Elsa Ying (’23) is currently the Vol. 59 Opinions Editor for The Lancer and an Entertainment Columnist who authors “Cinematic Chat.” She was the Vol. 58 News Editor, and she was also the Vol. 56 and Vol. 57 Features Editor.
Articles
Cinematic Chat: privilege and pretension in “The Menu”
by Elsa Ying (’23) | March 31, 2023 This article contains spoilers. Premiering in fall of 2022, The Menu was a horror comedy film that brought not only gorgeous dishes but also a thought-provoking commentary on privilege to the big screen. The movie follows Margot Mills as her date, Tyler Ledford, takes her to Hawthorn,…
Cinematic Chat: generational cycles in “Everything Everywhere All At Once”
by Elsa Ying (’23) | March 10, 2023 Since its release in March of last year, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s absurdist comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All At Once has received widespread acclaim. The film centers around Evelyn Quan Wong, a Chinese-American immigrant running a laundromat with her husband, Waymond Wong, and her daughter, Joy Wong.…
You’re toxic, I’m slipping under (the alt-right pipeline)
by Claire Marcellini (’26) and Elsa Ying (’23) | February 3, 2023 In recent years, the term “toxic masculinity” has entered public consciousness. The concept was first introduced by the American Psychological Association’s 2019 Guidelines for Psychological Practice With Boys and Men, wherein they presented their research and conclusion that the stoicism, aggressiveness, and competitiveness…
Cinematic Chat: “Glass Onion” and modern tech moguls
by Elsa Ying (’23) | February 3, 2023 This article contains spoilers. After the success of his blockbuster mystery movie Knives Out (2021), director Rian Johnson returned to the film scene with Glass Onion in 2022, delivering a unique mystery set during the COVID-19 pandemic. Set on the private island of billionaire and tech company…
Cinematic Chat: the Percy Jackson adaptation and representation
by Elsa Ying (’23) | November 18, 2020 In March 2021, author Rick Riordan announced the search for directors and a cast for a television adaptation of his beloved fantasy series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Set to air on Disney+ in early 2024, the series was greenlit in January 2022, followed quickly by casting…
Cinematic Chat: “Avatar” (2009) and social context
by Elsa Ying (’23) | October 7, 2022 James Cameron’s iconic science fiction film Avatar (2009) returned to theaters on September 23 to generate excitement for its long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of the Water (set to release in December 2022). Avatar’s re-release offers yet another opportunity to appreciate the gorgeous special effects and production…
Cinematic Chat: growing pains in “Turning Red”
by Elsa Ying (’23) | April 8, 2022 Disney’s recent movies tend to focus on stories of families of color, whether through the lens of magical realism in Encanto or Marvel’s expansive universe in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. However, their most recent film, Turning Red, illustrates an entirely new perspective by…
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s SCOTUS nomination sparks hope for a more representative America
by Elsa Ying (’23) | March 21, 2022 On January 27, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his plans to retire at the beginning of the court’s summer recess, thus leaving one seat on the Supreme Court open for an appointment by President Joe Biden. During his campaign, Biden had previously pledged to nominate the…
Cinematic Chat: offscreen diversity in “Avatar: The Last Airbender”
by Elsa Ying (’23) | March 21, 2022 The rising demand for racial and ethnic representation in film, television and all forms of media has recently sparked conversations about representation offscreen. While television shows and movies have portrayed people of color on screen from the beginning of the industry, more often than not, they were…
TEDxSaintFrancisHS takes the stage
by Elsa Ying (’23) | March 21, 2022 On February 26, the Saint Francis community gathered to hear from thirteen student speakers at the TEDxSaintFrancisHS event. TEDx events are independently hosted by local organizations as a branch of the main TED speaker series, and the Saint Francis TEDx crew worked for over six months to…
Asian Student Association and Vietnamese Student Association host Lunar New Year festivities
by Anika Bastin (’23) and Elsa Ying (’23) | February 14, 2022 On February 1, the Asian Student Association (ASA) and Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) partnered to host a Lunar New Year celebration, complete with traditional snacks and activities to celebrate the various cultures involved. The Lunar New Year is widely celebrated throughout East and…
Cinematic Chat: Marginalized identities in “The Sex Lives of College Girls”
by Elsa Ying (’23) | February 14, 2022 In recent years, HBO Max has proven that it is no stranger to producing content for the teen demographic; however, the comedy-drama television series The Sex Lives of College Girls diverts from their traditional high school drama to depict college life through a refreshing new lens with…
Heed Homecoming! Medieval festivities commence at Saint Francis
by Elsa Ying (’23) and Anika Bastin (’23) | November 19, 2021 In late October, Saint Francis High School held its first Homecoming in two years. Faculty and students alike found themselves swept into the passion of the week, enthusiastically taking part in all of the events. A true celebration of community, the week included…
“A Little Princess” takes the stage by storm
By Will Li (’23), Matthew Tran (’23), Anika Bastin (’23), and Elsa Ying (’23) | November 19, 2021 The Saint Francis Performing Arts Center reopened this past November to welcome the fall play, A Little Princess. Audiences watched as young Sara Crewe, played by Maria Ana (’23), arrived at a London boarding school after a…
United Nations global climate conference: COP26 takes on CO2
by Elsa Ying (’23) | November 19, 2021 After almost two weeks, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference came to a close on Friday, November 12. Commonly known as “COP26,” or the 26th Conference of the Parties, this summit started on October 31 and was hosted in Glasgow by the United Kingdom in partnership…
Cinematic Chat: the “‘Twilight’ Renaissance” and racism
by Elsa Ying (’23)|November 19, 2021 Stephanie Meyer, the author of Twilight, started one of the most recognizable franchises of the early 2010s. Not only did Meyer’s original four-book series achieve huge commercial success, but also the film franchise that followed all but cemented Twilight’s place in pop culture. However, its widespread popularity also instigated…
Cinematic Chat: Black Widow and feminism
By Elsa Ying (’23) | October 11, 2021 Black Widow (2021) is only the second female-led movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after Captain Marvel’s release in 2019. Despite the fact that its heroine, Natasha Romanoff, was established as early as the second movie of the twenty-four film franchise, it wasn’t until over a decade…
Humans of Saint Francis: Lily Arangio
by Arhana Aatresh (’23), Alexander Chang (’23), Will Li (’23), Elsa Ying (’23), Da Hee Yang (’23), Kasper Halevy (’24), and Anika Bastin (’23) | October 11, 2021 Many teenagers perceive politics as either a stream of intangible Instagram stories or an abstract mess reserved for adults. However, Lily Arangio (’23) actively combats this perception…
Anamantangi Polynesian Voices hosts Youth Leadership Summit
by Elsa Ying (’23) | October 11, 2021 On September 25, Saint Francis educators and students attended the Youth Leadership Summit in East Palo Alto, hosted by the local community group Anamantangi Polynesian Voices. This event served as a special occasion for Polynesian students, staff, and families within the broader community and to provide a…
Saint Francis’s Back-to-School Rally sparks school spirit
by Taylor Luna (’25), Elsa Ying (’23), and Rohit Khorana (’24) | October 11, 2021 On September 24, Saint Francis held the first rally of the year on the football field, as COVID-19 restrictions prevented indoor gatherings. This was a new experience for everyone, from underclassmen who had never attended a rally before to upperclassmen…
Entering the fold: Netflix’s successful adaptation of “Shadow and Bone”
By Elsa Ying (’23) | May 10, 2021 Within the past decades, the young adult genre has grown exponentially to establish itself as one of the biggest markets for books. With an average of thirty thousand books published each year, mostly centering teen stories, a few series and their authors have risen to be considered…
Mourning the loss of morning collabs: ways to move forward
by Elsa Ying (’23)| March 29, 2021 On February 18th, after months of planning and coordination, the Saint Francis student body returned to campus for a full day of instruction. While students and faculty alike rejoiced at this semblance of normality, an unfortunate casualty in these new developments was the loss of morning collaborations. Collaboration,…
The state of the stock market: an explanation from the Stock Market Club
by Elsa Ying (’23) | March 1, 2021 On Wednesday, January 17, the New York Stock Market was thrown into utter disarray. The impact of the unexpected events were felt by everyone, from major Wall Street hedge funds to our own Stock Market Club at Saint Francis. The Stock Market Club was founded by Ms.…
Perplexity, paranoia, and prejudice: social issues caused by the coronavirus outbreak
by Elsa Ying | April 6, 2020 In the past few months, the recent news of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has incited many instances of racism around the world. Ever since the first outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, the capital of the Chinese province of Hubei, people began to associate…
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