Romeo & Juliet: An Incomplete Review

On Thursday night the girls and myself headed over to KLPAC to watch a play adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, directed by Christopher Ling. Ms. Sarah recommended we watch it to sharpen our sensitivity to stage directions in preparation for A2 A-levels. The twist to the play is that the audience will be following a particular group of students, classmates in literature class, acting out Romeo & Juliet. Cynics may be quick to denounce the play for not staying true to the original but we went there with an open mind, hoping to learn a thing or two from fellow students (later found out Romeo's actor is 24 y/o hahaha)

Opening seating positions for your better understanding. 

As the audience trickles into the theatre, they are greeted with a scene that piques their curiosity. First, there is a sound that drowns the murmurs and shuffling of feet in the theatre- Joshua the student who plays Romeo, is tirelessly stabbing his pen into his table; his hands do not tire until the play really begins. His lips draw to a pout, throbbing head resting on his arm, impatiently waiting for class to end. It's worth noting he hand does not rest until the play really begins. Friar Lawrence's character gets up in slow motion to go to the back of the class to sharpen his pencil; there's something deep and contemplative about the way he sharpens his pencil. In contrast to Friar Lawrence, Lady Capulet and Romeo's friend suddenly get up , chairs screeching in pain, and hastily pack their books. They race and steal glances at each other; Romeo's friend buckles under the pressure and drops a pencil but quickly recovers it back. A smug smile curls upon Lady Capulet's lips and her eyes turn back to Tybalt. She confidently stands up, sashays her way to him, and then tells him a dirty little secret. They share a maniacal laughter.They exaggerate a giggle or two while side-eyeing Romeo's friend. Juliet is sleeping soundly, oblivious and ambivalent to the simmering conflict between the left and right and plotting between the front and back.

The Teacher enters. And the show begins.

What I find most interesting about this play was the director's ingenuity in using a 'filler' scene to characterize the characters. Their regular student classroom behaviour projects and foreshadow the roles they will play while acting in class later on. (remember they are playing students playing Romeo & Juliet. I've never read Romeo & Juliet before so this allowed me to reason character fates and dynamics in the play.)

 Romeo The Student  has impatience of the highest degree which later leads him to making his rash decisions as Legit Romeo. Surprise, surprise, he kissed his family's sworn enemy at a ball. Fortunately, in the midst of all the chaos, Friar Lawrence is seen as a neutral point of equilibrium by both parties. When something is out of order, at once Friar Lawrence is sought after! However, try as he may, he fails to restore peaceful matrimony when Legit Romeo mistakenly takes away his own life thinking his bride is no more.

As for Lady Capulet and Romeo's friend, they made it clear from the start this is a play where 'civil blood makes civil hands unclean'. They are even strategically placed on opposite ends of the stage, Friar Lawrence in the middle as mediator between the Capulets and Montagues. Perhaps, he is also placed there as a physical barrier to build up to a more intense physical fight later on. On the other hand, Juliet is completely ignorant of the ongoing conflict. Or perhaps, she chooses to not care by pretending to sleep while Lady Capulet and Tybalt gossip about the Montagues. From another perspective. it can also be suggested that Juliet is truly sleeping, common to her airy and carefree characters who would rather live in a world of dreams and fantasies to avoid reality.

So in conclusion,  you have this interfamily fued lasting generations. This ditzy chick who doesn't give a shit and wants a perfect distraction. This impatient guy who just wants sex..and voila! Romeo & Juliet! 

Ok kidding, that was a very crude conclusion. But I truly am running out of time and have to go. Hence, An Incomplete Review littered with grammatical errors. (Sorry Ms. Sarah!)

A few points

• Lighting I noticed 4 types of lighting (blue for classroom, orange red for conflicts, spotlight which makes you look like a ghost for soliloquys, colourful like below when Romeo was courting Juliet at her balcony. Maybe he hung Christmas lights for her or she has hugeass colourful glass windows. Wah damn rich ah this French chick.) 

• Dancing & Music For other 'filler' scenes, they danced some military moves to some corporal-like music. I don't think it was relevant to Romeo & Juliet but instead, was on purpose to characterize The Teacher as someone strict  (ironically, his character boogeys down with the students!) or create a very rigid classroom environment. Friar sang well too!

• Sound effects I would have loved to see more sound effects to enhance the mood, or maybe I happened to not notice during all the conflict or climax scenes

• Kissing Scenes Romeo and Juliet looked like they had a lot of practice kissing and embracing each other. I wish I could comment on the chemistry between them but I was too busy having a culture shock (OMG I WAS SITTING RIGHT IN FRONT AND THEY WERE MAKING OUT WTH WHY DID I FEEL SO GELI SORRY FOR SOUNDING PRUDE I JUST DIDN'T EXPECT PUBLIC SEMI-PASSIONATE KISSING IN MALAYSIA) . They seemed at the least comfortable but any further, I have no others to compare them to.  

• Acting My favourite was Mercutio, hands down. He's so full of himself, so protective of Romeo that it becomes comical and even endearing. I don't think this is accurate to the original but kudos to the actor and director for adding the extra flair. I appreciate it cuz I seriously laughed myself silly! Hats off to the rest of the cast. I have no complaints, they were good. Great? Not sure, I dare not give too skewed opinions because I've only watched three plays so far.

OK DONE. *PHEW*

Happy Days Ahead,
Hui Min aka Yau

Day 1: #ProjectReclaimYourLife

Hello there :)

Been doing some reflecting lately. I've realized a lot of the stuff I do involve giving back what we've been given. But sometimes, we can only give so much.

Chin up for earning a living for family, making someone's day, building society but sometimes, we need think about ourselves too.

I think I know way too many people I admire who are doing great things for others but deep down, I know they are or were quite broken.

So this new and simple project is dedicated to all of you out there who I have or will cross paths with. We have known or will know each other by the warmth of our smiles and the life in our eyes, both the gains and the pains.

I want you to love yourself, not that you don't, just more.

So here's Day 1 of #ProjectReclaimYourLife

Reclaim your smile. Command it at will.

Happy Days Ahead,
Hui Min

"APA LAGI PELAJAR MAHU????" with Giler Selamba Jane

So yesterday after an event which I shall not name, I found myself mamak-ing with Shukri, Pak Din (aka Dato' Saifuddin Abdullah) and Zara Kahan (aka Giler Selamba Jane) among others at 11.30PM.

Now forgive me as I take a moment to appreciate the level of freedom endowed upon me by The Mother.

Actually, a curfew doesn't exist because my mother never had a need to impose one on me. I have a social handicap okay. It's not knowing how to PARTAYPARTAYPARTAY.
 \(^o^)/ ~~~


Lol my emoticon looks like it has a bazooka for an armpit.

 I'll tell you right now why not knowing how to PARTAYPARTAYPARTAY is a social handicap.

So when Pak Din took the stage he was like...

And yea...I'm like *giggle giggle giggle* "FIFTEEN!"

"EH YAU SSSHH!" he teased across the mic.

I didn't know why though. I thought he was just trying to act cute.

Later while 7 of us, including Pak Din were mamak-ing, Pak Din was again secretive of our ages but gave in to saying I was barely legal.

I felt quite blur. Ok 'quite' is understating it. It was more like

So much later, Selamba Jane explained to me it's illegal for Shukri or me to be there because they sold booze.

That was literally my reaction. I just couldn't brain the fact arrest by JAKIM or something was warranted. I mean, c'mon we're not consuming it. We're just there, right?

Hah, wrong. As explained here.

Lulz I so ignorant can die. :')

BACK TO THE POINT OF THIS POST.

I'm sure some of you are familiar with Giler Selamba Jane. If you're not, I demand you to watch her now. I swear you will jizz in your pants from laughing. And if not your pants or skirt, well, I hope you're not doing something. KIDDING. ^.^V

Now watch2.

 Itelleu this woman is just as funny in person. But a question that came from her caught me off guard. (turns out she's also a journalist AND YOU KNOW HOW ARE JOURNALISTS & THEIR QUESTIONS)


Her question was...

"APA LAGI PELAJAR MAHU?????"

WOMAN, I'LL TELL YOU APA LAGI PELAJAR MAHU.

Jokes aside, she's really my principal.

Jokes further aside, that was a very hard question. I told her lots of wishes I had but have finally found a better single answer. I'll give you my answer at the end, but not before giving some personal context.

 During the mamak-ing sesh, I gave my opinion on education which goes something like this...

"Mark Twain once said 'What is school and what is education?' In this era of globalization and technological advancement, I further develop the question to ...what is the belief of A, B or C?"

 The A's

These are people see the value in education and as such have or will have rationalized reasons to drop out of institutions to seek 'real' education e.g. Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg

Two of the organizations championing these kinda movements are UnCollege and Thiel Fellowship. The former teaches you how to hack into education without setting foot in class and the latter pays students $100,000 to drop our of college to do whatever they're passionate about so long as it creates social impact.

The B's

These are people who believe school is an integral part of education. They recognized the importance of education outside the boundaries of school but do not place much weightage on it (size of  blue < red + purple ).  And as such, would not venture far into the deep blue of knowledge until they have graduated.

To them, red represents classes in school- fun or boring. In the context of Malaysian education, I'm gonna make a sweeping generalization it's mostly boring because it's usually lecture style. Red is important because it leads to purple.

Purple represents the education they get out of school- ASSESSMENT. Grades, certificates, or to the realization of some, 'worthless' pieces of paper. Nonetheless, to them, assessment is still important because it tells you where you stand academically and is a globally-recognized form of intellectual value.

In contrast, A's do not care about assessment hence, no purple. These non-conformists do not feel a need to be accepted by society's definition of intellect.

The C's

Frankly, I don't hang out with C's often so bear in mind you're in for a possibly biased description.

To them, school IS education, no more, no less. This flow-chart describes them.

As you can see, it's a very linear form of thinking. To them, institutionalized education is the one and only road to success.  Type C's make no room for divergence unless something completely knocks them off their well-paved and structured road.

Sometimes, I imagine them as people with OCD. If a pebble gets kicked off their path, they're gonna do whatever they can to make sure it's put back in the exact position or else THEY CANNOT MOVE FORWARD AND PROGRESS IN LIFE.

A real life example would be something I observed in my own college. It's exam season right now and it peeves me to see my own good friends literally walking away at the first sight of me to avoid small talk. It's as if they have to study so hard that they cannot spare 5 minutes of extra revision. I haven't really talked to some of my really good friends for months and that's just sad.

Ok fine, the above is an outlier. What's more common in the top class is you have people studying 12+ hours a day but they also go out when they reach their studying threshold. Still studying hard, and not smart misses the point of education.

Studying hard = memorizing
Studying smart = understanding

Oh and here's a quote to make C people hate me.

For some, getting a highly-paying job, working for someone in a huge corporation is where their life punctuates. 

The Other Type- The D's

So ok, now I arrive at an issue. I'm neither A, nor B, nor C. I...

1. skip classes nearly 70% of the time
2. still make my grades 
3. use that 70% to do stuff outside of college such as attend hell a lot of events to learn (industrial, design, UX, programming, design thinking, disruptive technologies, innovative education)   
4.  and co-lead movements like  Incitement Youth and Selangor MUN.

Here's my justification. We live in an era of of globalization and progressive technology. If a kid told their parents 5 years ago

Yeap. I mean, c'mon, who could blame them? Apps were near non-existent back then. But that just shows how fast technology is growing.

 Is our education in school doing enough to keep up with that pace?

^ This pace?

Now you argue technology is just a highly specific branch of education. That, it only subjects people who have a future career in it.

But my argument is that technology affects us all and often more so than we realize. Just step into an elevator or LRT and notice the amount of people with their eyes glued to their phones. Whether we admit it or not, technology has found a way to penetrate deeply into the very fabric our lives, particularly in the younger generation.

If technology affects the way we socialize, the way we uncover new scientific discoveries, the way we inform and share knowledge, among other things- then, it cannot be denied that technology significantly affects our world and consequently, the world that determines the syllabus of our education.

The problem is the current system we're in thrived in the era of The Great Renaissance, The Enlightenment and Industrialization. Back then, it was okay to be all smartass and spread your knowledge around in lectures and books. The world was slow enough to wait for the 'dumb' to catch up with the 'smart', as crude as it sounds. But, that is no longer the case. I contend the backdated methodology is becoming less and less relevant to our fast-paced world of the 21st century. 

We live in an era of Exponential Technology. The world is growing at a faster pace than we can measure, infinitely maybe (crap, wish I took Physics). More than ever before, there is a greater need for individual-centric education, syllabus crafted by ourselves to make ourselves relevant to the world we live in.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for progressive education but I still love college and recognize its importance.

I disagree with A's- the dropouts,  because of that one thing institution can offer that independent learning can't necessarily guarantee.

Assessment is an important check-and-balance to keep us grounded.  If you're mega talented like Einstein then there isn't a need but most of us aren't Einsteins. The risk for irreversible failure is high.

Verdict: School is extremely important. Platforms for independent learning aren't developed enough to be depended on 100% but despite that, the rate of technological progress calls upon us to pay more attention to it than ever before. 

And so this is me, this is D.

ZARA KAHAN, AFTER THINKING SO MUCH, MY #1 WISH AS STUDENT IS A MORE DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION. 


I think we don't have enough say in how or what goes into our heads. From what I heard from my award-winning teacher(org dalam), not enough academic staff were consulted on the switch from BM to English in Math & Science. If teachers aren't a part of a democracy, what more us 'lowly' students?

Everything I wrote up there has a purpose. A purpose to be heard if not implemented someday.

Happy Days Ahead,
Yau


PS- I heard we have a new Deputy Minister of Education, Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching. I really like her weih. Get connected to her and epic shit will happen.

Jumbled Up: Community, Culture and Nationalism

Random Foreword

Today I've realised the need for a clearer vision for Incitement Youth (right now it's inciting positivity & long-term affirmative action). I contend positivity  cannot be incited (imbued) if people are not open to accepting it as a way of life. It's like pouring rainwater onto a wasteland not willing to flourish.

A clearer picture might produce something more sustainable. Incitement itself sees new faces most of the time and I'm trying to investigate how can we reverse that.

 A movement needs permanence- people who embrace its beliefs, not just free-riders who have fun for a day or two and then leave. Do people really practice what they learn at Incitement? change the way they see life & treat those around them after attending Incitement? I'm not sure and there's a need to be sure.

Therefore, I think before I continue embarking on the Incitement journey, I need to see more, learn more. My foresight is way too myopic. I keep doing things without thinking about the long-term impact. Quite possibly, I've been putting way too much effort into hitting the wrong targets, 'places' that aren't ready.

'Real' Musings

Institution such as Taylor's, HELP, INTI have weak sense of community identity (generalization). Note comment below by Johann Oh.

Moreover, I was surprised the other day when my juniors, Koji Hirayama and Gabrielle spoke as if I wouldn't come back to help out the college with Incitement. It was then I realised it is deeply embedded in our culture to abandon our college after we're done with studies. Alumni? Alumni does not belong in our dictionaries. 

Origin: 1635–45;  < Latin:  foster son, pupil,equivalent to al-  (stem of alere  to feed,support) + -u-  (< stem-vowel *-o-  in interiorsyllable) + -m ( i ) nus,  orig. passiveparticipial suffix (cf. adult, old), akin to Greek-menos;  see phenomenon

 

^ Etymology of alumni. To support & feed. Maybe an alumnus exists in the corridors if Taylor's College Sri Hartamas, but not an alumni just yet. Hope I'm wrong.

Me thinks the debating scene might be a good place to start my adventure on learning about culture & community. It's a scene densely populated by some of Malaysia's century-long established institutions eg. MCKK, TKC, SDAR, UT MARA, UiTM and the likes. (not sure if all are at least a century old)

Here's are some examples to show they're doing things right.

Just the other day, Dato' Saifuddin Abdullah, presumably Malaysia's 'Father of Debate' tweeted below 

Fiat Sapienta Virtus. 

I had wondered what it meant. Turns out it means 'Manliness Through Wisdom'. Interesting that he still remembers his alma mater's motto despite having left the school 35 years ago. Even more interesting that he still practices it until now. Post- GE13 and many have praised Dato' Saifuddin for being a true gentleman about his lost in vying for Temerloh's MP position. 

Naturally, the next person I'm about to mention is also from the debating scene. His name is Syed Saddiq. I met him on FB when I asked him about Dato Saifuddin's contributions to the debating scene (a whole bucketlist, btw. I dare say he created a legacy).

So fast forward our conversation, Saddiq mentioned he was from a military school where nationalism was deeply embedded in their school culture. It sounded quite alien to me at first- culture-nationalism. Coming from SK TTDI and SMK BUD (4), all I could ever remember was this collective yet selfish rush to obtain straight A+'s, get a scholarship and run away from a glass ceiling. A glass ceiling  that allowed us to dream big enough but yet taunted us for what we supposedly could not achieve.

Primary, secondary and even tertiary education...I still remember the first lesson during Malaysian Studies last year.

Mr. William asked,

"How many of you are willing to die for your country? 

Only 2 or 3 raised their hands out of a whopping 100+ students. I was one of them. (Another was Amalina Taib, my now super close college friend who unsurprisingly went to a smart school in Putrajaya). 

This occasion reflected the opening ceremony of HELPMUN 2010 (I was 16) where MP Tony Phua asked an audience of 200+ a similar question 

"How many of you plan to leave,know someone who does or have been asked by your parents to leave Malaysia?" 

At least 90% raised their hands. I was one of them. The sense of abandonment of community,a subset of society 3 years ago was very real. And still is now. Thankfully though, although Saddiq and I clearly come opposite ends of the spectrum, I am slowly but surely gravitating towards his, towards ours. 

Here's to a new journey of learning about community, culture and comradeship. 

And building it from down up.

Happy Days Ahead,

Hui Min

PS- this post was completely done on my phone on impulse. And I'm super duper sleepy. Hence,sorry the disorganized points and uncreative structure. I will probably revisit this piece again. 

Journal Entry #1: Laurie

I had the best time today playing with Ms. Lauren's kittens, Maple and Dawn. Such frisky little things! Felt a tinge of nostalgic 2004 when I used to play with Pn. Azizah's kittens before class. I wonder if she's still alive. Funny thing is I remember her cats better than her face. Might've even gotten her name wrong.

Ahhh... back to Ms. Lauren, it felt so good sharing with someone what I've been doing for the past few weeks. In college, no one wants to hear anything but exams. It's almost taboo to not talk about how hard you've been studying. Likewise at  home. It felt so, so good to finally release all those crazy ideas and have someone equally enthusiastic about them. Ms. Lauren has the sense of wonder of a 18 year-old. She's so beautiful you cannot imagine.

I also find it hard to believe I was sharing with my principal positive and negative observations of the many aspects college the solutions to rectify the latter. Our discussion was as smooth as butter and as warm as toast.  (Later we would pinkie swear over text message to not succumb to midnight sugar cravings! )

Finally, shortly before Mother picked me up- we were about to get off the taxi when Ms. Lauren took a 50RM note and the driver said tonight was free.

It was free. Earlier  Ms. Lauren mentioned tipping him heavily before and even asking him to bring along his young son and wife since he barely gets to see them from working for such long hours.

I'm tired, sleep time now. Thanks for everything, Laurie.

Happy Days Ahead,
Yau

Favourite Admirer

Today.

Little Brother had class in the house. Five of them sat near the door, tails wagging, waiting to surprise Mr. Yu. I joined the pack, eager to have some fun.

And in the corner there was one tall chubby boy, cotton draping over his lovely love handles. He didn't join us as he was frantically finishing his homework.

Mr. Yu came. But, we didn't surprise him. Or rather, he didn't allow us to surprise him. Partypooper.

And as I walked out of the kitchen, the tall chubby boy nervously said,

"Nice outfit, it matches your mug."

"What?"

"Nice outfit, it matches your mug. Your mug is colourful and your outfit is.."

Right."Thanks." and then I walked off and smiled.

If only the world was straight. Thank you, tall chubby boy. You are refreshing. Refreshing like the Pineapple Ginger Mint juice I had today.

Yau <3

A True Test of Character: The Card Tower Effect

Are you one of those who easily get so worked up with math sums?

That, sometimes you end up sinking back into your chair, spewing a toxic air of frustration into the atmosphere?

I know I am.

Hence, I've always admired people like engineers, physicists and scientists for their ability to build solutions quickly discard flawed ones, and work on new ones- impartial towards the amount of time and effort they spent on their preceding work.

How does one withhold so much patience

 when you lose something that gives you 

so much promise, so much hope

- time after time after time? 

How can one continue hoping and believing

 that things will turn out alright, or even better? 

Like that, Failure can be deceiving. 

He'll take jabs at you,

 hit you at your weakest spot,

 attempt to break your spirit 

and he's gonna do it 

-again and again and again. 

But what you don't know

is that

in you building Him

He is building you.

I'd like to call this skill 'prototyping'. 

 And I choose it because of the values embedded within this verb; patience, persistence, determination, discipline and most importantly, objectivity. How fascinating that the act of building something, solving a math equation, or even solving life issues, are all subsets of the Venn diagram that is Prototyping, some even sharing intersections. 

So let's get to the point-  I'm a pretty big fail at the art of Prototyping. I'm impatient, selectively persistent, selectively determined, absolutely undisciplined (should totally be doing my Shakespeare analysis but nooooo, I'm convincing myself this blogpost will improve my writing ability hahaha) and I'm abso-freakingly subjective in thought. Somo work so hard on some projects how la to be impartial towards my babies?!

But recently, a distant memory when I was 13 at some Asiaworks camp came back to life.

"We were broken into teams and told to build card towers out of  stock cards. Without  being told, we instinctively assumed we were against each other and started seeing who could build the tallest tower. My team built it pretty high and soon left to scout other teams' progress. After 10 minutes, they were convinced ours was the tallest. But with 5 minutes, I kicked it down to try to build it taller because I was dissatisfied with what was and was optimistic about what could be. Kidding, maybe my legs were just itchy."

I guess I was naive to think I could build a taller one with 5 minutes to go. But hey, remember we assumed we were competing? The facilitator didn't even take note of the tallest one. He just recognized my crazy spirit & completely counter-intuitive action.

Without realizing, this experienced has actually shaped my character. I just don't believe in what is. I believe in what can be.

Below is the Selangor MUN logo which was intended to be a dove. See, I'm not a designer. (Heck, I don't even use Photoshop but I'm a practitioner of Paint if that counts )

But despite not being one, after like THIRTYYY prototypes bouncing back and fourth with my most patient and critically awesome Yau Hui (other Yau)

....we arrived at this.

Y'know, it really hurts when something you spent so much time on(I don't regard myself as a designer k so it was an accomplishment) gets torn down apart by being described as 'a pregnant sitting duck trying to fly'.

So when you build a really tall tower and someone says "You can go higher", without hesitation, would you kick it down yourself as a symbol of dissatisfaction with normal, reuse some cards and attempt to build it higher?

I know I would. Skills don't matter, character does.

Happy Days Ahead,
Hui Min