A Place Called Home : The Melting Pot

 

Act 1 : The Melting Pot

According to Arney[1] the position of the Malay Peninsula (referring to West Malaysia as in the past) on the Straits of Malacca has an exceptional opportunity of serving the world as a cross-roads of humanity and through interaction or communication with the outside world that leads to exchange of material goods which influences the local culture until the twentieth century.

Ralph Linton (1955:213) mentioned that “the study of South East Asian culture today is like counting a time machine and going back through successive periods of European, Muslim and Indian domination to the end of the Neolithic."  We are surrounded with items, culture, language which mostly were alien to us ranging from East to West.

Now we are already in the 21st century, the third millennium[2]. Where everything now is made in China.

We took in foreign items, technology, languages, cultures, objects - we adapt to it, learn and the same time we do our very own assemblage out of these.

Like Ais Batu Campur.

ABC is a unique Malaysian delicacy known as air batu campur or ABC (literally translated as mixed ice) a specialty compose of ice filled with nuts, sweet corns, ice creams, sweetener etc. Which is served as a dessert. The ingredients comes from all over the world and formulated by Malaysians into a bowl and transformed into a dessert made in Malaysia. Its taste, smell, sweetness, looks, and usually presented in a package enjoyed by most Malaysians.

It could be served to all levels of the society (either rich or poor), the only difference is the ingredient.   

Kandungannya pelbagai, dari kacang hitam, ais krim, laicee, jagung serta elemen lain di dalam satu mangkuk. Kepelbagaiannya tidak mencacatkan sajian tersebut sebaliknya menambahkan keceriaan serta kelazatannya. Ianya boleh disuaipadankan mengikut keadaan setempat serta kemampuan pemesan ( pembeli ) seperti ianya boleh dibubuh ais krim Walls ataupun yang lebih posh seperti Baskin Robbins.

Yang menjadi pencantum kesemua ramuan itu adalah ais.

The ingredients in ABC reflects our multi-cultural/racial society, while Malaysia is the ice.


[1] Sarah Arney, Malaysian Batik Creating New Tradition, Kraftangan Malaysa, 1987, Kuala Lumpur

[2] The third millennium is a period of time that began on January 1, 2001, and will end on December 31, 3000 of the Gregorian calendar.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Balai Seni Negara's Treasures

Image
after weeks of lecturing and exposing my students to various masterpieces of the Western paintings, sculptures and other notable artefacts, it's time for me to introduce them our nation's wealth and masterpieces which i deem noteworthy. Q : how i evaluate a work of art to be noteworthy? A : it must stand through the test of time, requires full attention and forget all the pretentious glorified curatorial writings. The image produced must show evidence of thoughts, thoughtful strokes and skills - in terms of composition, mastery of the colors and must be one that control the gallery space. ( to be honest, i cant appreciate digital paintings as it is missing the most vital elements - that is texture and the evident of the strokes. ) example - Michaelangelo's Pieta and Monet's Waterlilies. What is brilliant is, i brought them to National Visual Arts Gallery, where they got a chance to meet up my old dean/sifu/friend/mentor/adopted guardian angel/humanist - Naji...
Read more

The Final Lesson by Syed Ahmad Jamal

Image
Intro This is will be a long note - edited again thoroughly. Before i begin, this writing will touch on an individual goes by the name of  Syed Ahmad Jamal ( our National Laureate ) who passed away on 2011 and DBKL - stands for Kuala Lumpur Municipal Council. My heart dropped when Syed Ahmad Jamal public sculpture entitled Puncak Purnama ( Lunar Peaks, 1986 ) was destroyed by the local KL municipal council DBKL few days back. DBKL stands for Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur - actually is quite notorious for a list of bad PR moves by cutting off trees, blocking the Pertiwi Soup Kitchen ( which been feeding the homeless ), their zealous traffic summons - but seriously they broke the camel's back by destroying the modernist, geometrical - clean cut sculpture. The Battle of Non Permission This sculpture was highlighted in  2010 as "someone" decided to pimp it up, changing it's appearance without Syed Ahmad Jamal's permission.This is how it looks like.........
Read more

Awesome Bowie Notes No 1.

Image
William Boyd collaborated with David Bowie - published this book as a hoax, presented as a real biography. "Nat Tate" is a combination of the names of two London art galleries, the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery. Boyd and his conspirators set about convincing the New York glitterati (social elites) that the reputation of this influential abstract expressionist needed to be re-evaluated. Bowie held a launch party on April Fool's Day eve, 1998 and read extracts from the book, while someone talked about Tate's friendships with both Picasso and Braque. About a week later, journalist David Lister,said that no one he spoke to claimed to know Tate well, but no one claimed not to have heard of him. In reality, it appears that few were fooled and most of the big names in the arts world (including artists, collectors, art historian, art dealers, New York based writers like Paul Auster, and editors of literary journals) quickly realized that Nat Tate ...
Read more