A normal man tells his living theory

(From left to right: the cameragirl-Cathlyn, the interviewee-Huang Qian Tian, the interviewer- Ray Ng)

"A man who brought me through emotional tour."

The person that I interviewed this time, he is a boss of hawker in Cheras, Tmn Connaught. He is the one who sell his foods near UCSI. His name is called Huang Qian Tian, the Bak Kut Teh seller.

What kind of person he is?
Basically, the process of interviewing Mr. Huang was an amazing time for me. Instead of calling him Boss, I would like to call him Mr. Huang. He is so understanding, and he accepted my broken Cantonese during the interview. He is a person who are so popular among the UCSI students. I think most of UCSI students had their lunch or dinner in his shop previously. It was kind of sad, while we talked about the shut-down of his shop in Cheras. He is quite sentimental.

How was the whole project proceeding?
From doing this final project, it was so challenging. At the beginning, the thing we should do is to brainstorm the person around KL for an interview, additionally the interviewee should be age above 40. How hard was is for a not local people searching a person such in KL.

Some more I found the people and the environment are not so friendly than where i come from. I have met culture shock in this project. Rejections seemed to be always happened to me. No one is going to concerned a person who are doing project, especially students. And the majority here, Chinese, are spoken Cantonese instead of Mandarin. I was having a give-up mind at the beginning. But, i told myself i should go on no matter how.

Luckily, i found the interviewee, and he is glad for me to interview him and his emotional place-- his shop.

The problems were not just stopped being like this. The first day i went for documenting, they were removing all the stuff. It is because the shop was going to shut down. And I took the opportunity to take whatever I can shoot. At night, i just found that the video could not work properly!!! And the sound was not recorded. Oh my goodness, that time was busy with my other stuff too.

So, i quickly make another appointment to the boss. But the emotional place, his shop, was shut down. I forced to interview him in the new shop. But everything was ok, i thought. The issue were not stopped appearing out. A new issue appeared the two video that could not linked together due to the format size are different. While the interview is 4:3 format, the emotional tour video is 16:9. Oh goodness, i have to edit the video separately.

Overall, my video has been postponed due to all the problems that i have encountered. I am so sorry for the delay.

What I have learnt from this person and this subject matter?
And also, he is a bit activism. In nowadays, it is hardly to see people like him. His car boot sticked the DAP staff Zhao MingFu who were committed some issue in politic. He mentioned to me about the cases. But it could not be recorded down due to the video would be publish. He showed his personal view among this case. He does often does charity. From his point of view, I learnt a Chinese Idiom from his action "Enough brings happiness". For those who are satisfactory, who live longer and happier. Don't you think so, Sharaad?

His philosophy is so different from people. While everyone of us is being commercialism, making money for own fortune, he decided to do good towards people and contribute for the society. If most of the Malaysians are being like this, we should be now living in a peaceful country.

Video 1

Video 2

Persepolis ペルセポリス

"A girl has just been killed right next to me," the friend said. It had all happened quickly. A young woman, chatting on her mobile phone, had been shot in the chest. She faded before a doctor, who was on the scene, could do anything to help. – IranianToday.com

The conversation showed the incident which had happened one month ago. Every one of us had the chance to know about this case which even though happened far from Malaysia.

This animation making me think of an incident happened in Malaysia recently. Maybe some of us know about the case of Zhao MingFu in Malaysia. He is a DAP party. And he got treated badly while he got into custody. End up a inspired young adult was dead in a ridiculous reason during his custody. Lots of things we know and kept it secretly such as Malaysian politic issue. Many of us know what happen, but we could not do anything besides demonstrate.

People are the foundation of the country, don't you think so? But there were happened most of the times, people (resident of the country) are treated badly or exploited in term of freedom expression. From the case of Zhao MingFu in Malaysia to the case of Neda in Iran, the conclusion is they are both patriotic people in each country. But, most of the time, they will not end up with a good ending. And I can guarantee you this is not a new thing.

I was always thinking. We are supposed to be in a very beautiful and safe country if those incidents are in minor. You can see how Malaysia the country is? We live in no severe human war; we live in no natural disasters too. You may complain about the damned weather and the slow-paced working process to get an visa (this is what I encountered right now, hehe :-) Everything will be fine.

Learn to think critically. It is the objective of this Alternative Voices. Sometimes, we need to see alternatively and think alternatively. I believed every issue has 2 sides. Not only looking into the mainstream ideas, but also we have to study and understand the alternatives.

About Malaysia by Liew Kung Yu, Anthony Milner, and Lee Kam Hing

Liew Kung Yu,
Indeed, the exhibition gave a very impactful towards a number of Malaysians. Cadangan- cadangan Untuk Negaraku was titled as a artswork. Being a artistic people, still remember a words from a art magazine which stated that arts is to provoke the desired of human-being. Arts work especially is not so easy to be appreciated by people, so do I. But, I could see the vision through his photos collage by Liew Kung Yu. The four large-scale photo collages of various public shows his own artistic point of view, national achievements and extravagant monuments. Unity of Malaysia, he tries to show. And the development since last time.

Lee Kam Hing,
For the nation building and of contemporary, first four prime ministers could be studied as a distinct phrase. Our first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, he was to consolidate together an inter-ethnic coalition and struggle independence for the country. Being the first Prime Minister, the task was hassle. A brand new country need to be ruled, administered, build unity through a national language and common education. But unity among different races still remained fragile relationship. Therefore, May 13 was happened after Malaysia had independent after years. After a few ministers had administered Malaysia, they also introduced the New Economic Policy, enhanced the social cohesion, and lots of development.
According to Lee Kam Hing, report on unity and integration showed that the youth see themselves as Malaysians and there is greater consciousness and sensitivity to the aspiration of the various communities. I agreed to this so. Comparing to others mono-racial country, multiracial country has the existence of the unity and integration problems. Majority of the Malaysians is not proud to be Malaysians. I am so embarrassed that I am one of them. As being told that, Malaysia actually has no culture. Comparing with other country such as Japan, Europe, our culture obviously is gradually abolished. I also got to know from my Indian friends that they seldom practice their own mother tongues, and most of the Indians’ dialect has gradually extincted, other races encountered as well.

Anthony Milner,
I was so impressed by his article, even though it is difficult for understanding. Being a Caucasian, he got passionately interested into Asian study. And his research about our Malaysia was so deeper than normal Malaysian knows. The article is covered the Malaysia history and wars. Besides discussing the British role in Malaysia in-depth, the article is also covered the building ethnic understanding.

The Big Durian

This documentary was commented about the case on the night of 18 October 1987, a soldier ran amok with an M16 in the area of Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur. Due to the thorny circumstances of the time and place, his amok triggered a citywide panic and rumors of racial riots. Why did he do it? Why were Malaysians so jittery at the time? And what happened next? "The Big Durian" speaks to 23 Malaysians (some real, some fictional) to find out. (2003, amirmu)

I have been watched for several times in my university life. It must be a significant incident happened in Kuala Lumpur and made an impact to the residents around Chow Kit road. As a baby at that time, I know nothing about this case. After watching the documentary, the first thought came into my mind was Malaysia always being like that—lack of freedom expression and without human right. Not only so, normal people is always be suppressed by those people who has authority. I wonder how come people could live under a controlling country.

Q1: What scene in “The Big Durian” made an impression on you, and why?

The scene in "The Big Durian" that made an impression on me was the scene when a pictures montage was made during the interview with the salesgirl. Those pictures were taken at that time and showed us the silence and loneliness what Chow Kit road was. The director was able to bring up the atmosphere that the case was for the audiences throughout the whole documentary.

Q2: What was rumored to be Private Adam’s grouse (pain)/ reason which lead to him running amuck (amok)?

From the documentary we know that Private Adam’s brother was murdered by the Sultan of Johor in the golf club. Private Adam could not able to justice his own brother in the court in the term that the privileges of Sultan covered up and distorted the cases. After that, Private Adam’s grouse was tremendously raised for his brother due to his helplessness towards his brother. As a result of that, he went amuck by taking a riffle and berserked in Chow Kit road to relieve his own feeling of expression.

Q3: A character from Sabah ends her narratives by noting the look on Private Adam’s face. What was it that she saw and now does it contrast with her feelings?

The character from Sabah ends her narratives by noting that Private Adam was actually a kind of freedom expression. It contrasts with her feelings that appeared in her own life. She felt being controlled and struggling in this sophisticated world which desired for fortune, power and fame.

Q4: From what historical vantage (perspective) point is the director viewing the events of 1987? What is the “present” of the documentary and what is its mood?

The historical vantage point that the director views the events of 1987 was surrounded by political issue and the freedom expression. It happened in the director’s youth time. The director would like to find out the truth, so that the director produced this documentary in the after years 2003. The good point for this documentary is the director was able to use kind of relaxing and jovial mood to present the stressed and serious incident and I personally felt that it worked.

As one of our classmate said, it actually shows the imbalance and hierarchy position between the normal resident and the people with authority. It mocks about the authority should do something about it. It needs to be concerned otherwise the people will be abolished from different kind of underground rule and regulations.