Physical Beauty in the Eyes of Indian and Malay Society

Assalam. 

Guess what? We ENCOM students are hardly separated from research papers.

We, along with our group mates from Wondrous Papertowns, recently did one on physical beauty perceptions in two cultures that apparently aren't so different! Do watch the video of our findings to find out what we mean. Douzo, douzo! 

 

Thank you for watching! Have a wonderful day ahead! Let's ace those exams! :D

- Shai & Afia

Food Enthusiasts

What is cultural exploration, without the food? Absolutely horrifying we tell you. :D

So, Yusuf and Sana recommended us to try their food from Xinjiang. 

Our dear friends were hardworking in scrolling their phone galleries to search for these photos among thousands, and for that, we thank them tremendously. They are:

Barbecued meat on skewers, similar to satay

Chaomifen (fried noodles)

Xinjiangzhuafan (Xinjiang fried rice)

Nang (Xinjiang style bread/pizza with no sauce)

Dapanji (Chicken stew)

Has your mouth watered yet? :D *drools*

At first, I (Afia) had a hard time digesting the pictures. Some of these food appear very spicy and hot, very contradicting to most stereotyped Chinese food in Malaysia. The spiciest Chinese Malaysian food we can think of is Kung Pao Chicken -- that's it.

Click here to read a blog dedicated to Chinese Malaysian cuisine. Lots of photos included!

Anyway, let's talk Geography. Xinjiang is in Northwest China where meat and wheat are popular. Yusuf finds it bizarre that in Xinjiang, mutton, beef and chicken are equally common whereas in Malaysia, chicken is the obvious number one. 

Logically, in the colder Northern weather, heaty foods are highly welcomed to maintain the body temperature. On top of that, in the case of Malaysian food prices, chicken is the least expensive of the three, hence its abundance. 

They even go to our night market (pasar malam) and they said that our night market food are such delicacies for them compared to other food in university. They usually buy fruits like apples and starfruits ("has a lot of water") also known as carambola from there. It is called as "yáng táo" in Mandarin.

Starfruit aka Carambola

Char Kuey Teow, a Chinese Malaysian dish that they love in the night market

Chinese food are generally healthy, but do they indulge in unhealthy or different food, too? According to Hofstede's 5 dimensions on China, Indulgence has a significantly low percentage of 24 percent.

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The real answer: Yes. Yusuf and Sana occasionally enjoy fast food such as burgers and french fries. Even so, they know their limits; they are aware of what kinds of food can "make them fat". Be noted that they are willing to try any Arabic food because they have not tried eating them. Furthermore, Sana and Yusuf like to eat yogurt that is original and fresh, beef, mostly chicken and anything that is being fried with noodles instead of rice. They love to eat steamboat (called 'huo guo' over there) too.

They usually use chopsticks, fork and spoon to eat, and rarely use bare hands to eat, unlike us Malaysians. One more interesting about them is that they really like to treat their friends with drinks and food even if we politely try to refuse. They will pull the "We are friends!" card to refuse our refusal. How kind-hearted are they? Honestly, the guilt is eating us up. We hope we will be the ones to treat them for the next meet up session, inshaAllah.

Of Said and Unsaid Language, Part 2

Showing Love

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Sana, being the one and only daughter in her family, always manifests her love by hugging and uttering 'I love you' to her parents (Even before saying goodbye to us, she offers us hugs!). However, hugs and affectionate words are not Yusuf's cup of tea (or his family's).

The possible factors may be:

• he is an older brother, expected to be independent, strong, and not 'mushy'
• he is so far away from home and his parents for the first time (hence, he did not find it necessary, yet)
• he strongly believes his family members know that they love each other very much, and thoughtful actions are enough

Frankly, we were expecting them to not be expressive, supported by Dr Afiza's anecdotes of her half-Chinese family, and the popular tiger-mum theory, but Sana definitely proved us wrong. Sana's family is one the few exceptions. 

Advising Others

They directly advise people who they are fond of but with strangers, they will do it indirectly or do not do anything about it. For example, we would try to repeat the Chinese words our friends share with us. Most of the time, Shai's tongue is pretty flexible with Chinese pronunciation,lucky her! But, Afia is hopeless is at it. 

Tones, a unique feature of the Chinese language

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Even Romanized Chinese is challenging to some 

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This results in Sana and Yusuf repeatedly correcting her mistakes. We constantly remind ourselves to not get offended, reasons being pronunciation and tones are of utmost importance in the Chinese language and direct advising is just how the Chinese people roll. It definitely requires major mindset readjustment.