Clueless

So much of historical facts were injected to our brains on last lecture. They were mostly about the tragedy of May 13 1969. 

To be frank, I could not really concentrate on it. And I totally have no idea about the political issues. They are too complicated for me to understand. I even worry for the next election which will be my first time voting to change the future. Maybe I should just figure it out what’s going on in the future but not now.

Then there was this question, if I’m not mistaken, “If you are not proud of your country, do you still love your country?”.

Hmm… Good question for my brain to think further. 

Recently there are cases like a girl was not allowed to enter the hospital because she wore short pants and a man was not allowed to get back his lost baggage at the airport because he wore short pants too but the main point is both of them are Chinese. 

I believe it is like a joke when people from another country hear about this news. Actually there are still many more cases that make other countries laugh at us. However, though there are things that make us feel embarrass and awkward, there are still things that we feel proud of. From the aspect of tourism and foods, these are really the things that I proud of. 

Well, for me, I may be criticize on the system of Malaysia, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t love my country.

So, to see Malaysia as a whole, I love my country.

Then, we were asked to compose the lyrics for Malaysia. So with the creativity of my friends and I, this is it:

*Rap it out instead of singing it out. Haha~

Malaysia, I love my country,

Why are you so pretty?

Our government, very creative,

We have LRT, MRT, BRT and GST yo!

Malaysia,

Everything so yummy,

So yummy until policeman got tummy,

It makes you thirsty want to drink kopi.

We can be creative but not too crazy,

Otherwise you will end up eating curry.

I love my country,

Because it’s too pretty.

Malaysia, that is my country yo!

Another Country

Casts of Another Country

As most of my friends do, this was my first time went for a theatrical performance.

Another Country is divided into 2 parts, the first part is Sayang Singapura performed by the Malaysian actors while the 2^nd part is Tikam-Tikam: Malaysia @ Random 2 performed by Singaporean casts. Before further writing, I heard about Tikam-Tikam from my parents. It is a childhood game of their generation. It’s like you pay and choose a sticker or whatever to see what kind of prize you get. So as for the 2^nd part, audience were required to choose the sticky notes on a board to set the sequence of the stories.

I know no about theatrical performance. The moment I entered the theatre, I was impressed by the setting on the stage. With no props placing here and there, with light spotting on the actors who spoke. This leads audience to focus on the story itself. At first, I thought the actors were using mic but no! Their voice was so well projected to the extent that it can be heard at the back of the theatre, or even every corner in the theatre. Their lungs are superb! And I actually love how they managed their facial expressions and body movements to convey the feelings and emotions. Besides, it is interesting that they acted as if there were props. Like the 2 mothers in the hdb playground, the mothers threw the tissue paper as if there really is a dustbin there! Also in Ang Tau Mui, the actress acted as if she was eating the pork. So yummy that I felt kind of hungry at that moment. Haha.

However, there are always bads behind the goods. Unexpectedly, this play consists of many stories instead of having one narrative. This was how it made me feel I’m hanging that there were no endings and it jumped to the next stories without any clues and I was like “Huh what? This story end already ah?”. But overall, this was really a great performance.

When recalling the plays that I’ve watched, I doubted my memory. I can barely remember the scenes until we discussed them on the lecture. Maybe I’m not familiar with the history or story or politic or whatsoever of Singapore, so actually quite many stories I do not understand. But one of the stories that I remember the most was the Mama looking For The Cat. As the title mentioned, the Indian lady was looking for her cat and she met an old man who speaks Hokkien. Though they are using different language to communicate and with their body language and gesture, they actually know what each other trying to tell. Despite of different skin colour and language, they were united by the same topic. We often feel uncomfortable or even refuse to communicate with others when we do not speak common language. In fact, we actually can talk to each other using body language and gestures or even without any language. It’s just the matter that we do not step forward to speak.

Another story that I feel so familiar was Forever Singlish in the Singapore part, I don’t remember exactly but there was a line like “We say sorry for 3 times because we feel really sorry”. This often happens on me when I did something wrong especially when I accidentally step on other people shoes LOL. I guess most of the Malaysian did so too? Maybe because of the neighbourhood, we are actually influencing each other in many aspects.

To conclude, this is really a nice experience exposing to the performing art. Acting live is not an easy task. It’s even harder when they have to multi-task on the stage meanwhile remember their lines. Salute to all the performers!! *applause* 

First Post For the First Week

Malaysian Media and Culture, as the name suggests, it doesn’t sound attractive. But after attending the first lecture, Dr Carmen made the lesson fun and it seems interesting. Hopefully the following lessons are fun too. So for the first lesson, this is the task:

Do you identify as a Malaysian? Why? Does it matter?

For the former question, of course yes! And why? I never think of this question before and nobody asks me before. First of all, I think the very solid reason for this question is because I was born in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia and I own Malaysia identity card. I live in Malaysia since I was born. I was taught about Malaysia history, geography of Malaysia, to sing Negaraku, to draw Malaysia flag and etc about Malaysia since I was in kindergarten.

There was a moment which I remember the most and I truly proud to be a Malaysian. That was when Datuk Lee Chong Wei represents Malaysia for badminton match. The mamak was so crowded and the people regardless of race watched the match together for the only reason. Deep from the bottom of my heart I was so touched that Malaysians are so united when it comes to this aspect.

As what Jun mentioned on her blog, I’m qualified to vote for the next election and this can affect the future of Malaysia. So it really matters whether I am a Malaysian or not. I’m not sure is it proper to critic Malaysia’s system on this post but whatever, no doubt that Malaysia really has a very large room of improvement to achieve Wawasan 2020. As a Malaysian, I hope that at least I can contribute a little bit for a better Malaysia.

We hope for better future!!

By the way, as I scroll through Facebook, I saw the photo above. Yeah that’s true, we should not differentiated by our races. We all as Malaysian should get fair treatment. That’s what 1 Malaysia means right? But I don’t think we are practising it.

To end the first post, writing down our own opinions and thoughts is not easy for me as most of the time I have difficulty expressing myself either by speaking or in words. I really hate it but I will try to express my opinions in the way that everyone understands. Haha~