As one of the activities under the UTAR Hospital Fundraising Project, a cultural performance titled “New-Norm Cultural Performance 2021: Culture Awareness” was organised virtually by students from MPU34152 Leadership and Teambuilding on 14 March 2021 via ZOOM. The online event was supported by the Department of Soft Skills Competency (DSSC) and it saw more than 80 participants from the public including students and staff from UTAR.

The objective of the event was to promote different cultures among different races around the world, as well as to allow participants to have better understanding of the people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Through understanding each other’s differences and similarities, one can avoid conflict and this allows people from different cultural groups to live in a harmonious society. 

According to the Organising Chairperson Tee Tze Qian, the performers were from the subject MPU34022 Arts and Cultural Performance – who came in a group of seven. The event also featured a video that was prepared by the performers, as well as a mini origami workshop that taught participants how to make origami of stuff that symbolise Malay, Indian and Chinese cultures.

“Having this opportunity to become the organising chairperson was a very pleasant experience for me. This is my first time becoming a chairperson and I was able to guide a team of 10 members to complete this event. I could not have accomplished so much without the help from my members. This event taught me how to handle the workload with patience and strategic planning. The key was having good communication skills as it resulted in less misunderstanding and quarrel. I would also want to take this opportunity to thank our MPU34152 Leadership and Teambuilding lecturer Nurzanatul Amira binti Azizanr providing us with advice and guiding us throughout the preparation of the event. Let me share a quote from Steve Jobs, ‘Great things in business are never done by one person; they're done by a team of people’. Through this event, I believe, our members have gained the spirit of teambuilding and this will be beneficial for all of us in the future,” said Tee.

The ceremony was graced by UTAR Department of Soft Skills Competency (DSSC) of Sungai Long Campus Lecturer Nurzanatul Amira binti Azizan. She said, “I am delighted to have this opportunity to welcome everyone. Besides, I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you for participating in this event to help empower the meaning of culture in our society, as well as assisting in raising fund for the UTAR Hospital. UTAR is now setting up a hospital in a town called Kampar, offering both Western and Traditional Chinese medicines. This hospital will also provide clinical training for medical and science students.”

She added, “This new-norm cultural performance offers to explore students’ talents as well as their creative and artistic skills. For this online event, several short videos have been lined up, including seven drama performances and a mini origami workshop. Culture is the way of life that we people in society are blessed with. Culture is the characteristics of a particular group that can be defined in everything from language, religion, cooking, social habit, music and art. Through culture, we are governed by norm and custom, which are the pillar for every country in the world.”

During the first session, four videos were presented by four groups, namely Hijau, Ching Chong Production, Six Idiots and Malingshu. The four videos played at the first session fell under the theme ‘Culture in Malaysia’. The first drama titled “Festival Preparation between Malay and Chinese” by Hijau showed the similarities and differences between the two different cultures before a festival celebration.

The second performance was a comedy-style drama titled “Comparisons: Chinese New Year Culture Before and After Implementing Movement Control Order (MCO)”. It was presented by group two “Ching Chong Production”. In order to illustrate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the celebration of Chinese New Year, the team presented a drama about the preparation of Chinese New Year before and after the implementation of MCO.

The third drama performance titled “The Billions of Briyani” was about Indian food, namely “Nasi Briyani” presented by Six Idiots, while the fourth drama performance titled “The Evolution of Chinese New Year Songs from 1946-2005-2019) was pertaining to three different Chinese New Year songs which were popular in different timelines. It was presented by group Malingshu. 

A mini origami workshop titled “One Malaysia” was held during break time. The origami workshop taught participants how to make Wau Bulan which represented the Malay culture; Diya which represented the Indian culture and lantern which represented the Chinese culture. 

The third session of performance saw three video presentations from group Fish n Chip, Orange and Survivor. The firth drama performance featured the difference in cultural behaviour between Western and Asian. The sixth drama performance featured the Korean culture. It was presented by group Orange where the students showed some things that would come to one’s mind when one thinks of Korea. The last drama performance was presented by group Survivor. They showed the participants some famous places in Akihabara as well as some Japanese foods.

The online event ended with a closing ceremony that featured the reflection and comments from lecturers as well as a group photo session.