Citizen 11th November 2011 - the City of London School

Zizhou Zhang plays at Lord
Mayor’s Charity Concert
On 4 October, Junior Sixth Former Zizhou Zhang gave a piano
recital in a charity concert in aid of the Lord Mayor of London’s
Charity Appeal “the Bear Necessities” which took place in the St
Lawrence Jewry Church.
The charity concert was the Second East Asian Friendship Event
and among those invited were diplomats and dignitaries from the
embassies of China, Japan and Korea as well as representatives
from the Corporation of London. The concert featured three
classical musicians, one from each of the respective countries.
Although the youngest among the three, Zizhou was invited to
perform the entire second half of the concert by the organisers,
representing various organisations with connections to China,
Japan and Korea. Zizhou’s programme included Beethoven’s
“Waldstein” Sonata, Chopin’s Scherzo No. 3 and works by Liszt,
City takes part in Model UN
On the 18th of October 2011, four City boys, Alessandro Ceretti,
Jean Vila, Nat Maxfield , and Kavian Kulasabanathan, accompanied
by Miss Saunt and Mr Brooke, embarked on the 12 hour journey
to take part in the South Africa Model United Nations conference
in Cape Town.
After we arrived in Cape Town, we were given a
day to prepare for the debates, whilst also taking
some time to see parts of this exotic and beautiful
city. The next day, we debated in the Municipal
Chambers of Cape Town, on the subject of climate
change, in theory to set up a new legally binding
document that would attempt to cap global
emission targets. Keeping true to the country we
had been given to represent, the United States, we
were utterly unhelpful to the debate, as we would
not sign anything legally binding, and therefore voted no to every
resolution put before us. In the second debate on the rights of
indigenous people, we actually became conducive to the debate,
sponsoring a resolution re-affirming the rights of indigenous
people to own their own land, and supporting the prosecution
of companies and corporations by nations if these rights were
infringed. We then had an emergency debate on a supposed oil
By DANIEL HU J6DRE
Hans Woyda 2nd Round - Boys 47-40 Girls
citizenschool 9
Rachmaninoff and
Chinese composers.
His performance
received rapturous
applause by the
audience. Lady
Katy Blair, the CEO
of Islington Chinese
Association and
one of the main
organisers of the
event, said after the
concert, “Zizhou
really did us proud!”
The concert raised nearly £1500 forthe Lord Mayor’s charity
appeal. On 31 October, Zizhou went to Mansion House with the
organisers of the concert to present the cheque raised from the
charity concert to Lady Mayoress Mrs Bear. He was asked to play
impromptu on the piano at the Mansion House and the group was
given a surprise tour of the Mansion House by the Lady Mayoress!
spill in the South China Sea, in which despite China asking for aid
in the crisis, the US followed the policies it attempted to follow
when dealing with BP, by loaning the money needed for the clean
up, then fining that money from the company after the crisis had
ended.
After the debates, we then visited Robben Island, the prison
in which Black, Indian, and Coloured (three of the eighteen
racial classifications under apartheid) political
prisoners were kept. Through a toned-down
recreation of prison life, we saw the inhumane
conditions, cruel punishments, and general
horror of the apartheid regime. We then were
given a tour by a former prisoner around the
island. The message that we all left Robben
Island with was one of how racism cannot be
allowed to develop, and that places such as
Robben Island should be preserved and kept for
future generations to see.
The City team won second best team overall for the debates and
won a best speaker prize for their performance. However this is
not what I think to be the true reward of the trip, for it was truly
a chance to sample a culture most of us will never have the chance
to visit, and see a nation that despite its past of racism, is moving
boldly into the future.
Last week was the 2nd round of the Hans Woyda, where CLSB competed with CLSG. We went into the match expecting to thrash CLSG
as we did two years ago, and show that whatever their good exam results are at GCSE and A-level, City are far better at competitive
maths. Mr Blake took us to the Barbican in the pouring rain, and after some technical glitches and room changes, the match began.
We did shockingly worse than we were expecting, partially due to fatigue and overconfidence on my part, and I take responsibility for a
low margin of victory, though there were some disappointing scores all round. Cumar from the S6, however, managed to keep us ahead,
getting all 5 of his individual questions correct, while I kept slipping up, almost putting down that there was a 1/36 chance of rolling a
5 and a 6 on 2 dice (the correct answer is of course 1/18, since you could roll 5 on the first die and 6 on the second (1/6 x 1/6 = 1/36
chance), or roll 6 on the first, and 5 on the second (1/6 x 1/6 = 1/36 chance)).
I am confident that we will learn from this game, and be refreshed when we compete with St. Paul’s Girl’s. This upcoming fixture is
perhaps the one in which we are under the most pressure - we have to win this to progress from our group, and St. Paul’s Girl’s are a
respectably strong team, knocking away CLSG by a margin of 20 points or so a few weeks ago. If we play like we did against Westminster
last time, who were champions 2 years ago, and who only just beat us, then we will definitely beat St. Paul’s Girl’s. The pressure is on,
and I am sure St. Paul’s Girl’s will be a very worthy challenge.
thecitizen 11 November 2011