Ching Chong Ching Chong

It's week 10 already and I have only written 6 posts so this will be my 7th blog post.
Today Gary will talk about Chinese Opera, or what we call 大戲 (Da xi).
That was the traditional Malaysian art form that my group chose for the assignment.
Given so many weeks to research and write the report but just starting to do the week before submission, this is the common problem of UTARians (or can I say, every college students?).
Last week we had the opportunity to watch live Chinese Opera performance, and interview the performers. It was the first time in my life to watch Chinese Opera.
The details will be written in the report and presented in the class so I won't talk much about it here but
what I want to say is, Chinese Opera, or even other forms of traditional Malaysian arts are dying, not slowly, but rapidly. Lesser and lesser people will appreciate these arts as technology has taken over every form of entertainments in our society. Younger generations would not ever think of attending any traditional art performances to seek for entertainment or to appreciate it, not even me. If this subject doesn't exists, I would not have the chance to watch Chinese Opera.
I said that art isn't art any more nowadays in my last post and traditional arts are dying in this post. Does this means all art will rot and people will forget about their existence?
No I don't think so.
Art is like energy.
Energy cannot be destroyed. It will only transform from one form to another. Just like art.
One day, traditional art will probably disappear but, it will not be destroyed. It will continue to exists in our world in other form. Most probably in other contemporary arts, or even in the memory of people. It may not exists the way it used to be, but its spirit will remain in the heart of people.

A lil sneak peek of the Chinese Opera.

Robbing the art

Is art art?

Or rather a money making tool?

This is the question that comes into my mind after visiting Bank Negara's art gallery.

Art, created for the purpose of art. 

For the artist to express their inner thoughts and feelings.

To send a message or two to the people.

As something relaxing, or bringing joy to people.

Making people thinking about the line between the reality and the fantasy.

Bringing out the inner peace in people.

Beautifying the world.

Transforming our world to a better place.

Those used to be the reasons why art was created.

BUT NOW.

Everything's changed.

Art has turned into some money making tool.

People create art for the sake of money.

Corporations, companies, banks, upper class people, and filthy rich humans, are buying and collecting arts.

For what?

As they await, for the value to increase. For them to sell when the value, or price has peaked. So that they can gain profit, thus becoming richer. And richer. And richer.

This is what art has become? Collecting for the purpose of profits?

This is wrong on so many levels.

Arts are arts. Not something that you create or buy for the sake of money.

They should be created as an art, sold as an art, and die as an art.

People who does not appreciate art for its beauty, for its message behind the piece, do not have the rights to create nor purchase art.

Sadly, we have no control over this.

Because we are poor, and the world is dominated by the rich.

And that is the reality.

Pathetic.

Art is no longer art.

And I will mourn for this great loss of our world.

Sold for 44 million dollars. Is it still art?

Weirdos

Artists are a bunch of weirdos. Period.
I did not state that without any solid reasons. Artists do things we ordinary people can't understand, but still seem admirable to us. Weird.
Since we will be talking about artist for this week, I might as well reveal a little bit of my own background. My parents are both graduate from Malaysia Institute of Art. Which leads to me seeing and meeting all sort of artists since I was small. I have met artists more than any kind of people. None of them are normal, in a way we non-artist people perceive as abnormal. Like my dad, he loves collecting all sort of old things. My house is full of these old weird things, which he thinks that all of them are valuable. He works as an art teacher now at his own at centre. What I find him different from other people is, he don't teach to really earn money. His art teaching fees is simply the cheapest in town. In his perception, art is a form of education and something which people will enjoy doing it. And education should be affordable to everyone. Which explains why I am poor. Sigh.
After all those nonsense talking, lets move on to talk about Mr. Tan Zi Hao. Being surrounded by arts for more than 10 years, I can say that his works are undoubtly very creative. I liked his installation art where there's three snakes and sulphur surrounding them. That was truly a masterpiece. His way of fighting and expressing people's voice through art has impressed me.
After seeing all the artworks he showed us and listened to his talk, I am more convinced of my own perception on artist. They are all weirdos. I don't mean it in a negative and offensive way. They are weird in a good way, which we ordinary people would not understand. That is what I learned from that day's talk.
Every artists are weird in their own way, and weird is beautiful (Gary, 2015).

The Art of Crime

Hey there its your best friend Gary again and I know you're reading my blog again. I know it. I'm watching you.
Okay so I did not write any post last week cause I was too busy that I have forgotten it. Plus I can't recall any topics given to write about last week so, I'm sorry.
This week we talked about dances, visual arts and crimes in Malaysia during lecture and tutorial class. Although we cannot see the bond between those topics but they are closely related to each other, somehow. I will be focusing on Malaysia artwork cause that's the assessment given and I will not do anything beyond the given task. Cause I'm lazy as fuck, to be honest.
First thing first, what is Malaysia artwork?
To me, Malaysia artworks are every kind of artwork created by Malaysian. It doesn't matter what kind of work it is, what is the content of the work, who is it dedicated to, where is the origin of it, and why is it created. Any form of artwork done by Malaysian, is a Malaysia artwork. In my opinion, only a true Malaysian can create Malaysia artwork. If you consider yourself as a Malaysian and you create arts, YOU, are creating Malaysia artwork, and you're a Malaysian artist.
The next question given is, what event is so significant do you think we should feature in Malaysia artwork?
My answer may sound ridiculous but that's what my brain told me to write. In my brain's opinion, ALL and ANY events that's happening or happened in MALAYSIA should be featured in Malaysia artwork. It doesn't matter if the event is a huge one or a itsy bitsy tiny little event, as long as it happened in Malaysia, then it can and it should be featured in Malaysia artwork. Sounds ridiculous? Who cares. That's my opinion! Malaysians should embrace our own culture and society which includes all events happening or happened in Malaysia. I really think that all events could be featured in a Malaysia artwork, as long as the artist is interested to the particular event. So, why not? Creating Malaysia arts based on crimes, black magic, dark side of the politics, stupidity of some ministers, assets of our Prime Minister, and bla bla bla okay I'm going too far.
I don't think I have to answer the last question which is "Is it the responsibility of a Malaysian artist to create a Malaysia artwork?"
DEFINITELY YES! As I have said above, any form of art done by a Malaysian artist is a Malaysia art. So this question is quite meaningless. YES. YES. YES.
To conclude my writing, anything, including any events could be turned into arts. That is the beauty of art. There are no rules and restrictions. Nobody can control what kind of art you're creating. NOBODY. (Except if you did some artwork which insulted our PM or his beautiful wife, then get ready to be jailed.)

Credits to www.zunar.my

Banglasia

I used to think that I hate Malaysia, when I was small.
What's so good about it?
Summer all the year. No playing in the snow like other four seasons countries. No advanced technology big fighting robots everywhere like in Japan. No high speed internet unlimited data like in Korea. No "Agua" show like in Thailand. No great public transport services everywhere like in Singapore.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
But I came to realize that, I was wrong.
Very wrong.
I grew up to find that I really love Malaysia, I just hate the ruling government and all their great "contributions" to Malaysia which lead it to today's state. As I was slowly growing up, I found that Malaysia is really, really a great country. And I love it.
What if one day Thailand took over Malaysia and made Malaysia part of Thailand when I'm 70 years old?
That was the question given, sort of.
I've been thinking about it since then, and I think I have found my answer.
SO WHAT?
SO WHAT IF THAILAND TOOK OVER MALAYSIA?
I DON'T GIVE A SH*T.
Yes. I don't really care. No matter Thailand, Iceland, Greenland or even Disneyland took over Malaysia, I still, identify myself as a Malaysian. Malaysia is the land I was born and raised, and grew old at. It doesn't really matter who took over or what country it became part of, because in the end, Malaysia is still Malaysia.
And I'm freaking proud to be a Malaysian.
Malaysia boleh. Malaysia truly Asia. I love Malaysia.
End of story.
Bye.

Negara...lain?

Its me Gary again and you know when its Gary, you won't be reading some serious articles. Serious is so not my kind of thing.

So by the way, I went to a play at DPAC which was given the title Another Country. To be honest, I did not read anything about it so I was completely blur and didn't know what kind of play will it be before attending.

I am not sure whether Another Country is my first stage drama performance, which I think it's not, but it is definitely the first play that left a tiny impact on me. I always thought that a stage play would have only one narrative but Another Country proved me wrong, and I was kind of shocked when I was watching the play. But it felt good and it was really a fresh thing for me.

What left me impressed about this play is not the varieties of stories, which I don't get most of it, but the way they perform it. The way they performed those stories was incredible! I'm not a good writer nor I'm good at expressing my feelings and thoughts with fancy words but I can only say that it was real good. Each and every different stories were presented with different ways, and able to make each of it interesting was really, really fantastic. I love how well and how professionally they make use of each elements on the stage, especially the lightings and props.

You may not be entertained nor get any useful information by reading this article but what I want to say is that Another Country was a real great show, at least in my opinion it is. Okay that's all, bye. Till next week. Peace :D

First post! Woohoo

I was kind of forced to open this blog and start writing stuffs which I'm not very interested in but who cares, lets start the first post!

The question given was "Do you identify yourself as a Malaysian? Why? Does it matter?" and I will answer it for the sake of my CGPA. I DO identify myself as a Malaysian. I mean, I was born and raised here, which makes me a Malaysian inside out whether I like it or not. But, I really do identify myself as a Malaysian. For me, being a Malaysian is not just that I was born and raised in Malaysia, its more about having pride for the nationality, the sense of patriotism, and feeling proud of the multi-ethnic culture of Malaysia. To be honest, I really love Malaysia, despite the fact that we have a "good" government. Malaysia is really a perfectly perfect country from the aspect of geographical location, the harmonious bond between the people, and most importantly the foods.

Does it matter? YES, IT MATTERS A LOT. The sense of pride as a Malaysian is what makes us Malaysian unite, and for me, it makes me feel connected to the other Malaysians. Not only this, but identifying myself as a Malaysian makes me feel completed, it gives me an identity to live with, and I can proudly tell the foreigners that I'M A MALAYSIAN! (Despite the many flaws of Malaysia which are mostly caused by our beloved government.)