entertainmentDecember 2015

XinLang Scholar9

January Events and Exhibitions in ShanghaiLannie DengStaff Reporter

Harry Potter ExhibitionWhen: December 5th -- February 28th ¬¬Where: Super Brand Mall, 9th floor Price: Adult: 170 RMB. Student: 130 RMB. Kids: 110 RMB. (For tickets, go to damai.com)Details: It is a 1400-squared-meter exhibition that includes some of the most well-known Harry Potter settings such as the Gryffindor dorms, the herbo-logy and potions classrooms, and the Forbidden Forest. Goers are able to have interaction with the exhibits. They can “throw” Quaffles in a game of Quidditch, pluck mandrakes in the herbology classroom, or even sit on Hagrid’s extra-large chair. Props from the actual set are also on display: the Time Turner, Harry’s wand, the Nimbus 2000 broom, and many, many more.

Da Vinci “the Genius” ExhibitionWhen: December 8th -- April 7thWhere: The Hub Price: Weekdays: 130 RMB. Weekends/holidays: 150 RMB. Details: The eExhibition brings the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci to life through realizing inventions on his codices . It also includes the exclusive Secrets of Mono Lisa: a carefully done analysis by the Louvre Museum and a re-creation of The Last Supper at actual size. This exhibition provides an insight into the mind of the Leonardo daVinci and gives inspiration to all visitors. (information and phrases from grade exhibitions)

Adam Lambert “The Original High” ConcertWhen: January 5th, 2016Where: The Mercedes Benz Area Ptice: 480/780/980 RMBDetails: Well known for “Whataya Want from Me” and “Trespassing”, Adam Lambert returns to Shanghai after his tour in 2013.

Photo courtesy of Mugglenet.com

Photo courtesy of XinLang

Word List:BELLS

CANDYCANECARD

FAMILYHOLLY

PUDDINGRUDOLPH

SLEIGHSNOWMAN

SPIRITTIDINGS

TRADITION

Find all hidden Christmas words in the puzzle below (Words can be spelled forwards, backwards, diagonally, up, or down)

Christmas Word Search: Happy Hunting

Photo courtesy of Chinaholidays.co.uk

featuresDecember 2015

XinLang Scholar10 featuresDecember 2015

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Hardworking Ayis Important Part of Our SchoolKen KimStaff Reporter

More and More Clubs Involved in CharitiesBrisson LamFeatures Editor

As the school year progresses, more and more clubs are carrying out plans for charity events; among them are SAGE (Student for the Ad-vancement of Global Entrepreneurship), CFK (Cookies for Kenya), and CSC (Community Ser-vice club). These clubs strive to bring a change in the world by taking their own small steps. SAGE club is hosting “ClotheEnough”—a pro-gram dedicated to collecting and selling used clothes—the profits of which will go to charity (the donation box located in the first floor locker area). The president of the club, Rose Min (12B), explains her clubs’ actions: “We thought that a lot of people would have unwanted and old clothes at home that they don’t know what to do with, and many clubs [in] Taiwan have drop boxes right next to pharma-cies and food markets. We then realized that we do not have enough of that in Shanghai, so we decided to make a small one in our school.” She originally thought of just collecting the clothes, but then had

the idea of asking student designers to redesign the collected clothes into more stylistic and useful items and to then sell them for charity. “I would also want to start workshops at restaurants like Mamatown to teach kids to create their own clothing,” Rose further adds. The project would be a year-long program. Another club, CFK, is selling Christmas grams to aid the Kenyan Children Foundation, which strives to build homes and schools for homeless and destitute children in Kenya. Selling at 10 RMB per Christmas gram, each box of goodies con-tains a Rice Krispie treat and chocolates inside, along with an optional card to write to the receiv-er. “We hope that this event would allow students to experience the joy of baking and selling goods while donating money for a good cause,” Pres-ident of CFK, Emily Huang (12A), explained.Last but not least, CSC is hosting the annual Giv-ing Tree project. Every year, CSC delivers over 600 bags filled with warm clothes, school supplies,

and gifts to kids in a migrant school. When peo-ple donate money for the Giving Tree, the club or-ders individualized items for each one of the Giv-ing Tree bags. President of CSC, Elizabeth Shin (12B), expressed her thoughts: “During the ‘Giving Tree Stuffing’, the club members, parents, and the school faculty all gather in the auditorium and help us fill the bags. It’s amazing how this project cre-ates such a strong sense of community!” On distri-bution day, the CSC members personally go to the migrant school and deliver the bags to the children. And as Vice President of CSC, Tanvi Hegde (11C), exclaimed, “The smiles on the children’s faces make the entire project worthwhile!” She hopes that the Giving Tree project would spread love and kindness to those outside of our community. As they carry out their innovative ide-as, these three clubs are working to achieve their goals and to help more people in need.

It may be fair to say that students of SMIC produce a great amount of waste on a daily basis. Some of the trash goes into trashcans, while some just ends up on the floor. However, thanks to the Ayis great effort into maintaining school cleanliness, this has not happened yet. The Ayis are the ones who go around the school to maintain hygiene in the school, and most of them have been devoting around nine to ten years of their life at this school, cleaning up on a daily basis. According to the Ayis, though the work is hard, they explained that they were happy that they could serve the students. They mentioned, “We usually come to the school no later than 7:00 AM and leave around 5:00 PM. It is definitely hard work for us to do, since we work a lot, and also take care of our families at home. However, we also think this job is worth doing, since students can study in

a clean environment.” They also mentioned they appreciate the fact that they are respected by the

faculty and staff. “Usually, when we are cleaning up the cafeteria before and after lunch time, we see one or two teachers sitting, with all kinds of snacks that are for us. Also, the school gives us tons of

presents during the holidays. Recently, we heard that we are getting Red Envelopes for Christmas!”

However, the Ayis also revealed that sometimes the difficulty of the job is related to the students. They stated, “We know that this doesn’t apply to everyone, but students are generally the ones that make things tough for us. When we go up to the gym or go to the hallways every day, we always spot the water purifiers being knocked down, and the water leaking. When this happens, we are the ones who lift them back up, and clean up all the mess. Also, when the students use the bathrooms, they either don’t flush the toilets, or they just flick their hands after washing them. By flicking the wet hands, the mirrors end up with countless water stains, which are not easy to constantly clean.” After, they mentioned, “Honestly, all we want from the students is respect. It can give us energy

and motivate us to work harder for the school.” During this holiday season, why don’t we show some love to the Ayis and appreciate their hard work?

Photo Courtesy of Ken Kim Group shot of SMIC ayis

Photo Courtesy of SAGE club

Teacher Behind Winter Concert: Ms. Jeanie HooiBrisson LamFeatures Editor

General Affairs Works on School Improvement Ken KimStaff Reporter

When thinking about the different offices in this school, the Student Affairs (SA) office or Academ-ic Affairs (AA) office may come to mind. How-ever, many may not be aware of the General Af-fairs (GA) office and the tasks that it performs for the students’ comfort during their campus life. The General Affairs Office, like others, is involved in many things and most of their duties are closely related to the students. These things include: school bus arrangements, repairing things in the school, helping coordinate school events (Sports Day, Sharks Fiesta, etc.), taking care of the buildings, oversee-

ing cafeteria issues, purchasing all the supplies that are needed in school, etc. etc. They are also the ones in charge of certain aspects of the school’s physi-cal improvement—from installing the new air con-ditioners to making changes to the bathrooms. So, without all the contributions of the GA Office, the SMIC Private School wouldn’t be like how it is now. The director of the GA Office, Ms. Jade Tang, revealed the reason why she works in the GA de-partment: “Working as a director of the GA Of-fice is a tiring job, since I need to [be on call] 24 hours, but whenever I see the students enjoying

all the privileges we brought them, I feel proud of myself, and I am motivated to work even harder.” However, she mentioned that her office is always annoyed when the students destroy the equip-ment that the office installed. “Whenever we put in something new, or repair a broken thing, the students [have many times] destroyed them,” she said. “And so, if we could give one request to the students of SMIC, we sincerely wish that you would take care of all the supplies and equipment.”

The Christmas concert at our school has been going on for years, with every year featuring eye-catching performances and amazing musicals. When people think about the event, they generally relate it to one teacher—yes, you probably guessed it—Ms. Jeannie Hooi, our MHS Music teacher. Ms. Jeannie has been organizing this event annually since the early days of SMIC. By working hard and devoting a massive amount of time every year, Ms. Jeannie aims to bring the Christmas spirit and offer a time to showcase the talent of SMIC students through this highly anticipated concert. This year, the Chinese and English Track middle school students, high school vocal band, high school orchestra, Dance club, and Drama club all performed. “[The concert] helps [students] build confidence to perform in front of huge crowd, and they can also learn to work with each other to put up a good show.” She also greatly enjoys the

students perform. “It is a pleasure to watch the students perform on stage, especially when they have put a great amount of effort and time in preparing for the event.” However, easy as it is said, Ms. Jeannie has faced many obstacles and difficulties in conducting the concert. She explains that every year, she has to come up with original ideas so that the overall show looks unique. Furthermore, although she always prepares ahead of time, she and her team are usually rushing against time to perfect each performance. She also adds: “Some students are too shy to perform in front of a great crowd, and I have had to encourage them to be more participative.” Despite such challenges, Ms. Jeannie continues to organize and conduct the Christmas concert with excellence, bringing the SMIC community a heart-warming and celebratory event.

Photo Courtesy of Ken Kim

Ms. Jeannie Hooi shows her joy

Photo Courtesy of Yearbook

The GA staff stands tall and proud

Photo Courtesy of CSCCSC spends time with migrant kids

Ever improving SMIC campus

shark sportsDecember 2015

XinLang Scholar12

JANE XIAStaff Reporter

Table Tennis Team Continues to Show Dominance

Varsity Girls Win Nail-Biter Against SCIS 35-34

The soccer season for 2015 had officially end-ed last month. However, our coach and play-ers of the High School varsity boys’ soccer team hesitate no more, and started the preseason right away. The team practices once or twice a week. Coach Simon Pang stated, “We were consist-ently doing very well last year, winning 1st place in the league.” However, he implied that the game for 2016 will be both “harder” and “bigger”. Significant changes in pitch and format are tak-ing place for the upcoming season, which begins after the Chinese New Year Holiday. This is the first time for SMIC athletics to switch from a 7-a-side game to an 11-a-side game. Also, for the 2016 season, players have to manage a full field

game. The school has decided to do so in consid-eration of catching up the trend with contempo-rary soccer games. “It is going to be a challenging year. We are building for the future. It will be a transitional year to help them [Varsity Boys’ soc-cer team] completely understand the game. The changes we have to make are both technical and tactical.” said Coach Pang. Minor changes, such as purchasing new soccer balls, are also happening. Coach Pang implied that next year, the varsity boys are facing both harder competitions and big-ger teams. “We are going to compete with one of the best teams next year.” he stated. Brandon Lee (12B), captain of the team, also humbly stated his resolution. “This is my 6th year playing varsity

soccer team. Because we are joining an 11-a-side league, I think it is my responsibility to get [play-ers] warmed up and get adapted to the new envi-ronment. As a captain and only senior in the team, I really hope we can bring a favorable result. It is the earliest preseason [we’ve] ever had. Also, I hope more players can join the team for [the] future.” The time left for the tournament now is rough-ly 4 weeks. After the official season starts, only 2 weeks are left for the players. Coach Pang expects practicing four times a week and having more friendly games with other schools after the 2016 season officially starts.

The Varsity Girls’ Basketball team won 35-34 against Shanghai Community International School (SCIS) on December 9th. Although it was a very close call, the team had benefitted much from it. “The game was close but I feel extremely proud of my team for staying calm and focused the en-tire game,” said Tina Tsou (12B), co-captain of the team. There were injuries, absents, and phys-ical differences between the teams that gave the SMIC team disadvantages; however, due to their teamwork and effort, the Sharks were able to take home the glory. “The other team was much big-ger than us, per usual, so the girls had to closely adhere to their game plan to neutralize as much of that advantage and maximize our best assets,” commented Coach Brian Bates, the coach of Var-sity Girls’ Basketball team. Even though the SMIC team was smaller than their opponents, it actually wasn’t entirely a bad thing. There are some ad-vantages to it. “I don’t mind that we’re the small-est team, it gives us a focus and determination to overcome the advantages that the other teams are often just given,” Coach Bates stated. The varsi-ty girls were able to manage their tactics, and the

communication among the players went smoothly. Moreover, the girls played aggressively while out on the court, giving all that they could., “We showed a lot of determination and perseverance to overcome the things out of our control; Jessica Xu fought the

whole game against girls much bigger than her and really gutted out the game for us,” stated Coach Bates proudly, “the offense looked great yesterday as well; I think it was the first time we stayed fo-

cused on our execution and that truly is the only rea-son we were able to pull out the win.” The team is doing fairly well and there is not much that needs to be changed, “What we need to work on is just a con-tinuance or refinement of what we’re already do-ing. The defense looks great, we just need to build more chemistry in it.” Commented Coach Bates. Although it is a close game, it is definitely a well fought and memorable one. Many girls out did themselves and were great together as a team. “Sophie Chao scored the bulk of our points due to her great skill but also due to her unselfish com-mitment to the offensive scheme,” stated Coach Bates proudly, “Megan Huang and Yvonne Lin were so strong on defense in the backcourt; we had an amazing defensive effort in this one! Yvonne has really turned into the kind of defender that you hope doesn’t get assigned to you; she’s so fierce!” Sophie Chao (9C), a valuable player of the team commented, “I think our team did a great job on both offense and defense. We were able to keep the scores close till the end of the game.”After such a fierce game, the SMIC Varsity Girls look forward to bringing back more awards in the future.

Photo Courtesy of Sandy Chen

High School Boys Soccer Start Preparations EarlyAMBER ZHAOSports Editor

On November 21st, under the guidance of Coach Patrick Farley and Coach Tricia Kirkendall, both the varsity boys and varsity girls won 2nd place in the SISAC table tennis tournament (at-tending schools were Yew Chung International School (YCIS), Shanghai American School (SAS), Nanjing International School, Dulwich College Shanghai (DCS), Concordia International School Shanghai (CISS), and Shanghai French School). Anthony Huang (12A), the captain of the varsity

boys’ team, confidently stated, “This is a great team.” According to Ethan Yu (12B), who scored second place in boys’ singles, the team has been changing its mindset. “Since we lost our five-peat last year, we have been training harder this year to get back on track. Now everyone on the team realizes that first place in the past is not to be taken for granted—[we’ve learned] to be humble and keep moving for-ward without underestimating our opponents.” This season, the team worked hard to fully represent the athletic motto of SMIC: “Play hard and play fair, with integrity and good sportsmanship.” All team mem-bers practiced diligently, meeting every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 3:30 to 5:00. Freya Wang (12A) provided more insight into their work ethic: “When we were filming for the English project, Sam practiced table tennis in his free time.” Ethan further expressed his appreciation towards the three “very talented” freshmen, Sophie Chao (9C), Joyce Wu (9C), and Karin Tan (9C)—new to the varsity girls’ team—for successfully adding to the team’s great reputation. Cindy Chang (12A), who used to play for varsity, stated that she was so surprised that the girls really made their way to 2nd place, which is the furthest they have ever gotten.

The Middle school Table Tennis team, coached by Ms. Sandy Ma, Ms. Whitney Andrews, and Ms. Ruby Xiao, also performed extraor-dinarily in the tournament on December 5th, competing in three locations (YCIS, SAS, and Shanghai French School). The MS team is represented by seven boys and four girls. “This season [went] from November 11th to December 5th, which means we only have three weeks for preparation. We really didn’t do much, but our students are so great,” offered Ms. Ruby. During the tournament, Tony Chang (8A) and Sa-rah Quan (6A) basically won every match they at-tended. Even though there are no trophies in CIS-SA, the middle school players still did their best. Ms. Ruby also expressed her expectations towards the future, “If they continue practicing, their skills will improve a lot. There are also many great play-ers in the high school team. I believe, next year, by joining the Varsity Table Tennis team, our middle school players can definitely learn something ben-efiting themselves from the high school team.” With such effort from both our hardworking play-ers and revered coaches, the Sharks Table Tennis tradition of winning will surely continue next year!

AMBER ZHAOSports Editor

Photo Courtesy of Derrie Kwan

Sophie Chao leading her teammates

Joy Chang (left), Sophie Chao (middle), and Karin Tan (right) pose with their trophies