
I have been in Singapore for a full month now. This month is definitely important in my life. I know my decision to take a term off from the University of Oregon is right though it means I postpone my graduate date.
So what happened to me in the past month?
1. I start my three months internship in The Asian Media Information and Communication Center. Right now, I’m working on a project trying to find out why major Asian newspapers like to use news sources from western news agencies when reporting Asia’s regional news. First of all, my team need to do the research on 15 newspapers across Asia by taking out their Asia’s regional news between March 2009 to August 2009. Then, analysis all of them and write a report. Finally, publish a journal about the result we find.
Research work is a little bit dry after days of same work. However, I feel I’m indispensable in the team because I’m the only one in my team that can read Chinese. China is an important part of this project. This feeling always encourages me to work hard and efficient.
2. A lot of people have asked me before why do I want to do this internship since it’s not that related to my major PR. My answer is: networking. Yes, Twitter and LinkedIn are two good ways for networking, but if I can do it face-to-face, wouldn’t it be better? I want to work in a PR agency in Singapore after I graduate, so coming to Singapore to actually know something about the PR industry here is crucial.
I attended Spikes Asia Advertising Festival between September 16th to 18th and really learned a lot from it. Taking MRT everyday for 40 min from Pioneer station to City Hall station at 8 in the morning was an unforgettable experience. More importantly, attending all kinds of seminars and workshops learning about media industry in Asia and the whole world was truly exciting.
I enjoyed listening Cheil Worldwide Creative Director Thomas Kim talking about how important is digital storytelling. I enjoyed listening David Elsworth from Coca-Cola Japan talking about the corporation between agency and clients. I also enjoyed listening the founder and creative chairman of Droga5 David Droga talking about “The Great Schlep” campaign for Obama…
On September 17th, I attended Ogilvy’s networking party. It’s the first time I attend networking party like this, besides, I don’t know anyone there. The lesson I learned there is: force yourself to talk to people. It worked. I got to meet two young PR account executive of Ogilvy. They shared their stories about how they got the job, what’s the work in Ogilvy PR like and also encouraged me to apply for internship in Ogilvy next year. Later I found out I’m following one of them on Twitter. What a small world!
Last Saturday is China’s Mid-Autumn Festival. I attended the networking party held by Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry at Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. There, I learned trading business between China and Singapore, and also met some interesting business people.
(News: I’m going to meet a senior account manager of MS&L personally soon. I just want to try my best to get the most I can during this three months.)
3. Of course, my past month is not just working and networking.
I go shopping, watch movies and do other activities with friends every weekend. I watched F1 from a high commercial building when it was in town. I also attended the 25th Singapore French Film Festival at Alliance Francaise Singapore.
I had a wonderful month in Singapore, and I’m sure my next two months here will be great and unforgettable as well. I do miss my family in China and friends around the world, but now it is the time to fight for the future. I know I have a long way, but luckily I’m on the right track.

The internet thrives on the idea of information sharing, which allows everyone to contribute to the sum of human knowledge and opinion on important issues that populates the web. However, not everyone uses this new power and freedom with a great sense of responsibility to criticize reliability of information, and this can have devastating results.