Carynn's Intercultural Collaboration

The Particular is the Universal started off with a discussion on habitus - a word that I've never came across before. It's what makes each of us unique, it's like the building blocks that makes up who we are. In my blog post Habitus, I wrote about my country of birth - Malaysia, and how multicultural it is. I realise that I've never thought about my country as being something other than the name of a nationality in my life. I've never considered that it plays a big part of who I am. Prior to this, Malaysian was just a name with little to no value to me. I came into the course thinking that I would not have much to contribute because my country was so small that some might not even have heard of it before. Sure, we have a few notable stars such as Jimmy Choo and Michelle Yeoh, but when I hear their names, my mind does not jump to 'I'm so proud that they're Malaysians.' I introduced the famous mamak in my Habitus blog post which I found interesting to...

Prompt: How do you think your habitus has changed from the beginning of the semester to now?  Although I grew up surrounded by South-East Asian culture, I was barely exploring it. In fact, I wasn't even touching any of it. It's not that I was ashamed of my culture, it was simply ignored and put aside to make space for mainstream Western media. Before this semester, I didn't think there was anything special about my own culture and the country I grew up in. Perhaps it's because I've been seeing my country everyday and being in a new country was much more exciting. Perhaps it's because I didn't make an effort to expose myself to local content creators or maybe I simply didn't think anyone would be interested in a small developing country like Malaysia. It is week 11 as I write this and despite having only two The Particular is the Universal  classes a week, the discussions have changed the way I view the world. I'm more aware of my own habitus be...

Whether we like it or not, technology, especially social media and messaging applications have become a big part of our lives It was tremendously helpful to be able to text my HKBU partner without cost because I could speak to her whenever I wanted. The instant reply made it feel as if I was talking to her in real life. By using messaging apps, we were able to send pictures to each other whenever we want. As both of us are into arts, we bonded even more by sending photos of our artwork. I found myself using those pictures as prompts to continue the conversation, it was easy to start talking by sending her a picture of something I thought she might like. It could be a picture of my graphic novel collection (she really likes graphic novels) or it could be a picture of a vegan burger I was trying. I don't have to be too selective because it's free. We both live in different countries yet we are able to hold conversations and actually be able to see what the other party's lif...

Prompt: What about your interview with your HKBU partner informs/inspires the creative work you’re producing? Are you surprised by it? Is it what you were expecting? Are you let down in some way? Have you adapted something in response to something unexpected? My interview with my HKBU partner started off with graphic novels. I connected with her almost immediately after the first message when she replied with equal enthusiasm for graphic novels. We talked about a variety of topics, from art to food to languages. We even shared about the stress we have and our current struggles. Before the week ended, I already had a sense of who she was as a person. I wanted to write the best piece that I could because she deserves it. I went through different ideas, changing here and there as dissatisfaction rolls in. Many of the ideas I discarded were ones that I felt were not strong enough. It's hard to explain why I wasn't satisfied with those ideas, they just didn't feel  right. I w...

In a multicultural country where we have so many different races mingling around, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what 'authenticity' is as a whole. As individuals (Chinese, Malays, Indiants etc.), we know what our individual culture is like. I know the difference between Chinese, Malay, and Indian weddings. I know the different cuisines, the different ways to greet each other, even the different body language. But I am Malaysian first and foremost. Yes, I'm Chinese and I grew up with Chinese values, but I spent my entire life in a country which has a culture made of other cultures. I think one of my problems writing about Malaysian culture is that it is a mix of cultures. When I write about Malaysian culture, I find that I have to explain most of the aspects. For example, we have our Malaysian slang, the most popular one being ending a sentence with lah .  It can be said that it originated from the Chinese word used as a final particle - 啦, but it's used by all o...