That's why air rifle champ quit top school at Sec 3 to do fashion course

The New Paper

'I'm wasting the prime of my life'
That's why air rifle champ quit top school at Sec 3 to do fashion course
By Esther Au Yong
June 15, 2005

SHE was in a top school and has achieved much, in sport and art.

Zhang Jingna is a part-time model.
But the secondary three student wanted to pursue her passion.
So Beijing-born Zhang Jingna, 17, left Raffles Girls' School (RGS), to get into the world of high fashion.
She is due to start a five-year Master's course in fashion design at the Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts next month.
The 1.71m-tall Jingna is a top air rifle shooter.
Now a Singaporean, she has been living here since the age of 8, with her mother and step-father.
At the Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships in Melbourne in March, she won a gold and a silver for Singapore.

Sharp-shooter Jingna at Safra Yishun. --MOHD ISHAK
Jingna is also an artist, whose paintings can fetch $1,000 a piece.
She sells her paintings at anime fairs and online (www.zemotion.net).
While she intends to continue to pursue the air-rifle sport, her other dream is to be a top fashion designer.
She said: 'I want to take an active step towards this goal.'
She is inspired by top designers like Karl Lagerfeld as well as more alternative ones like Yasutaka Funakoshi from the Japanese fashion house Alice Auaa.
Her designs tend to have Gothic elements. 'Hence the use of lace, and a lot of black in my designs,' she said. 'I like street clothes too, so my designs tend to combine both.'
Jingna started off by attempting to dress like her favourite anime characters. She also tried to copy the styles she saw in fashion magazines.
'I try to take self-portraits using my camera to see how each outfit looks like,' she said.
'It's been mostly experimental on my own. I need to learn more to develop my style further.'
The part-time model, who has worked the runways at hair shows for L'Oreal Professional and Redken, also designs her own costumes and does her own make-up for shoots.
She used these designs, as well as her art portfolio, to convince lecturers at Lasalle-SIA to take her in during the admission interview.
Jingna, who was in the integrated programme in RGS, felt that she couldn't fully concentrate on her interests while still in school.
'There was not enough time for my interests, what with a full load of school work to finish,' she said.
But wasn't leaving risky?
'Well, it's a risk I'm willing to take. I feel I'm 'wasting' the prime of my life if I don't use it to pursue my passions,' she said.
'I know many people would think that I'm foolish to stop studying before I get my certificates. Some would also think me ungrateful for leaving RGS,' she said.
'But I'm not. My definition of success is just different.'
Her mother is national air-rifle coach Zhang Shao Ying.
Her father is an athletics manager based in China, whom Jingna doesn't see much of these days. Her parents divorced when Jingna was a young child.
Madam Zhang, 47, who is also her trainer, was upset with her daughter's decision at first.
'Of course, I wasn't happy at first. RGS is a good school and she would be better off with proper educational certificates,' she said.
Jingna is her only daughter from her first marriage. She has another daughter, 6, from her second marriage.
Jingna had taken leave from school for 10 months last year, to concentrate on training for the shooting championships.
This was approved and supported by both her mother and RGS.
Jingna said: 'In a way, it was also a time for me to reflect and to make a decision on whether I really wanted to stop formal schooling for now.'
Eventually, Madam Zhang relented, and Jingna didn't return to school when the new term started this year.
But Madam Zhang also made her daughter promise to stick to her decision and work hard to prove herself.
And that is a promise that Jingna has made to herself too. 'If I can't make it as a fashion designer with my own label in 10 years' time, then I will re-evaluate my plan,' she said.
'I will not hesitate to take night classes, or go back to school, no matter how difficult it may be then, if my future plans require it.'