Students link 'choping' culture with six pillars of defence
What does our Singaporean "choping" habit have to do with the six pillars of defence?
Plenty, according to these four secondary 1 and 2 students, who found a creative way to link the two in a 30-second animated short film, Packing A Punch.
The students from Commonwealth Secondary School took their inspiration from how tissue packets were used to "chope" or "defend" tables at food centres to show how our nation defends itself.
E-magine 2.0 team member Solomon Low explained: "In the film, there are six layers of tissue paper inside the packet, and each layer represents each pillar of defence.
"If you only put the tissue packet without the layers of tissue inside, it won't be strong enough to defend your table."
The team will be submitting their film to N.E.mation! 2020, the annual Total Defence animation competition organised by Nexus.
This year's competition, themed Together We Keep Singapore Strong, tasks student and youth participants to highlight how Total Defence is Singapore's all-round response to threats through military, civil, economic, social, psychological and digital defence, the newest pillar.
A team of four students from Singapore Polytechnic who call themselves Quadronometry are also taking part.
Their entry Steadfast shows a burning ball crashing into an island, and it is later revealed how the shard remains of the ball representing the pillars of defence come together and form a united Singapore.
The team is among 10 that will be mentored by media companies, a first in the competition's 14 years.
Mentors include Industrial Light & Magic, Infinite Studios, Vividthree Productions and Singapore Press Holdings' Sweet.
The winning clips from both categories will be determined by a panel of judges and members of the public, who can vote for their favourite clips online from Jan 18 to Feb 9 at www.sweetspot.straitstimes. com/nemation
Director of community engagement at Nexus, Senior Lieutenant-Colonel Psalm Lew, said: "The competition has improved in (terms of) quality and relevance of challenges and concerns of Singaporeans, which I feel is very important to highlight."
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now