By KYLE ROSHEN JACOB Dana Low hopes that this new chapter will continue to open new doors for her and that she will become a more accomplished person. It was all too surreal for School Of Communication student, Low Ching Ching Dana, 21, when she found out she had made the Top 18 finalists who will compete for the title of Miss Universe Malaysia 2017 in February next year.
“I was in the car with my sister when I received the e-mail saying that I had made the Top 18 and it was very overwhelming to have to hold back tears considering that my sister didn’t know that I actually tried out for it,” said Dana. “It was kind of nerve-wracking knowing that I now have a 1/18 chance at becoming Miss Universe Malaysia but at the same time I was very excited to begin this journey at that point,” she added. Dana had always wanted to go into the entertainment industry ever since she was a child. Her parents were very supportive of her and always encouraged her to take every chance that she got. However, growing up, Dana matured really fast and she never looked her age. “When I was 12, I looked like someone who was 16 or 17 years old. I would go for casting calls and get rejected because I don’t look the part when they see me in person as compared to photos and for some reason, I was never allowed to try out for more mature roles based on my looks so that really affected my confidence,” she said. Dana explained how the people around her at that time used to call her names like ‘Giant’ and ‘King Kong’, with relation to her Mandarin name and how she was constantly called out for being a bit bigger and older looking than her peers. “It wasn’t till I got older that I realized I shouldn’t allow people to hold me back with what they have to say about me,” she added. Dana was doing her internship with The Idea Hut early this year and Miss Universe Malaysia just so happened to be one of this event company’s clients. During this time, she worked very closely with the management, who felt that she had potential and prompted her to join the competition next year, telling her she should give it a shot. She remembers telling them, “Aah, no! I don’t have the look.” However, everything sort of came together after that fateful day. “A lot of people started to ask me if I’ve ever tried modelling or beauty pageants or something in the entertainment industry. Many Facebook, Instagram and even YouTube posts started appearing on my feed even though I hadn’t searched for anything of that sort and I just felt like it was the world kind of pushing me towards that direction. That’s when I decided to just bite the bullet and well, here I am,” she said. The journey so far has been a life-changing experience for Dana. Before orientation week during mid-October, Dana was scared at the thought that she would have to be spending a whole week with stereotypical and dramatic pageant girls and more importantly, if she would get along with her roommate. She also explained how preparation for this week was very stressful as she was constantly in and out of classes shopping for everything that she needed for the competition. “I learnt a lot at orientation week and I definitely feel like a changed person. Many people told me that I’ve changed in a sense that I’ve lost weight and that I’ve got a different aura around me now. “There’s also a lot of things that I need to get used to such as being more active on social media; I’m not someone who’s really vain, likes to take selfies and post a lot of pictures but my experience so far has been really amazing in terms of learning and meeting people,” she added. On top of impacting her in a positive way, Dana hopes to handle the fame that comes with this journey the right way. “I told myself coming into this that I wouldn’t want fame to change me. Yeah, it would change my schedule and how I interact with people, but I would still want people to remember me for who I am. I know I’ll have my family and friends with me throughout this journey to keep me grounded and remind me of my roots,” she said. Dana advices that one should not let others dictate what you want to do with your life. “At the end of the day, people in your life come and go but you have to stick with yourself and you should not look back in regret; especially when it comes to what other people have said or done to hold you back. "I believe that confidence is key and I know many people struggle with that, but I think it’s important to love yourself because to be able to reach out and care for other people, you need to start with yourself,” she said. Dana does regret letting what her peers have said get to her but stresses that she doesn’t want that for other people and that everyone should use their full potential. “If you’re having a bad day, just smile. It brings out so much in you just by smiling and it shows people that you’re not going to let anything bring you down," she added. With the competition only four months away, Dana looks forward to this experience helping her in her journey towards becoming a better person.
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By NATALIE CHAN XIN CI Librarian working on her duties at the information desk located at level 2 of the library. University students spend a considerable amount of time working on their assignments and studying in the library. But most of the time, they are unaware of the keepers of the knowledge hidden amongst the shelves and stacks: the librarians.
Most Taylor's University (TU) students go on a library tour with a librarian during their first year experience programme or their English class during foundation year. However, most don't know much about the librarians themselves. Here’s a deeper dive into what our librarians do.
Librarians also help faculty members to locate and search for new academic journals and locate textbooks for a new research area of their interest.
Undeniably, purchasing books for the library is different from purchasing books for ourselves. Ting said there are so many factors to consider while making a purchase: Does this book help the students academically? Is this online database user-friendly or helpful to students and faculty members?
“We are multitaskers because we don’t just need to know knowledge on our school but also knowledge of other schools,” said Elly. She added that being a librarian is also exciting because they need to wrap their head around many things ranging from the front to the back of the library and also dealing with different people every day.
“The world is changing and there’s so many technologies in the world, especially for those who are teaching. “What we find is that we have to keep abreast to the technology softwares, so that we can impart all this knowledge to the students in the classes as well,” said Taylor’s University Library and Head of Information Services Unit Assistant Manager, Stephanie Koh Hean Fong. In addition to the main tasks above, librarians also design posters and campaigns to market new library rules and regulations; encouraging students to adhere to them. Despite all the hard work that the librarians put in to ensure the functionality of the library system, there are still many students who don’t use the library facilities or are still unaware of how much the library system has to offer. To counter this, the librarians urge students to drop by the library and approach any librarians to enquire so that they can help students become more aware of the library resources. Librarians do not deal with only one skill set or focus on a specific area at work, they do more than just shelving books or interacting with students and faculty members. Librarians want students to come seek help and not to be shy when facing problems, and encourage them to use the facilities and utilities provided. By CLARISSA LOI PUI LING Although October reigns as the month of spooky shenanigans, one month-long event in particular have artists and creative enthusiasts alike cracking their heads to ‘ink’ of something. InkTober is an art challenge created by illustrator Jake Parker in 2009, which started off as a simple way to cultivate positive drawing habits which grew to become one of the most prolific annual art challenges that provoked the universal collaboration and curation of artworks through social media. The four rules to InkTober is self-explanatory:
InkTober’s burgeoning prominence among art communities and beyond has signalled an art revolution that is encouraging everyone, even Malaysians, to jump onto this bandwagon. Regardless of their artistic skills, even those who are new and unacquainted with the local art scene and the challenge itself can get their juices flowing with the mutual support from the community.
“We want to promote the art of manual art tools, especially using ink – it’s all about the fun and passion on drawing and comics,” explained President of Comicore Club and Member of InkTober Malaysia Committee, Mior Azhar Mior Said. “We also wanted to make the InkTober Malaysia community as on par with the other participating countries like Indonesia Inktober, UK Inktober, and France Inktober,” he added. InkTober’s participants are as diverse as they come, and regardless of one’s expertise in the arts, anyone with a genuine interest in the challenge along with a working Internet connection is welcome to the InkTober community. “Art has become more relaxed and spontaneous, and it’s a far cry from how tense art was like 20 years ago. Hence, people are becoming more comfortable in expressing themselves, and that's why InkTober is a good platform to express our inner thoughts and emotions,” said Taylor’s Design School lecturer, Redzwan Hisham. The artist behind the Instagram art account @pottetto, Fiona Yap, credits an open reception to the workings of the creative world as to why more individuals are getting ink-spired by InkTober. “Creative online platforms like YouTube and Instagram are enabling people to put their creativity out there. When there’s a trend going on, it influences everyone to do it as well and it’s never bad to follow trends as long as they’re enjoying themselves,” comments Fiona. Redzwan Hisham paints some of his go-to art tools. | Photo credit: Redzwan Hisham
“There’s the pressure of making it to the end! I’ve tried participating for 3 years and never once made it to Day 31,” reveals Fiona. “It’s usually because I take a long time to flesh my idea out and because I’m a perfectionist when it comes to art. Perhaps I’ll break the chain in 2016,” she added. Overthinking is often attributed as the biggest hindrance to the creative process, but InkTober encourages artists to draw with a fluid hand and a free mind, thus helping artists to develop a positive mindset and even a drawing routine when it comes to their art. “InkTober makes me work with both my hand and mind; rather than thinking too much about it. Don’t think too much and just do it, as ideas will come as you go along. Remember, you are doing it for yourself and not to impress others,” advised Redzwan. Despite it being a daily challenge, one should not be deterred if they happen to miss a couple of InkTober days. “If you’re feeling unsure or not confident enough to join InkTober – just do it! It’s a month for practice and creating, so please don’t be afraid. It’s never too late to join,” said Fiona. InkTober presents a brilliant opportunity for those interested in the arts to tap into their creative sides and dabble with art at little expense. With a Drink and Draw session of InkTober and an InkTober Malaysia art exhibition in Perak and Klang Valley in the works, it will be exciting to see how the local art communities grow into greater things from here. For more information on InkTober and InkTober Malaysia, check out their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/inktobermalaysia/?fref=ts . By CLARABELLE AK LAWRENCE Leanna Archer, Robert Nay, Neha Gupta, Moziah Bridges… these are some of the inspirational youngsters who launched their own start-ups, resulting in hundred thousands of dollars.
Their businesses ranged from having their own line of natural hair care products, mobile phone games and family-based business while the profit ultimately proceeds towards helping the world out through missionary visits. Each of their start-ups initially started off small and eventually bloomed into prominent businesses, offering products or services that customers look forward to. The ideas they came up with however, are based on simple everyday needs or wants customers will therefore get attracted to. What made them successful are their perseverance and other factors such as goals, motivation and learning from their hiccups along the way. Would you say that starting up businesses at a young age is easy? Well, you may have to think again as several young entrepreneurs in Taylor’s University themselves emphasised on various measures used to succeed in the business industry at a young age. Particularly, how do they manage to prove their accountability in launching their start-ups? Unique ideas and their sincerity in delivering quality service to their customers helped a lot. Especially for some young entrepreneurs, the credit goes to their ideas of including charity initiatives. “The purpose of why we started the business is because a lot of people want to help with charity. So what we want to do is to let our customers buy their groceries but also to the community at the same time without doing anything extra. We put the power in our customers’ hands to help people who need it,” said School of Computing And IT student, Duncan Tsen Ken Sang, 22. In every start-up, there should be a purpose. This is why young entrepreneurs should be mindful of their target audiences; only then, they will be able to expand their ideas successfully. As you can see, even something as simple as selling an exclusive type of roasted coffee bean may attract the right customers when one knows their specific target market. However, nothing ever comes easy in life and it all boils down to the efforts that one can put into it. Same goes to these young entrepreneurs who started up their own businesses at a young age without any sufficient business knowledge. In comparison to experienced entrepreneurs, these young upstarts will certainly face many challenges due to their limited business experience. “There has been a lot of challenges that we have faced, but our main problem was the exposure of the product and the trust of the market. The reason is because being a new player in the market, no one knows our product; therefore it is not credible enough for people to buy our product. Gaining exposure requires time and money,” said Taylor’s Business School student, Loo Pin Wei (Lex), 21, who owns an enterprise which is an authorised representative of Borneo Luwak Coffee. He also added that to survive a business, one needs a team that can complement both your strengths and weaknesses. By doing so is to look for team members with varied talents especially with skills in design, promotion and management, to name a few. Without setbacks or stepping out of their comfort zone, it will not encourage them to work their way up to the top. Hence, these young entrepreneurs are admirable as they are not afraid to take risks in embarking on the journey of entrepreneurship. They take their lessons of failing as lessons for future endeavours. But what’s most important is to keep a clear goal of what you want to achieve! By EDELYN CHOW Bahir Yeusuff (right) talking to Albert Loh (left) at the premiere for his third film, The Joshua Tapes. | Photo credit: www.thejoshuatapes.com From cult classics like Godzilla and The Last House on the Left to movies of the millennium such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we’ve all seen them at least once or at the very least heard them in passing conversations.
Although these movies all differ in genre, production and directors, the one denominating factor that makes them all similar is; they are all American remakes of an original film done in a foreign language from a foreign country. American remakes of foreign films took place since the early 1930’s, with some of the very first being of French and German origins. As the years passed, directors and producers looked to films from Asian countries like Japan and Korea, with films like The Grudge and Oldboy remade into English films. With no shortage of repertoire of foreign film remakes and more being made in the process, the question that remains is why these remakes are so popular, sometimes overshadowing the success of the original film. Independent Producer, Bahir Yeussuf, 33, who has been in the Malaysian film industry since 2005, seems to think that remakes aren’t necessarily the reason why but more the Americanisation of a film. “I think remaking a foreign film gives a good story the opportunity to find a new audience, while possibly opening up that new audience to the originals. But to Americanise a foreign film makes it seem like the original story isn’t good enough, that Hollywood needs to come in and make it ‘appetising’ to an American audience”, said Yeussuf. To put it out there, remakes of foreign films are not necessarily a bad thing. It gives exposure to the original films and may sometimes give audiences a better understanding of what is going on onscreen, something that watching the original film may not offer due to cultural and expressive differences. “Certain remakes can be good if executed well enough. Movies like Taxi that is originally a French film, remade into a movie of the same name in English in 2004, is a good example. It really depends on the direction taken,” said Producer, Abu Baker Siddiq, 35. Another contributing factor to the increase in remakes, is the amount of risk studios and producers are willing to take. Their reputation and a lot of money is put on the line in producing a movie, as everyone wants to make the next big hit. “Personally, I think there is a drain in filmmaking currently happening in Hollywood. Studios are hoping to bank on a sure thing, so why take a bigger risk on a smaller budget horror movie, for example, when you can spend more, put a famous face to an existing foreign property and making it in English,” says Yeusuff. “Sometimes, taking a movie that has already been made is easier as you can predict their success by the respective countries’ box office collection. Producers tend to play the safe game by using a formula that has worked in a different region before hence, reducing the risk of a flop,” added Baker. When it comes down to it, filmmakers will still be churning out remakes of foreign films. Whether it is due to the fact that they aren’t willing to take a risk or if they feel a personal connection to the film and wish to retell it according to how they see it. The fact of the matter is, films are still being made for audience entertainment and artistic expression. “At the end of the day, there is a constant thread of trying to make the new one (movie) better and reach a wider audience. And you can’t fault any artist for that,” says Yeusuff. |
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