What if a fifteen-year-old school had to prepare an application of its own?

For its 15th anniversary, Shuying Academy invited Mother Tongue Media to create a film series reflecting on the school, its students, and what it means to grow up.

Instead of looking back through milestones, we turned to a ritual familiar to nearly every Shuying student: the college application.

We revisited three alumni and the personal statements they wrote as teenagers, asking them to look again at the stories they once told about themselves — and at the people they thought they needed to become.

Across three films, those old applications opened into something larger: a conversation about ambition, expectation, ordinary life, and the slow work of recognizing yourself.

Three applicants. Three stories.

EP01: 河流会去哪里 Where Will the River Go?
A river that once seemed to move too slowly — and the realization that it had been moving all along.

EP02: 寻常亦有声 The Ordinary Has a Voice
On waiting for a life interesting enough to write about, and learning to hear what was already there.

EP03: 不是白天鹅，也不是黑天鹅 Neither White Swan nor Black Swan
A story about expectation, rebellion, and finding a self beyond both.

From New York to Shanghai

Developed by Mother Tongue Media in New York and produced on the ground in Shanghai, Applicant: Shuying brought together three directors and a local production team under one shared creative language.

MTM led the project from concept development through production and post-production, building the series across borders while preserving the distinct voice of each filmmaker and subject.