Lecture 9

This week is week 9, which is the final week that we were having Dr Carmen’s last class on performing arts. It makes me realise that time does fly. She showed us different artworks by different local artists. And I like this artwork of Ibrahim Hussein—My father and the Astronaut.

My father and the Astronaut

 

 

When I first saw the artwork, I just think that it is a very special and interesting artwork. The old man and the astronaut represent the old generation and future respectively. The old man dresses up in a traditional way while the astronaut is not. The astronaut is not only representing the technology but it is also a risky job. I think the artist wanted to show us being an artist was not a stable career (in Malaysia) that would earn a lot of money during that time (he insisted in what he wanted to do) but he did not want to stay in the kampung like his father. It contains the moral value which is never forget one’s root no matter how the technology has improved or even you are far away from your hometown (like the astronaut goes to the outer space). The people who keep their past in mind will be more humble because they are willing to accept their background even they comes from the countryside or poor family. The astronaut is just like Ibrahim Hussein who was a humble and friendly millionaire (according to Dr Carmen) even though he was a very successful artist.

 

Empty birdcage after the release of bird at 2.46pm on Monday 10th June 1974

 

 

I think the artwork, Empty birdcage after the release of bird at 2.46pm on Monday 10th June 1974, has two ways to interpret. Firstly, it shows the emptiness and loneliness since the two birdcages have no bird in them and there is nothing in the body. Or, the birds are free from the birdcages (no limitation). It is also the inner feeling of the empty body (free from the limitation). People can express their thought without keeping it inside the bodies.

P.s Thanks to Dr Carmen, I have learnt to see the beauty of the artworks and understand the artworks : )


 

Lecture 6

During the lecture class, Dr. Carmen brought us a guest speaker called Tan Zi Hao, he showed us his art pieces. By seeing his artwork, I realized that although most of the art pieces look ordinary but actually there are deep meaning contain in them.

I like the art piece called Endless Possibilities. He used the concept of "Satu Malaysia" and made it into rubber magnets from zero to nine. Each of the number has its own meaning. People can arrange the number as they want and it turns out to be other meaning. It shows we don't only have Satu Malaysia but Dua or Tiga Malaysia and so on. In the meantime, it means there are many possibilities in Malaysia, Malaysia may turns out to be a developed country soon. There are spaces for Malaysia to improve since Malaysia is still considered as a developing country. But first, the way of thinking of citizens has to change; no more racism and prejudices in order to make Malaysia a real "Satu Malaysia".

It was interesting when he talked about a performance art pieces titled Attempting Conflict : When I look at you. You look at them. But they see me. Instead of you. This art piece really impressed me a lot since I do not dare to do so. He dares to think big and differently and even make the ideas come true. By the way, what a kind lecturer he has, because the lecturer might lose patience and push him away since he blocks the eye contact between other students and him.

In the end of the class, he showed us a seashell and talked about the concept of "balance itself through imbalance". I think it is similar with the reality in our society. The powerful individuals maintain their power by stepping on the powerless individuals in order to show the society that they are more capable than others. If there are only powerful people in the society , then nothing can prove their abilities. Lastly, I admire his creativity as well as passion in doing art pieces without afraid of the police.

Malaysia art work

The history of dance is very spiritual. Meanwhile, dance can “tell” the story or send message through expression and movement within a space. It is not necessarily talk about the urban dance like hip hop or ballet. Like the short video Dr Carmen showed us during the lecture class.

I had no idea what are the actors doing initially. The only thing I know is they are classifying among themselves according to races. After listening to Dr Carmen explanation, I just realized the “Melayu” who are standing refers to highest level in community, “Cina” who are sitting refers to middle level while Indian who are lying on the floor is the lowest level since their population is lesser than the other two races. The interesting part is they do not know how to classify “Chilayu” whose parents are Chinese and Malay ethnics, and he is classified to be a “Melayu” in the end.

Also, I have learnt a new vocabulary, xenophobia which means intense or irrational dislike or fear of people who are not the same race as you. It is nothing to do with racism and discrimination. Just that, they like to be with their own ethnic group compared to other ethnics.

 

What is Malaysia art work?

To me, Malaysia art work is the art work created by Malaysian that contains the values which are in Malaysia based.

What significant event do you think should feature in Malaysia art work?

In my opinion, the events that involve all Malaysian or any meaningful events that did by Malaysian should feature in Malaysia art work. These somehow show the identity of Malaysia.

 Is it the responsibility of a Malaysian artist to create a Malaysia art work?

It is important to create Malaysia art work for the sake of not letting Malaysia art work to disappear in the future. However, I think that it is not a must that Malaysian artists have to create a Malaysia art work because creativity has no boundaries and there is no rule and limitation for that.

Third lecture...

Nowadays, the foreigners can be seen everywhere. Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia is now occupied by a large number of foreigners who are from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indonesia, and it is more than the Malaysian population. Hence, the following questions were asked during the lecture class:

1. What if the foreigners ask for the rights for voting Malaysia government?

A number of classmates stated that they will feel neglected and upset over the fact that we are being replaced by the foreigners. It is normal to have those feelings because we have been living here since the day we were born. Then I realised this is the situation that the Malay ethnics and bumiputera faced in the past before Malaya independent. Today, Chinese and Indians are part of Malaysia. So, I am wondering whether the foreigners who are staying here for a long period of time will have the same opportunity to become Malaysian. Who knows? Just like our ancestors, who refuged from China to Malaysia and tried to earn money here to send money back to their families who were still in China. But later, they did not want to give up things that they had in Malaya and asked for their rights here.
 

2. What if Malaysia together with Singapore is taken over by our neighbour country, Thailand?

To be honest, when I first heard about this question, I did not feel sad or angry. I don’t really care about that, because in my heart, Malaysia is always Malaysia, just that our leader is changed. Even though most of us don’t feel proud for Malaysia but we still love our country. As Dr Carmen said, we love our parents and it is none of the business of being proud of them or not.

Besides, I believe that majority of us have patriotism deep inside our heart. Although we may not think our country is the best but at least we have the passion towards our country because Malaysia is our pride. We care about Malaysia. The best example is we gave support to Datuk Lee Chong Wei when he was involved in the matches and we cheered for him when he took home the victory.

Furthermore, I have learnt that people who are from different countries always try to differentiate themselves from others in term of language, costume and products they buy that made by their own country to show nationalism. Like Dr. Carmen said, if you are going to be the representative of Malaysia, you should put on Malay traditional costumes like baju kurung to show people that you are a Malaysian.
 

-End-

Another Country

It was my very first time to watch this kind of stage performance. I was very excited when Dr. Carmen and Miss E said that we would be watching “Another Country” as our tutorial. It was also my very first time there at Damansara Performing Art Centre, it is indeed a beautifully-designed building.

At first, I thought "Another Country" would be a single narrative stage performance but surprisingly, the performance was about Singapore and Malaysia which were separated into two parts, namely Sayang Singapura and Tikam-tikam: Malaysia. The interesting part was the Malaysian actors would be acting in Singapore scenario while the Singaporean actors would be acting in Malaysia scenario.

There were three scenes impressed me somehow. Firstly, in “Sayang Singapura” , I like “The English Language Teacher’s Secret” scene which was written by Catherine Lim. It was entertaining, watching all the actors wearing school uniforms and they really acted like high school students, they were playful and busy gossiping. Moreover, I find it funny that their English language teacher acted by Anne James kept making examples by using the name of Dr. C to show that she was in love with Dr. C. This story actually reflected on most of the highly-educated Singapore women not having married because they were financially independent, which is quite common in Singapore.

Next, like most of us, I like “Mama Looking for Her Cat” scene which was written by Kuo Pao Lun. It made me realise that difference in languages does not cause a barrier to good communication among people, with body languages and gestures added on, of course. Boundary of languages does not stop us from helping each other. However, the true story behind this scene was actually to reflect that majority of the Singaporean children do not know their dialects but only English and Mandarin while the older generation could mostly speak in their mother tongue. The truth actually shocked me because what I thought was quite different from this as I mentioned above.

In “Tikam-tikam: Malaysia”, I like Leow Puay Tin’s “Ang Tau Mui”. All of us could see the satisfaction she showed on her face when she “ate” the pork. There was one of her lines impressed me, "eat pork also die, don't eat pork I also will die, of course I will choose to eat pork and die happily la". It reminded us to live happily all the time, do things we want to do and not to regret at a later stage for not doing them.

Furthermore, I was surprised about their memorising skill, they showed it perfectly in Tikam-tikam: Malaysia part as the flow of the performance was decided by the audiences. In addition, their facial expression and their powerful voice completed the whole performance. I even saw one of the actresses, Janice Koh made the sound effect herself for the other actress’s performance, and it was a good one. One thing that was out of my expectation was the decoration of the stage as there were not many props being used. But still, I did enjoy the show, hoping more to come.

Question: Do you identify yourself as a Malaysian? Why? Does it matter?

I do identify myself as a Malaysian, I mean this is undeniable. It is not only that I was born in Malaysia and also I have been living here for the past 20 years. I have all my good memories here since I was born. I own a Malaysian identity card and people that I love which are my family and my friends are all here. Even though I’m a Chinese but I am also a Malaysian.

 

As a typical Malaysian, I used to express my words with la lo leh behind the sentences. I can speak several languages, including Chinese, English and Malay but I am a master of none. Sometimes, I even mix up the languages I know altogether like other Malaysians do.

 

Moreover, I know all our prime ministers’ names but not the names of our Sultans. Next, I know how to sing our national song, Negaraku and I also know Rukun Negara. Instead of saying I love Malaysia, I think I’ll say I love Malaysian food more such as asam laksa, bah kut teh, nasi lemak, satay, kuih-muih and so on. The way of thinking and my living style are also affected by the various cultures in Malaysia. I have learnt to eat spicy food from my Malay friends as well as Indian friends and I love it.

 

 In addition, as a Malaysian, I learn to accept, respect and learn other’s culture. The variety of cultures makes Malaysia a special country and I am proud of it. By the way, there are quite a lot of holidays in Malaysia because of different ethnic groups’ celebrations and festivals, that is one of the reasons that I am glad to be Malaysian.

 

Lastly, does it matter? I think it matters because it will feel like I don’t have an identity if I don’t recognise myself as a Malaysian. Besides, it will be like I’m lying to myself if I say that I’m not a Malaysian.

 

 

Thank you for reading :)