The thoughts and lifestyle of Japanese, especially of the new generation stand head and shoulders above all the others. In contrast they have been renowned for their courtesy and manners in all matters contrasting with the stereotype that modern people should be arrogant. Thus, the best practice of this community has become their unique culture until now.
Thailand is a Buddhist country but does allow prostitution in their common business. These angel and demon extremes collectively shape the identity of Thailand, allowing the local citizens to live in a unique culture.
As we have been brought up in Malaysia, what culture does you proud? Why is our culture tarnishing compared to that of Japan, Thailand and all that in your mind? We don't have our own identity, Do we?
Feel free to leave your opinions..
I'm proud to be human, but never proud to be a malaysian. as an individual, we will have our identity, but when we were given an identity as a malaysian, we are only a weak nation.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteYi Hua, You have your points. However, I'm proud to be a malaysian as we are so invaluable on the international labour markets. We are endowed with various languages benefited from Malaysian Education, this really does me proud. We lost our culture? No, we do have ours but the definition of Malaysian culture is rather vague. In arts as in GD, illustration etc, we always use an orthodox concept of three races on a poster. This is an antavistic approach perhaps. Our strength lies in our unique language developed from the idea of Rojak. That is, a sentence may contain several languages to convey an idea. This may be a negative side being so rojak in our conversations, but this culture has been ingrained in Malaysia since decades ago..
Alex
Dear Eva & Alex,
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think Malaysia really has its own unique culture, just that we do not realize its existence. For example, Malaysians are usually armed with 3 languages or more. Speaking of Malaysian Chinese, we barely face language problems in other countries. It is sufficient to let us communicate with the foreigners using some simple sentences, although we do not master them. My cousin was jealous of me being able to speak various tongues because he has only one language in hand.
Besides, 'mamak' is an exclusive culture in our country. No one could find thriving eateries elsewhere at night, but we definitely can do it in Malaysia.
"Low Sang" during CNY is also pioneered by Malaysians. This unique culture has been adorable as even HK wants to imitate our style.
A special note to Alex, it sounds better if we use "ice kacang' instead of 'rojak'. Ice kacang is colorful, full of delicious ingredients in it, tasty etc, all of which can best describe our multicultural society who can live in peace. Most importantly, the ice kacang is inexpensive. Thus, cheap stuff does not mean 'value-less', it all depends on how we value it..
I admit that i'm a bit bias on this topic, but from what i can see from the current social and political issues, i prefer to be pessimistic rather than optimistic. no offend! only my feeling!
ReplyDelete