StoryBot

In last Tuesday's class, we were given the question if " If you are not proud of your parents, will you still love them? ". This is a very hard to answer question for me, because I come from a traditional / typical Chinese family. In a traditional Chinese household, we rarely talks about touchy feely things like "love", instead we like to debate about the economies, sports, politics, religions, in fact we will discuss just about anything but love. (I could be generalizing here, but sila beruang dengan saya, thank you.) To answer the question, my answer would be yes, because family is something you don't get to choose, without them, I would not exist, and this blog would have to write itself. However, if you can read between the line, this question really has nothing to do with family at all, it has everything to do with something on a much larger scale, a country. A country is a strange concept, it is mankind's feeble attempt to lay claim on the land t...

It was the year of the Wawasan, the street of Kuala Lumpur was filled with people from all walks of life, across a wide variety of ethnic origin. Shops are mostly owned by the Bangladeshi-Malaysian, Nepalese-Malaysian and Burmese-Malaysian. No matter where you look, the city is filled with signboards and election posters written in Sanskrit-ish looking words unintelligible to us, the native of the land. These relatively new citizens of the country are not shy about using their mother tongue at all, in fact, they are so proud of it that they set up independent vernacular schools across the country and taught curriculum brought in from their native country, all in the name of protecting their language, traditions and values. As a result, none of their children can speak our language, forming a huge communication barrier in the society. The once industrious native Malaysian, pampered and spoiled by their parents hard earned wealth, bogged down by petty political and religious issue...

*Please note that this post will be full of spoiler, so if you intend to experience this game for yourself, this is where you should stop reading and go play the game for yourself, or at least watch the playthrough on Youtube .* On last week's post, I promise to write about the story of The Last of Us and how it catharsis )or the lack of it serves to enhance the overall experience for the player. So, without further ado... Prologue Joel having fun with Sarah The game starts in 2013, during the night of the outbreak. It was Joel's birthday and his daughter, Sarah had bought him a watch. Little did he know, this watch will ended up saving his life later that night. During the outbreak, in an attempt to escape the pursuing runner , Joel carries Sarah and they ran into a soldier. After consulting his superior, the soldier shot at Joel and Sarah. The watch given to Joel by Sarah earlier deflect the bullet, but Sarah was not so lucky, she was shot in stomach, after str...

This Tuesday in the Malaysian Media and Culture class, I have learned a new term - catharsis. It is a term coined by Greek philosopher, Aristotle to signify the feeling of relieve felt by the audience members when they finish watching a play or more generally after consuming an entertainment product. Of course, being an entertainment product, relieving stress and providing a place of escape for the audience is what it was supposed to do, right? Dr. Carmen especially pointed out about how video games can be an excellent provider of catharsis. Its interactive form gives the player a sense of control and achievement unparalleled in any other media (as well as in real life), which explains why games can be so addicting at times. But in the coming posts, we are going to examine a counter example. A video game released by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2013, from developer Naughty Dog, the creative mind behind Crash Bandicoot, Jax & Daxter and the Uncharted series. *Please n...

Top (Left to Right): Lim Yu-Beng, Siti Khalijah Zainal, Ghafir Akbar, Anne James, Gani Karim Bottom (Left to Right): Sharifah Amani, Iedil Putra, Sharda Harrison, Alfred Loh, Janice Koh Another Country is a play curated by Leow Puay Tin and Alfian Sa'at , it is directed by Malaysia's Jo Kukathas and Singapore's Ivan Heng . It tells the history of Malaysia and Singapore from the late 19th century until recent years via a collection of short stories, poems, pantuns, interviews and songs. Now before I begin the review, I felt obligated to inform you that, when it comes to things like stage performances, being the newbie that I am, I know as much as Jon Snow.  The fact is, those names I listed above means nothing to me and I don't even know where DPAC is until a few days ago. Yes, I am not just fish out of water, I am fish in a desert somewhere, dying a slow and painful death. I guess the only good thing out of this is that I can look at things with a fresh pe...

Do you identify as a Malaysian?   This question stumped me. Obviously, I am a Malaysian, born in Kuala Lumpur, this nation’s capital. But country of birth aside, what does it even mean to be a Malaysian? What are the criteria here? How do we judge the Malaysian-ness in us all?   I feel like this is a rarely explored subject, in fact I don’t even know how to tackle this question. But let’s try it anyway. Firstly, a little introduction about myself, I am a Malaysian Chinese, of Hakka (on father’s side) and Cantonese (on mother’s side) origin. Let’s examine the culture that I have adopted. Language I am fluent in four languages – Malay, English, Cantonese and Mandarin.  Cuisine My love for food knows no ethnic boundaries, be it Malay, Chinese, Indian or Western cuisine, I love it all (But if I really had to pick one, it would be Nasi Lemak with Rendang Ayam).   Do. Not. Look. When. You're. Hungry. Belief I co...