Content by students and youths writing for jingkids
The day that school finished for Chinese New Year, I left Beijing to visit my mother, who works as a journalist abroad in Israel. Back in January, Coronavirus was but a distant disease to us Beijingers.
In the August issue of beijingkids Harrow Beijing student Jeremy S interviewed his friend Eddie W on his favorite things to do in Beijing and the highlights of quarantine.
Community is a flexible concept. For example, I belong to a community of people from different cultures, but who all care for the environment, and who refer to ourselves as environmentalists. Being an environmentalist is not what you say but what you do: it’s a kind of attitude that keeps us living for a certain lifestyle standard that will protect the environment. But just like the others in my community, I didn’t start off behaving, or even thinking, like one.
The thought of experiencing college life beforehand excited me. Unfortunately, as soon as I stepped through the door, I heard the professor exclaim from the front of the class: “I don’t want a Chinese in my class!” She paused for a moment before adding: “Because of the virus, you know.”
Because of COVID-19, masks have become every man’s new best friend. Leaving the house with a mask is the equivalent of remembering to bring keys. A year ago, this lifestyle would have been utterly unimaginable to most of the world. But for some people, it’s been this way for a long time. The Chinese, in particular, have a lengthy history when it comes to masks.
After watching movies like Before Sunrise and reading books like Eat Pray Love the notion that the purpose of travel is somehow linked to self-discovery has grown on me.
In China, it’s considered romantic and masculine for boys to make the first move, and sadly some people even think it’s shameful for girls to do the asking out. Like it or not, all the successful relationships I’ve witnessed among my peers were initiated by the guy.
Fifteen years, five countries. It’s been difficult, but I don’t often think about it, because to me it feels so natural to constantly move around. I’ve gone to international schools my entire life and the majority of my peers have had the same experiences.
This pandemic has done nothing but drive us apart, right? We’ve been confined to our houses and isolated from society. But it’s during these times of separation that a universal force truly brings us together: music. ‘Home’ From Home is a project initiated by the Jerusalem Youth Chorus in mid-March.
I feel that the focus of conversations about body image and its physical and mental effects should not be the importance of avoiding comparison between oneself and celebrities, but instead about peers.