Concert Gives Taste of Culture

As I was selecting a cold drink from a campus food stand, a Malay guy rode up on a motorbike and parked. I asked him if he had any recommendation, then we sat down at a table there to sip and chat, me sampling soursop fruit juice and he drinking iced tea. He has a great big magnetic smile and his name is Muhammad Ghazali. (Those who've taken Whitworth's Core 250 might recognize this name. "Al-Ghazali, all Quran, all the time"…anyone?). He told me that that evening he'd be emceeing a concert where children of UNIMAS staff would be performing traditional Malaysian music, dance, song, and theater, and that I could come if I wanted.

I arrived plenty early at what UNIMAS calls its Experimental Theater, located at the old campus. The set was beautiful and so were the unfamiliar percussion instruments appearing on stage. The only ones I recognized were the gongs, the conga-like drums turned on their sides, and the keyboard instrument which resembled a marimba.

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The concert opened up with the Malaysian national anthem which is titled "My Country" and was adopted at independence in 1957. Its lyrics are short and sweet: "My country, the land where my blood is spilt, The people live united and progressive, Blessings of happiness, may God grant, And that our King may reign in peace."

First on stage were the musicians. I enjoyed seeing how each instrument was played and what sound it produced. Had I been playing I probably would have chosen the horizontal set of knobbed bronze kettle gongs called the bonang because its parts had variety and it kicked off every song. Considering the redundancy of the rhythms and phrases, the children's ability to end songs together without a cue was baffling. I really don't know how they did it, unless someone up front was giving cues which I never caught.

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Next were the dancers who wore exotic costumes and performed graceful and methodical motions to a repetitious percussion jam. Traditional dances from three of Sarawak's major indigenous groups – Iban, Bidayuh, and Melanau – were demonstrated.


Next were the actors. They performed a story which I couldn't quite follow, but I knew from their cute costumes that it took place in a forest. During one part they sang and grooved to "You Are My Sunshine," which was just about the only English spoken during the concert.

Then a UNIMAS professor made a speech encouraging the children to study hard and to never forget their traditional culture. Finally, all the children came together to perform the finale. It was quite spectacular to see everyone singing and dancing on stage together.

My favorite three children were the adorable boy whose face peeked out from behind his drum, the pretty girl in the white dress who was the star of the play, and the little one kneeling next to her whose facial expression never once changed from how it appears below.

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After the performance Muhammad invited me along for celebratory tea and food. It was all delicious, especially the tea which was dark, milky, and very sweet. After learning more from Muhammad, who happens to be a senior in my same Faculty of Social Sciences, and meeting some of his friends, it was getting late and I said goodbye. I began walking back to my dorm, but it wasn't long before five guys packed into a very small car offered me a ride. Four in the back seat must have been pretty uncomfortable, but it was only a five minute ride back to Alamanda College.

Old Campus

From my dorm, the old campus is a twenty-five minute walk along a road paved through jungle. Compared to the new campus it is much smaller and more compact, resembling a high school or a summer camp. Nearly every building is connected by a covered walkway. It feels much more like Whitworth.

The photo at the top of this blog is an aerial view of the old campus. That main building is where the Faculties of Social Sciences and of Economics and Business are stationed. These are the only two departments which haven't yet made the leap over to the new campus. Their buildings are awaiting funding and completion.

The old campus is where all of my classes except the Malay language course will be. It's a minor inconvenience that I live on the new campus, but UNIMAS owns a dozen air-conditioned tour buses that shuttle students around the new campus as well as back and forth from the old campus. The bus comes often enough, and I'm sure the housing here is slightly nicer than there.

Classes officially started last week, but due to all the public holidays most lecturers, staff, and students stay on break until this week. Last Monday was Maal Hijrah, the Islamic commemoration of Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina and the beginning of the new Islamic year. Thursday was New Year's Day. Malaysia is a land of many public holidays because it tries to recognize the major celebrations of Malays, Chinese, and Indians, as well as Muslims, Christians, and Hindus. Noteworthy is that compared to the Peninsular Malaysian states, Sarawak has very few Indians, so it's the only state in Malaysia which doesn't recognize Deepavali, the Hindu festival of lights.

So far I've attended only one lecture. When I walked into Mr. Stanley's Wednesday-morning Malaysian Political System class, he was speaking Bahasa Malaysia. Once I descended the steps of the big lecture hall and took my seat, he announced that the remainder of the class as well as all student presentations would be in English. I felt like an ass, but I also recognize Mr. Stanley's point that it benefits the students to conduct class in English. It was discovered a few years back, he explained, that university graduates were not getting sufficient employment, and a major reason was found to be their inability to communicate with employers in English. That is why UNIMAS was the first of Malaysia's public universities to adopt an unwritten rule that all courses would be taught in English. Apparently that rule is still somewhat flexible, but my presence, I suppose, gives Mr. Stanley a good excuse to abide by it. It also shifts any ill will about its enforcement from him to me!

Eighty students had already enrolled in the course by last Wednesday, yet only eight of us showed for the first lecture. They say that's not abnormal for the first week. As with all of my courses here, Malaysian Political System occurs once a week for three hours. In about forty-five minutes Mr. Stanley lucidly covered all of the basics of Malaysia's political system, and then declared the class over for the semester. He'd gone over everything the course was intended to cover, he said. But those who wanted to read more, to dig deeper, to keep up with current events, to understand and debate the issues at a critical level could stick around and do so. Pretty inspiring tactic if you ask me.

For another forty-five minutes Mr. Stanley dove head first into the most controversial Malaysian political issues of the day. He explained how most countries including the U.S. have affirmative action, but whereas it is typically designed to benefit minorities, Malaysia's affirmative action benefits the political and popular majority, Malays.

The three other political science courses I'm signed up for are Introduction to Malaysian Social History and two upper division courses called ASEAN Politics and Political Ecology.

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Around Samarahan and Kuching (English: cat) you occasionally see homeless dogs and cats. You may also spot someone driving on the right side of the rode, which here – as in the UK – is the wrong side of the rode. If you're lucky, you can find the ping-pong player pictured below serving up some mad spin.

Distinctly Malaysian

Below are pictures of Malaysian currency. The exchange rate is currently about 3.5 ringgit per 1 US dollar. The coins feature on one side the Chinese hibiscus (Malay: Bunga Raya) - the national flower of Malaysia and the name of one of the colleges here at UNIMAS - and on the other side items of Malay culture.

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The bills differ in size and color and depictions, but their front sides all feature the bust of Malaysia's first king ('57-'60), a strictly ceremonial post. Notice the Petronas Twin Towers and the cool see-through window on the 5 note.

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Below are Malaysia's current king and queen ('06-'11) whose portraits are hung in many of the buildings on campus.

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Kolej Alamanda

I live in a four-story apartment-style dormitory building, one of ten which comprise Kolej Alamanda. Each of the colleges (dorms) is made up of multiple buildings, and none of the buildings – excepting mine, the one for international students – is co-ed. My sense is that dorms like Whitworth's Baldwin-Jenkins, which has women a floor above men, or Duvall, with men's and women's rooms on the same floor, are unheard of in Malaysian public universities. Imagine the reaction to those U.S. universities which allow co-ed rooms! All of the colleges are named after a flower found in Sarawak. Below are the alamanda flower and a typical dorm building here.
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My apartment is on the second floor. Out the kitchenette window is a view of one of two landmark water towers on UNIMAS' new campus. Visible in front of the tower is the man-made lake at the center of campus where rowing competitions take place. When I took the picture below, the daily rain was falling. It regularly comes in the afternoon and lasts only an hour or two.

I feel very pleased with my living situation here. The apartment comes with a fridge, microwave, kettle, washing machine, and TV. The kettle is crucial for making tea and coffee (both newly acquired pleasures) and for boiling tap water which I then cool in the fridge and consider safe for drinking. The TV has four channels, only one of which sometimes has programs in English. My room is great. It's got a fan, air conditioning, a bed, desk, and two large cabinets. I am most thankful for the AC unit; I'd take it over the bed. My understanding is that only apartments in my individual building have fridges, washing machines, and AC. The Malaysian students get along with just a fan and use coins in the dorm's laundry room to wash their clothes, but they also pay about $1 per day. I pay $4.
- My apartment has five single rooms, but only two are occupied. It's just me and a Korean guy who's way sweet. His name is Jang Kyu Seon, but I just call him "sun," which kind of captures his demeanor. He is very cheerful, generous, and easy to get along with. We enjoy each other's company. The only other undergraduate international student this semester is another Korean, a girl named Min Seon who stays in the apartment to our left. To our right lives an Iraqi PhD student named Raqee. He is very eager to improve his English and occasionally asks me what things are called and for pronunciation tips. He's given me a mandate to constantly correct his speaking which I won't be using since he speaks English just fine. The second picture below is of the expressions he's currently memorizing.

Unlike Whitworth, UNIMAS has a curfew. All students who live on campus must return by midnight, and I've been told that the security guards come starting at 11 to herd students into their dorms. I went to Kuching Saturday evening for dinner and a movie (at Kuching's only cinema) with a few guys who were certain that I could return to campus past curfew fifty times before they'd actually punish me. Another friend of mine who's actually on staff here advises students to just stay at his house for the night if they think they'll be coming back later than midnight.

Exploring around the campus last Tuesday I couldn't help but notice that I was the only person I saw the entire day wearing shorts. Yikes! I've been told that it's fine for me to wear shorts though, so I won't worry about it, but to class I'll wear slacks. The campus officially opened in 2006, and many projects are still under construction, including, sadly, the sports complex. Below is a panoramic view of the university square bordered by some administrative buildings and the library (center-right).