Penang Pesta Lion Dance Competition 08
I spent the last two days commuting to Kepala Batas (PM’s area!) for the inaugural Penang Pesta Lion Dance Competition. The event was jointly organized by the Penang State Tourism Committee and the Persatuan Sukan & Kebudayaan Tionghua Kepala Batas Pulau Pinang.
Unfortunately, I don’t have videos or even much photos on the event, but, o’ boy, the participants were superb in their stunts, the lions had to jump from stilt to stilt. It was really REALLY good. I was informed that Malaysia’s lion dance troupes are some of the world champion troupes. And one of them actually took part in this competition.
The organizing committee was kind enough to appoint me into one of the sub-committee as a chairperson. That’s my name tag above, but I can’t understand half of what was written on it since it was written in chinese (for some reason known only to the committee – but at least the title and the banners were in Bahasa Malaysia). I led the BM boys and gals to take care of the food, drinks and souvenir sales and logistics. It was fun, especially when we practically throw out the Tshirts and caps at huge discounts nearing the end of the last day. Like a “pasar malam” (night market)…
TThe participating troupes from all over Malaysia…as far as Johor. They were so cool, just so cool, I hope someone will post a video or a photo of the stunts online. CM came during the dinner on the first day and was impressed with the troupe from Kedah who was invited to perform for scoring the highest marks that day. In fact, in his speech, CM has hoped that Penang will soon be able to organize an International level lion dance competition.
I also noticed quite a few Malays and Indians in the audience for both days, especially the second day. I hope through these sort of activities, we will be able to share our culture with one another and thus enriching our experience as fellow Malaysians. Hopefully, there will be more participation from Malaysians from all walks of life in cultural events such as this one.
Chin Ho posted a video of our committee meeting in youtube. The folks were practising a song before the meeting, and during the dinner, we sang the song to the audience among which was the CM. Check it out here.
It was hard work, especially those of us who travel from BM and Pg island, and more so for those committee members who were there since the beginnning (the BM folks only joined towards the end, but we gave our best effort!). But it was fun, pure fun. Congrats Kepala Batas for the successful event. Thank you YB Danny Law (Penang Tourism Exco) for your support!
I will go on holidays starting tomorrow (after almost two months of 7-day work week!), 22nd Dec I’ll be in KL and from there I’ll go to Singapore to spend my Christmas with JR until the 26th of Dec. I wished I can spend longer time away from Penang, but the next weekends until after New Year, my schedule is packed again. But well, one week is good enough. I definitely won’t miss this…
View from my room on 53rd Floor, KOMTAR.
Too much stress there…can’t wait to fly.
I am a true-blood Penang "kia" (son of Penang) who love everything about my beautiful home-state, well, almost everything. :)
Formerly I served as the Special Assistant to the Penang State Executive Councillor (State-level ministerial post) in charge of Youth and Sports. I am now pursuing an MA in Philosophy at a local university.
I am also the Executive Secretary of the Network of Social Democracy in Asia (www.socdem.asia) and sit on the committee of the State-sponsored Good Governance and Gender Equality Society (3Gs). Since 2007, I also served in various capacities in the office of the Hon' Madam Chong Eng, a leading Malaysian woman Parliamentarian.
Politically, I had the privilege to help manage four successful political campaigns since 2007 and was involved in planning, campaigning and monitoring of eight state and federal level elections in Malaysia.
I am engaged with the love of my life, Jorin. Both of us worship at the Bukit Mertajam Gospel Centre.
