Writer: Yew Ai Lin, Kok Je Syn, Irene Liang Jia Yun, Riko Nishiyama, Chaw Chiaw Mei, Christy Andrea Nathan

A team of 9 Public Relations students from HELP Matriculation Centre (HMC) have successfully hosted a virtual cultural event on the 18^th of November. The event was titled “CultureAllMeet,” which means that all cultures will meet on the event day, and that all are welcome to this cultural show. The 9 students worked as a team to make the cultural event a major success. The main purpose of this virtual show was to cultivate the public on the significance of cultural perspectives through a virtual platform. With the belief that the public will understand more in-depth about culture of an individual, group or even a nation through this cultural event, the 9 students did their best to make this event a success.  

The event started at 9:30am sharp with a post reminding the audience on Instagram to ensure that they had turned on post notifications for the account with the same handle as the event name. Ten minutes later, the posting of the cultural performances began. The first session of the cultural show was of a series of Indian cultural content. The first event of the day was a performance of the traditional Indian dance, Bharatanatyam, which was then followed by the second pre-recorded presentations about the tutorial on how to prepare chapati, a type of Indian flatbread. The third performance was yet another Indian dance performance, but with a modern twist, which was presented by a flow artiste based all the way in Delhi, India. To wrap up our session on Indian culture, an interview highlighted with an Indian lecturer from Help Matriculation Centre was shared on our Instagram account. To conclude, a total of two dance performances, a food presentation, and a pre-recorded Indian culture webinar were shared at the start of the virtual cultural event.  

The following theme of the cultural show was about Chinese cultures. This session was kick-started with a live session of a face changing performance. The performer wore a brightly colored costume and moved to dramatic, fast-paced music. After he finished the performance, the audience was also given a brief period of time to interact with him. This live performance was conducted on Zoom and streamed onto Instagram live simultaneously. After that, the cultural show was continued with pre-recorded videos of Chinese traditional performances. The performances consisted of a diabolo show, and the videos of the classical music instruments, Erhu and Guzheng. A pre-recorded food presentation video was also uploaded on Instagram and TikTok feed. This video was a tutorial of cooking wonton mee, a noodle dish that can be found from roadside hawker stalls in Malaysia.  

The next session displayed the East Malaysian culture which was a live webinar and food presentation. The live webinar with the topic “Sabah, Land Below the Wind,” started at 12.35p.m., and was headed by guest speaker Robert-Luke, a native Sabahan from Monash University. He first shared the geographical location of East Malaysia to start off the webinar. He loved to interact with the audience by answering all the questions and doubts from them. After the live webinar, the virtual event was continued with the posting of two delicious Sarawak typical cuisines which was brought by one of the teammates who is a pure Sarawakian. A food tutorial on how to cook midin and Sarawak Laksa was posted to wrap up the East Malaysia Culture session. Midin is a type of fern that grows in open areas often on swampy land and served only in Sarawak due to its perishable nature. The second food tutorial was a famous noodle dish which resembles the normal curry laksa found in Peninsular Malaysia, which is the Sarawak Laksa. The East Malaysia culture session ended around 1.25 p.m. 

The fourth session was about Malay culture which displayed a total of two food presentations and a Layang Mas performance. First food presentation was displayed by one of the public relations students. Nasi Lemak is the first dish we showcased in this session. In the video, a tutorial was made on how to cook nasi lemak, the national dish of Malaysia, at home.. After that, a second food presentation was showcased during this session, which was Rendang. Rendang originates from the Minangkabau culture and is usually eaten during festivals. To wrap up the Malay culture session, a pre-recorded video of a Layang Mas performance was uploaded to our Instagram feed. Layang Mas is a traditional dance originated from Perlis. It is a dance that is originally performed in the palace and uses a lot of fleeting hand movements (layang), turns, shoulder and hip movements. This session ended at around 2pm.  

The next session displayed the Japanese culture which was a webinar and quizzes about Japan with Kahoot! The live webinar started at 2:00 pm, and was headed by guest speaker Riko Nishiyama, a native Japanese, and Mayumi Sugiura, a half Japanese and half Malaysian from Help University. The hosts introduced cultural Japanese traditions that were close to their heart. They shared their knowledge about Japanese food as well as cultural events with the participants. It was difficult to incorporate everything in this short time because there are so many wonderful cultures in Japan, but they introduced some nice culture for audiences. They also utilized Kahoot! and got the audience involved to introduce them to unique Japanese culture in a quiz style. The Japanese culture session ended around 2.30 pm. At 2:40 pm, as a continuation to Indian culture, Mr. Vincent Paul, a lecturer at HELP University, was invited to host a small workshop on Mandala artwork. Co-hosted by Mr. Vincent as well as a team member of “CultureAllMeet”, the participants enjoyed watching Mr. Vincent produce a beautiful piece of work by just using a pen. They also tried their hand at drawing mandala under the guidance of Mr. Vincent. The workshop ran for approximately one hour, and participants were expressed their interest towards a second session in the near future. 

 

The last session of the day was a watercolour sharing session of the artworks made by a local artist. The theme of these artworks was about the historical buildings in Malaysia, which could attract the attention of the local followers. These artworks consisted of watercolour paintings and digital painting, and they were able to illustrate the magnificence of the local structures. In order to provide further information for the audience, the caption of the posts contained a brief introduction of the iconic landmarks. Besides, the artworks were posted on the Instagram feed with the acknowledgement of the artist, Jerome Liew Chai.  

As this was the first virtual cultural event ever held by the Help Matriculation Centre, the team started with quite a lot of concerns and challenges. But with the support from the advisors and collaboration within the teammates, the cultural event at last was a success and a new history too. As a result, the team worked hard to meet the expectations to broaden the public’s horizons by gaining new and unique insights of the diverse cultures. The team did reach out the participants and seek for their opinions and most of the thoughts expressed upon attending the online culture event was a new and memorable experience. Many complimented the team for the interesting performances as well as the informative online seminar. Moreover, the public also expressed their appreciation towards the care taken by the team to ensure the posts all had a cohesive theme to the audiences.  

The virtual cultural show ended at 4.45p.m. with immense success. Since the event was conducted online, the wrapped it by posting a collage of the team members on the Instagram page. This cultural show was more than just an assignment for the students of the Public Relations course at Help University. It provided hands-on public relations practitioner experience in promoting greater awareness of the diverse Asian cultures in Malaysia. The one of its kind cultural show which highlighted a diverse selection of ethnic food, performances, and firsthand experiences on Instagram, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.  

“We are grateful for this precious opportunity to promote the importance of culture among the public, especially among the younger generations. We also learn the significance of teamwork in university, in the workplace, or in daily life. Just like what Helen Keller said, alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”  – Team from CultureAllMeet