Cross Cultural Display of Ingenuity

Understanding culture and customs of others has always been an interesting experience particularly when you are living in a multicultural society like Malaysia. 4 foundation year students of The One Academy has recently emerged as Grand Prize winner among 5 finalists in the Kolam Decoration Contest organised by Viva Home in conjunction with Deepavali celebration.

It was the first time for Clinton Chai Kien Yiau, Ng Jia Yu, Sim Zhao Xu and Tang Hoe Keet to partake in Kolam decoration contest. Other than receiving trophy and certificate of appreciation, the team has also been awarded with RM800 cash prize as well as souvenir by the organiser.

Joining the contest serves as a platform that enabled the team to apply thus integrate the concepts of cultural motive and colour matching that they learned into their ‘Peacock’ themed Kolam design. After several brainstorming sessions and consensus, each team member was delegated to be in charge of different parts of the design which help to expedite the preparation process.

Nurturing talents through coaching from field experts and imbue of creative thinking are the core values of what The One Academy advocates. Participating in the competition has indeed been an eye opener experience for the entire team as they discover some design tips during the making. “We found out using metal blade for the Kolam design more lively and help grab attention because of its glittery effect,” highlighted Jia Yu.

Being meticulous is critical in ensuring design produced is of the best visual effect. As such, the team even made field trip visits to Klang’s Little India to ascertain and gather any suggestions that may help in a pinch from people around the area on how they could add in more depth to their Kolam design. “We were even advised by some shop owners of using poster colour to dye the raw rice for a more lasting effect,” quipped Zhao Xu.

Aside from minor changes in the pattern design, the main challenge faced by the team was time constraint. “Almost each day, we stayed back few hours to prepare as we need to draft the design using chalks then finish outlining it with crayon on a large piece of sugar paper,” said Hoe Keet.

“We were very surprised to find out that we’ve been chosen as the grand prize winner” said Clinton Chai when being asked about how the team felt after winning the award as they could never imagined themselves beating other senior finalists. Besides, they wish to express appreciation to their lecturers Alice Yeoh and Foo Chow Ping for their invaluable assistance and support throughout the process of designing.

When being asked on what advice they would dispense to fellow college mates, the team in unison commented that “Cherish every opportunity to take part in competitions because wider exposure will allow one to learn, pick up skills in handling complex issues and increased ability to cope with challenges”.

The spirit of participation and not giving up displayed by these students are clearly in line with The One Academy’s ‘Masters Train Masters’ coaching philosophy of inspiring students to realise their inner creative potential by constantly motivating them to stay affirmative amidst challenges.