#LOVEWINS

Thanks to the internet, we can access to the information in another country, or the other side of the world.

I believed that most of us know what is #LoveWins is all about. Maybe not all, but roughly an idea about it.

Yes. It's about the SCOTUS or the Supreme Court of the United States ruling to legalize same-sex marriage on  26 June 2015 nationwide. It means that United States of America is dipping their full body in rainbow paints. Same-sex marriages will be known as 'marriage', just like heterosexuals marriages in all states. This is definitely a big, giant foot step towards equality, for the people there.

Some may think that, what is this all about for me when I'm here in Malaysia.

Barack Obama says, "When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free ". That makes me think of what is free in our country when equality is not even there, or not even close to what the Americans have. 

Now let's not talk about the nation, the country, and back to the arts in Malaysia. This makes me think of when I learned in my film studies class, about the queer films in Malaysia. When we got to watch one of Malaysia's very own queer film, Anu Dalam Botol or ....Dalam Botol. 

*Anu means penis in Malay

Overall it depicts gays, transgender and heterosexuality on a same Malay man in the film, and the man eventually fails to please everyone even himself in the end and live a life full of regrets. In 2010, the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia announced it would only allow depiction of homosexual characters as long as the characters "repent" or die. So did the film Dalam Botol passed the censorship and aired in Malaysia.

It is something to be proud of, since it is the first queer film in Malaysia that hits the box office, but I find it a bit ridiculous and sad about the film censorship in Malaysia. Films, that are part of the art movement in Malaysia is being restricted in a way, that some of the content is not so true and some of the process are not so easy at all. Maybe it is one of the reasons that makes people to be creative, like what I learned in the class.

I think it is not hard to work with restrictions, but rather sad when films are one of the escapes that people chase after for, but it cannot voice out for the people, to the people. Of course that is just what I think.



Here's a short film about the minorities become the majorities, and the other way round. Do you still feel the same about the 'minorities' ? or you want both to have equal rights now?

ANOTHER POST

Another Country , more like Another Post.

It seems like many people talked about Another Country in their blogs this week, but I wanted to share something a bit different, which is my experience on performing arts in Malaysia.


Hands Percussion


This is the first professional performing arts team that I know since secondary school. Before I go into why I know about them, and why I want to share with all of you about them, I'll give a short introduction about them first.


Hands Percussion or known as 手集团 joined the Malaysia performing arts scene in 1997. The way they use different drums and South-East Asia musical instruments in their contemporary theatrical drumming performance is one of the reasons that made them so special. One of the founder, Bernard Goh, is now also the Artist Director of Hands Percussion, is the first batch of student of Mr. Tan Hooi Song (1947-2008), which is the founder of 24 Festive Drumming. He founded Hands Percussion with Eric Ch'ng, and started to travel with Hands internationally and participated in many arts festivals and performing in more than 16 countries. They have full time performers and also part time performers. Every year, they held auditions and provide classes about drumming and performing to people that are interested in what Hands are doing.


Now at this point, it leads to why I know about them. It is because of 24 Festive Drumming.


I joined 24 Festive Drum or known as 廿四节令鼓 in the Form 1 and spent my whole secondary school life crazy about it. Crazy as in sacrificing at least 8am-12am on weekends and at most 8am-8pm on school holidays or before concert. To the point that parents think we are really mad about drumming. I mean who would not think that we're mad because of the long hours under the sun, sweating, bleeding, having bruises and sore body every time after training. This is the physical ones, not until we have arguments, with teammates, with parents, with school authorities, with neighbors that will threaten us with the parang knife every time we're having training at night until 9.30pm.


There are more and more stories and feelings that we have experienced as a team. A team without a coach, a team that will fight together till the end just because all we want is to play drums. I want to share with all of you, because I am proud of it and I feel that I am very lucky that I am able to get to know about Hands Percussion through drumming. It is more than a group of people playing this musical instrument together. It is about 24 drummers move in the same motion, playing the same rhythm at the same speed, immerse yourself in the storyline and character when performing. It is about 24 become 1.


Okay it seems like I dragged to far from what I planned to say about performing arts, but I just really wanted to share about Hands Percussion with all of you. Back to my main point, that is I've watched a few Hands Percussion's concert in KLPAC including,




Ri Yue Chu Yin

• Hands first gamelan concert with The Eight Mallets Percussion from Beijing. 

Souls in Love

• Consists of few pieces about different kind of love, presented in acting, singing, music and of course drumming. 

Knocking....

• A very memorable performance, Boyz Chew with a pile of name cards, and how he immersed into his character. 

Kaleidoscope II

• Hands drumming festival that includes many percussion groups from other countries and also Malaysia's very own BatteryHeadz Percussion 

Tchaikovsky on Gamelan

• Using mainly gamelan to present Tchaikovsky works. Impressive. 

These are just some of the pieces by Hands Percussion, Google about them and watch their Youtube videos and tell me what you think about them. Maybe we can save money and watch them perform live next time.


Me and my never closing conclusion is coming. I wanted to encourage many people to look into new things and give it a try when we can afford the tickets, not the very front rows one, but a clear view from your seat is more than enough. Just like buying cinema tickets, but this is a 3D performance, it's live, it gives you chills, on the spot. Your sensory system reacts before anything else. Try it again. Or think about it again if Another Country is your first experience. You never get that from big screen. You get that when you hear real voices, when you meet the eyes of the performers in this kind of shows. Nevertheless, after Another Country, I think this is a very good experience that I enjoyed very much because for me, it is totally something I didn't expect and didn't know anything about it, unlike performance from Hands Percussion, I can get a rough idea for some of their performances.


Below is of one their promo video about The Next.

YES IT MATTERS TO ME

Question: 

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

Here comes the first blog post that proves students will do anything to get marks or whatever to graduate. Ehem.. Well to answer the big Q. Yes, I, Amanda Ting Tse Hui do identify myself as a Malaysian. At least my birth certificate, my parents, my identity card, my license, my home address and probably my marriage certificate and death certificate in the future say so. Maybe it's too soon to say that these identification proved that I am a Malaysian, but there's also a low possibility that I'm not born here.. or I'm a Malaysian now because my parents done something illegal to bring me here. Maybe, just maybe. However, at least I learned myself as a Malaysian since I was born, since I was taught in kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, and now UTAR questions me, do I identify myself as a Malaysia. Of course I do.

Why? because all of the identification state so, and where I'm living now said so. However, I do believe that not only the things that we're born of, identify us, it should, and it is a combination of that and what we experience and learn throughout our life in Malaysia, or outside Malaysia identify us. For example, the things that we're born of, can be determined by the identification I just list above. For the experiences and lessons in our life, it is the culture here, the culture that we pick up since birth, the food we eat, the places we visited in Malaysia, the people we meet, and of course the language we speak and listen. It's an extraordinary experience, because you can never understand a Malaysian like a Malaysian do. I think this really explained the why question above.

Now does it matter even though I identify myself as a Malaysian. Ask yourself then, does it matter after you read what I wrote above? Does it changes what you think or who I already am? 

Yes it does, because you spend time to read it and I am a Malaysian, you can ask me anything that I know but not about the government, I know no shit about them. *runs away