Beyond Labels SU Bazaar (28/5/19-29/5/19)

We live in a society that labels us for who we are, there are some certain rules which have been set for us to follow. We are expect to "follow" these rules, so we won't be labelled as the "rebel kids". I know sometimes following these rules can make us small, each time we want to break out, seems like there is no way out of it. Not anymore! It's time to go beyond with Beyond Labels! 

What is Beyond Labels? Beyond Labels is a PR campaign management project run by Year 2 PR and Corporate Communication students (August 2017) under the Department of Communication (DoC) at Sunway University. The campaign is to break social bias that we live by everyday, we can go beyond what we see. Okay, let's get into real business! 

I missed out the soft launch of the campaign, so a trip to the bazaar will make it up. On the first day, the moment I arrived on campus, I saw two big food trucks were located either side of the walkway between college and university.

The sun was scorching hot and everyone was drenched in their sweats, usually at this time I would order my favourite ice blended chocolate. Unfortunately, I was running down with flu and cough,  so I had to forgo the cold drink and chose Belgian hot chocolate instead.  Luckily I'm a big fan of chocolate and desserts, either one of them was fine. As there was no seat around the walkway, I headed to the college boulevard, thanks to the kind team members of the campaign who assisted me.

After I settled myself down one of the benches at the boulevard, but I was still sweating from the heat. How do I cool myself down? Easy, honeydew pudding with no ice. Actually, the upper part of the freezing box is not that cold, so I got to taste of the dessert. They also have cupcakes and everyone's favorite nasi lemak. I had to rush off to class after that.

The second day, I headed back to the college boulevard to have a good look around. Apparently, the time was still early, some of them were setting up. I was convinced by the team members to play a game of balloon darts, but I'm afraid of balloons popping. The walkway between college and university, there were three food trucks. As I'm about to head to the university foyer, the pink balloons slipped and up in the sky they go! Now that's what I called "beyond labels"!

I think we can be just like balloons, once it is released, we can go way beyond! We never might know where we end up at, or discover something that we never have tried before. I had so much fun at the bazaar!It's time to go beyond! Are you ready to go infinity and beyond?

Identify, not classify! 

Find out more at Beyond Labels' official social media accounts: 

FB: Beyondlabels_su 

IG: @beyonndlabels.su 

马大佛学会菩提之乐2019：《爱的重奏》（11/5/19）

“爱” 这个字看起来很简单，但是实际上它却是很 “复杂” 。怎么说呢？我们小时候，爱很容易挂在嘴边。“我爱你” 这三个字随时都能说出口；长大了之后，我们便是把爱收在心里，以行动证明。但是问题又回来了， “爱” 这个字，我们如何在自己角度诠释它呢？ 还是我们一直觉得，爱在我们的身边但是感受不到？ 想要知道爱的多重奏吗？ 走，让我带你去感受满满的爱！

演员们一个个在台上叙说自己的角色，以及说他们所面对的困境。就算在困境里，他们会以满满的正能量来面日常生活中的种种挑战！第一幕就在巴士站，宁宁和好友在谈着大学的生活。“宁宁，你几时要回家乡啊？” 宁宁说：“我不回家了！我打算找一份工作赚一笔钱。” 好友说：“这样啊，哪好吧！如果有什么事的话就告诉我哦！”

不久之后，廖爸爸拨电来问女儿目前的状况。然而像现代的青年一样，每次父母拨电来就觉得有点 “不耐烦”。 “爸, 不用担心啦！我会自己想办法来兼顾学业和工作。有什么事，等我回来再谈可以吗？” 廖爸爸说：“哦，这样啊！好啊，没问题！爸爸知道你很忙，所以就不打扰你了！” 就这样掛电话了。

廖爸爸往常在书桌写日记，想对女儿的一番话。虽然在电话中，嘴上说没关系，但是听语气来是多希望女儿宁宁回来陪爸爸，多点父女的陪伴时间。这一幕有让我有点心酸，因为我发现自己自从升到大三之后，拨电话回家的次数也越来越少了。心里有点过意不去，因为家乡的外公外婆多希望宝贝孙女的声音。

在另一边，廖爸爸就到一间孤儿院为孩子们添加欢乐，也是孩子们口中的 “开心叔叔”。 常被取笑的翔翔，被开心叔叔和他一起表演。不过小朋友不给予什么支持，“如果不配合的话，哪你们没有礼物收哦！来爱的鼓励！” 廖爸爸说。回到家，他以往在书桌前写日记，时不时会提到女儿宁宁。突然间医院向廖爸爸通知他的病情，原来他要告诉宁宁，他有病在身；只是不知道要如何向女儿开口。

当廖爸爸去诊断的时候，病情已经恶化了！院方通知宁宁，她马上放下手上的工作就赶着去医院。不过医生告诉她要有心理准备，不过一切太晚了！廖爸爸已经没在人间了。这对宁宁的打击很大，因为最爱的爸爸已经离开了！趁着我们最爱的人还在，就好好珍惜每一分，每一秒，直到他们离开了，才学会 “珍惜” 这两个字，也太迟了！

当宁宁在哭泣，孤儿院院长拨点来：“哈咯！请问这是廖先生吗？”宁宁说：“您好！我爸不在。我是廖先生的女儿。” 院方说：“原来是廖小姐。啊，这样的！我们院方在这周六十周年庆典，是否可以代廖先生出席此庆典吗？他每次给我们孤儿院最大支持！” 宁宁说她会出席。

她到孤儿院时候，小朋友们拥蜂而来，“姐姐，开心叔叔在哪里啊？怎么他不在呢？” 其中一个小朋友问道，“你们的开心叔叔去到一个很遥远的地方，没那么快回来。” 宁宁就教小朋友们《生命中的朋友》的手语表演，这让我再次想起在中学的时刻。每次等化学室开门，都会在草场听学弟学妹唱歌。翔翔就把宁宁拉到一旁，“姐姐，你好！我是翔翔！相信开心叔叔是最亮的一颗星！” 宁宁说：“我也是希望他会是最亮的星星！”


宁宁终于领悟，原来爸爸在生的时候都把爱给这些孩子们，让他们感受到满满的父爱。而她就继续把这份爱传承下去，替爸爸完成未完成的任务。爱可以用很多方式来表达，我们总是觉得 “我爱你” 这三个字只是用在情侣之间，不是哦！“我爱你” 这三个字也可以用在家人和朋友们的身上。

最后，歌手们送上黎升铭老师的《给》，所有前台幕后向观众们致谢。我们回向，马大佛学会菩提之夜2019 ：《爱的重奏》正式圆满结束！我就走去恭喜每个演员呈现的精彩表演。

亿濠的同学们问：“亿濠，这位是……” 他说：“这是我的学姐—— 袈文！小学就认识到现在。” 同学们感叹：“哇，亿濠！你学姐过来支持你咧！真的是人生大赢家！” 我可以看他露出沾沾自喜的脸色。不只是忆濠，学妹—— 雯涵也是！真的很开心，我能够和中学的学弟学妹们相聚在一起，可以说是缘分！


恭喜马大佛学会菩提之夜演出成功！我也希望可以用歌声弘扬佛法！

BGF 30th Anniversary (5/5/19)

It's been busy weekend for Katelyn, yesterday she attended Kindness Concert held by The Star Rage. Fresh from yesterday's event, Katelyn showed no signs of slowing down by attending Buddhist Gem Fellowship's 30th anniversary celebration along side her Sunway University Buddhist Society (SBS) kayana mitras (friends in the Dharma), at SJK(C) Yuk Chai.

I hopped off from the car as I arrived at the school, I saw two lion dancers at the entrance of the hall greeting the guests, they were in position mode. One of the attendants asked me which society I was representing, I said Sunway University Buddhist Society. I looked at the list, it's number 29. "Follow me this way please!" the attendant said.

As guests entered the room, I saw a big screen projector. Quickly, Yee Tang spotted me in an instant and led me to our table. It's been awhile since I had Coke as a cocktail drink. A sip or two won't hurt a little, right? The emcees were in their position to greet the guests, "Welcome to BGF 30th anniversary celebration! Now let us give a warm welcome to our VIPs!"

Remember the lion dances were at the main entrance? With a bang of the drum, the VIPs were escorted by the lion dancers. One of them was Minister in the Prime Minister Department- YB Waytha Moorthy, who is in charged of National Unity and Social Well Being, as well as the person who started BGF, Datuk Seri Prof. Victor Wee.

Once the VIPs were settled in, the lion dancers gave a final performance by pulling the banner of the event. With that. Buddhist Gem Fellowship 30th anniversary is officially begun! A short video was shown on the screen, documenting the journey of Buddhist Gem Fellowship since 1989 till the present year- 2019. A small prayer was conducted before dinner was served.

I had some "culture shock" when dinner was served. Usually the Buddhist events I attended in the past, it's usually vegetarian meals. I didn't know how to react. I got to know that in Theravada Buddhism, it's not necessary to eat vegetarian but the teachings in the Dharma is more or less the same.

Wesak Day is around the corner, so in conjunction with the upcoming celebration, we had performances from BGF juniors who are ranged six to nine-year-olds, it's a really cute performance! Our hearts just melted immediately.

In between dinner, we got to with fellow Buddhist youths from Nalanda. Actually, there were other two universities- Monash University Malaysia Buddhist Society and INTI Buddhist Society, turned out Sunway was the only university to turn up at the event.

Throughout the night, my favourite performance of all was iGemz, a singing group of BGF, spread the teachings of the Dharma through music. Two of my course mates- Mudita and Metta, are in it. It's quite a surprise to see them! We left during the last performance, I sure had a tiring day after attending two-events in a row, but I had the best time!

Thank you BGF for inviting Sunway University Buddhist Society (SBS) to join in the milestone celebration!

The Star Rage Stand Together Kindness Concert 2019 (4/5/19)

Bullying is a serious issue in today's Malaysian society. According to UNICEF Malaysia, 80% of children experience bullying in school. In the past, when we reported a bullying case in schools or anywhere, most of us will just shrugged it off and tell the victim "it will get over it". No, it will not get over it! It will leave a psychological impact on a person's life. How many of us will stand up to say "Hey, it's okay! I got you! If you need someone, you will always have me,"?

In late 2017, The Star Rage collaborated with SP Setia, RHB, and UNICEF Malaysia to come with a campaign that fight against school violence. With that, #StandTogether was born!  The campaign is to spread kindness in Malaysian schools. Students and teachers in the country are encouraged to take part, on how they can create a kinder school environment. The top ten schools will be nominated with the best kindest projects, and they will be rewarded with Malaysian celebrities coming to their schools to know more about their projects. Two of the best schools will be rewarded with the title of "Malaysia's Kindest Schools" in the primary school and secondary school category respectively.

Running for the second consecutive year, the campaign has now urge the public to join in the campaign by giving a five-day challenge. After completing each challenge, you will receive a message that says you have completed the challenge and moving on till the next one on the following day. I took up the challenge throughout the first week of April, it felt so good after completing each challenge. The last challenge was quite tough- doing five random acts of kindness, but I managed to complete them all.

What's more? #StandTogether having its first Kindness Concert! How cool is that! The day of the concert has arrived, I'm super excited because this is my first concert of the year! After my daddy drops my mum and me off, we go to the counter to retrieve our VIP tickets which I had registered earlier after completing the last kindness challenge.

The meet and greet area is packed with Malaysian celebrities and influencers like JinnyBoy, Lisa Surihani, rising stars Ismail Izzani and Nik Qistina just to name a few. I'm not allowed to go in to the meet and greet area at first because it is only for the nominated schools for having the best kindest projects. My mummy brings me to a side so that I can have a glimpse of my favourite stars. One of the crews asks me: "Who do you want to take a photo with?" I say "JinnyBoy!" they let me through the red line. Jin regcornised me! I give him a big hug. I tell him that I'm a big fan of Mamak Sessions and hope to be on the show one day.

My goal has achieved when I meet the national ambassador for UNICEF Malaysia- Lisa Surihani! It's been my dream to meet a UNICEF ambassador. "I wanna be a UNICEF ambassador just like you, Kak Lisa," I say, Kak Lisa says "I'm so happy that you are so passionate to be a part of the UNICEF family. You know what, you are a UNICEF ambassador in your way," Well, maybe I am because I wanna be the ambassador for UNICEF Malaysia.

After having a chat with Kak Lisa, I walk up to Arwind Kumar. "I remember you! How are you? I haven't seen you for a long time!" he says. "I'm good! I thought you have forgotten me," I say, "No, how could I?" he says. As I'm going out of the meet and greet area, I bump into rising stars Ismail Izzani and Nik Qistina. Before heading to the concert, why not a cup of ice cream from Inside Scoop?

The doors are opened and the audience starts to fill up the hall. I also have a brief starstruck moment with Malaysia's celebrity chef- Chef Wan. The countdown of the concert begins, with the remaining 10 seconds, the audience countdown together. #StandTogether Kindness concert has begun! It starts with video footages of violence that is happening around the world.  With #StandTogether campaign coming in, we can create a kinder Malaysian society. The first performance starts up with Ismail Izzani, singing his very single Sabar (patience in Malay) and a cover of Ed Sheeran's Perfect.

The other performances follow by Nik Qistina and the world's funniest man- Harith Iskander! The top 10 schools are invited to come to the stage to tell the audience about their kindness projects. There are several rewards are given out such as "The Kindest Student", "The Kindest Teacher" and "The Kindest Principal" and a surprise award of "The Kindest School Staff". We have performances from Rabbit Mac too, as well as The Venopian Solitude, they incorporate with a bit of folk music.

At the end of the event, the kindest schools in Malaysia title go to SK Taman Maluri and SMK Chung Hwa (CF) Miri in the primary school and secondary school respectively. The last performance of the night is Kyoto Protocol, and they are joined by Manbai to end the concert on a high note. But wait, there's more! Another meet and greet session! This time is with the singers and actors. I have a brief interview with the emcee before meeting the stars.

I have a brief chat with Qistina, Kyoto Protocol and the Sharifah sisters- Amani along side, Aryana. Amani asks me about the course I'm studying and which year I'm in university right now. "I'm in my final year, studying communication," I say. She also asks me about my ambitions, so far I'm not sure about just yet. I still have time to decide.

Spreading kindness through music is the best way to bring people together to fight violence. I think music is a powerful tool to spread positive messages. I think at one point in our school life, we will experience bullying and discrimination from our school mates.From my personal experienced I had been throughout my schooling life. In primary school, I was one of the English education students in class, most of my classmates teased me of not knowing my mother tongue which is Mandarin.

As being only student with special needs in class, the discrimination doesn't stop in school. I still face discrimination at tertiary education as well but on the bright side, I have met amazing friends who stand by me at all times. I'm enjoying my university life! I think Kindness Week should not just be limited in primary and secondary schools, it can be held at tertiary institutions as well.

Have courage and be kind. When there is kindness, there is goodness; when there is magic- Cinderella (2015). Let's stand together to fight violence, replacing them with kindness. Kindness always starts with a word. I'm hoping to be a Kindness ambassador in the next Stand Together campaign. Kindness starts with a word.