Summer school in helsinki

Yesterday we went to a club. That was the second time in my life in a club. I was just amazed by the electric vibe in the club where everyone just danced and danced and drank. This is a quick sketch done right before going to the club. Fafas serve amazing fries. 

Are we failing our boys?

Dear Diary

Yesterday Alison, a fellow student and I were just discussing about the strange phenomenon of the seeming domination of girls in the realm of education. Where of course the top positions in politics and the corporate world are still primarily dominated by males I could not help but wonder  how long this gender shift has being going on,  what is causing it and perhaps more importantly, what it means to an egalitarian welfare state that is Finland, where no child should be left behind, be it a boy or a girl.

            And so it was really timely that today we had a lecture by Harry Lunabba from the department of Social sciences. He shared with us his doctoral thesis on ‘When adult encounters boys in school: insight, influence and social relationships’. Consistent with Finnish modesty, despite being regarded as having one of the world’s best education system, the Finns continue to try to identify areas in the system that need improvement, and one of them is the wide gender gap in academic performance. According to OECD Better Life Index report in 2013, girls outperform boys by 27 points , much more than the OECD average of 8 points. So, are boys the victims of an education that is historically designed and dominated by men?

            Harry approached the issue by conducting an ethnographic study where he spent a year in schools directly observing classes and mingling with the students. He found out that our expectations of how a boy should behave play an important part in the gender gap. Firstly, the idea of masculinity dictates that boys should be active, loud, and are expected to be leaders, even in the introverted Finnish society. So it is practically impossible for a boy to be the ‘silent boy’ and not get noticed. Whereas girls are expected to be demure and studious, they are ‘allowed’ to be shy and quiet and not stand out. And this, I think, has affected the performance of introverted boys. Secondly, Harry deduced that boys are not taken seriously enough. Whereas ‘silent boys’ receive unsolicited attention, loud and defiant boys are dismissed as ‘just being boys’, which does not solve the problems they may have at all.

            From my personal experience and observations, which may not necessarily apply to Finland and is highly likely to be biased as I studied in an all-girls school, the gender gap may be caused by several factors, which are disproportionate female:male teacher ratio and a feminized education system. 74% of Finland’s primary school teacher were female in 2005. Children, especially boys, need father figures in their early lives, and a male teacher fulfills that role. Boys also generally mature later, are good at practical tasks but less tolerant towards sitting in the classroom for long periods, which makes them more suited for vocational schools whereas traditional education model suits girls more, especially the exam oriented ones.

            Fortunately for Finnish boys, the education system is so holistic and comprehensive that 45% of the students choose to go to vocational school. While vocational school is regarded with negative connotation in some countries, the Finnish vocational school has very high quality and are not seen as anything less than the academic oriented schools.

            So, to answer my question of what a wide gender gap means to an egalitarian welfare state that is Finland, despite the apparent lower scores, I believe that the Finnish education and society has not failed the boys because scores and rankings are just part of the outcome, not the outcome itself and ultimately, it is the wellbeing and happiness of the boys that is the most important, which leads to another question of why Finnish men have one of the highest rates of suicide in the world. Well, let’s just blame it on the long dark winters.

These are my fellow students at the summer school. 

Notice the female:male ratio here. This is what is happening everywhere I go. 

Unforgettable little art exhibition

This is my dream come true. I had hoped and hoped for a group as they have in Penang and Singapore to sketch with but whenever I googled ' sabah sketchers', only frustrating, irrelevant results of skechers shoewear came up.

And so I had been sketching alone and lonely until about half a year ago when I met Kwan, the first person in Sabah who showed sincere interest in starting a group with me. One thing led to another, not long ago I met Nova, the manager of Wishbone, art cafe on the most happening street in KK, Gaya street, through Kwan, and the rest, as they say, is history.

We had a little launching of my sketch exhibition titled ' Travel. Sketch.Heritage' yesterday. Here are some pictures.

Me and my Ipoh sketches

me at Wishbone

My partner in crime, kuan yew, my dear friends and colleagues who came to join me on the opening day.



Dear Nova also invited reporters and here is the article.

The link to Urban Sketchers Sabah : http://www.facebook.com/groups/380197595401742/?fref=ts or search for 'Urban Sketchers Sabah" on facebook.

Sri Latha indian breakfast

A series of jetty

Ever since my facebook was automatically changed to timeline, 

the photos in my blog have broken links and wouldn't appear. Anyway, that seems unfixable. So here are my newest sketches. 

Sketching In a park with Kwan

For months I stared longingly at sketches posted by fellow sketchers on facebook and the urban sketcher website, and resignedly at hundreds of pictures, articles, and announcements of the sketchwalk that was being held in conjunction with the Georgetown festival. Sketchers from as far as Taiwan, Bangkok and Singapore were arriving at my favourite part of the world to sketch, while I had to work in the labour room, seeing babies after babies popping out. Attempts to look for like-minded people in my current city were fruitless, until that fateful day, when I met a local artist, Kwan.

And today, we had managed to sketch in a park I had never known existed before. We found a shady area in a traditional house. It was a quite area, with only mosquitoes as our company. So we felt safe when there were 2 PDRM guards near us, until they had to go off to investigate a fatal accident. We enjoyed a few minutes of solitude until it was disturbed by an army of excited, screaming children from a kindergarten called Tadika Didik Kasih. We were soon surrounded by little spectators. And so I sketched Debbie( who wrote her name wrongly as 'Deddie' which only added to her cuteness), Owen, Evangelis, Shira and the most adorable baby.

  

This is the beautiful lotus pond in the park.

The children loved Kwan's drawings, and wouldn't let him go until each of them got a drawing of a cartoon character by him.

This is an excellent drawing of the traditional 'perahu' by Kwan, on a cardboard paper.

So that's all on my first ever ' group' sketch in sabah. 

Gaya street, kota kinabalu

Flying home

Respite

Today the day seems long and endless. 

My day begun at 5am.
I was well rested despite having had only 3 hours of sleep.

 After cleaning my face and teeth I started blood taking, in my personal record time - an hour.
I usually take around 4 hours.
and i am the slowest blood taking houseman I know.
so I felt honoured that I was able to help a fellow houseman with blood taking after I finished mine.

By the time my car's engine roared to life from a good night's rest,
the sun was scorching hot.
I left the hospital feeling excited.

A short respite- this one hour of sketching my lovely neighbourhood.

3 labour workers sat beside the road, hiding from the unrelenting sun

I finished the sketch,

and drove home.

Only to find out that I am having a test in 3 weeks' time instead of 4. 

But it's ok, I told myself.

I will start studying now. 

Lazy sundays

Post call days are the happiest days in a week. 

A series of fortunate events

A rare day out on Gaya Street, KK.
A series of fortunate events - 1st there were only 3 admissions during my time, then I get to sleep on a bed for an hour, then when asked for permission to be excused fr the entire morning round, my MO permitted. And Kuan Yew was free and so here we were having breakfast on a windy saturday on Gaya street.

Borneo: Half a Year

Almost half a year into this new place and a month into a new, crazy posting. Because of shortage of housemen that is plaguing this department since I joined it, I've been running around like a crazy man every day ( and night ) but let's talk about something happy.  I derive satisfaction from knowing that I've done my job well, even if it's just blood taking and making sure I could provide most of the information my bosses want so that the rounds could be finished faster. But what made me feel touched is when patients say thank you to me, ask me if i've rested/eaten etc, and when i know them by name, when their caretakers call out to me enthusiastically. But a lot of the time I feel frustrated at the system, the lack of time/resources/technology that we have here, but mostly from my shallow knowledge and poor memory.
okie, gotta study before my night shift =)

tada!

  

Zoo time!

              A month into settling down in a new place, we finally have some free time to go about exploring.        With buying an old bike in mind, we set off in search of a scrap yard. 

As we went deeper and deeper into 'unchartered territories'' of the land of Borneo, we found a wildlife park! 

So we abandoned the original idea and went into the park and I did 4 pieces of sketches. 

Old China Cafe and Antique Gallery

Found this gem in Balai Polis street, near Petaling street. It was very retro and full of antique. Must try its Nyonya laksa. A trick to fully savour the laksa is to order a bowl of white rice and eat it with the gravy. After a tourist at a neighbour table saw us doing that, she did the same. =)

Unsung heros of Ipoh's heritage

A day after I posted about preserving heritage buildings in Ipoh, I made a pleasant discovery on Hugh Low Street, right beside the building where my mom used to work at, and where I spent my childhood playing on the second floor. The pleasant discovery was 'Lim Kopi' restaurant, serving traditional Hainanese food and really good white coffee.

The atmosphere was nice and most importantly, the whole family values heritage buildings, and Lim Ko Pi is just one of the 12 buildings acquired by them with preservation and conservation in mind. The family was even invited by the city mayor to meet him in appreciation of the Lim family's effort in conserving Ipoh's heritage.

What was amazing was it all started with the eldest daughter, Lim Bay Sie, who is the same age as me. She started having interest in heritage conservation after she'd been to other countries and seen how heritage was conserved. So similar to my case! I started valuing heritage after my NZ trip.

Here are some links to newspaper articles about the Lim Family :
1. The Star: Family prides in preservingpre-war buildings
2. Nan Yang Siang Bao: 市厅研究保育古迹奖励 老建筑物或扣门牌税

Previous OAC building, Lim Kopi is the red buidling

I spent 2 days walking around Ipoh old town, trying to record as many heritage buildings as possible with my Hero pen and brush.

Han Chin Pet Soo 闲真别墅

Preserving Ipoh's heritage: What We Can Learn from Georgetown, Napier and Greymouth

My sketch of Ipoh's living heritage- Ipoh white Coffee

A few years ago, I was infuriated by a short passage in the Lonely Planet book on my beloved hometown. It described Ipoh as, 

“… mainly a transit town, a place where you change buses; … chaotic traffic; … crumbling Chinese shop houses and ugly modern blocks”; and, specifically for New Town: “…. generally dingy part of town, with a notorious prostitution problem and no real attractions.” 

No mention of its food, its heritage, its natural attractions whatsoever! As I visited more and more cities, both in Malaysia and overseas, most recently New Zealand, I began to realize the lack of appreciation for heritage and culture in my hometown. Some cities have done really well on heritage preservation, most notably Georgetown and Malacca, which both obtained World UNESCO historic city status in 2008.

The same cannot be said of some cities in Malaysia. As much as I was impressed and cheered by vibrant, youthful walls of the buildings in Chinatown, Kuala Terengganu, which I visited 3 years ago, I now think that they are nothing but an evidence of misinterpretation of the meaning of heritage tourism by the local government, or maybe it wasn’t even thinking about heritage tourism? It looked more like a fun fair with its garish appearance. You’d almost expect Mickey Mouse and gang to materialize any minute. But at least the municipal people there did something to promote tourism.

Garish wall in Chinatown, Kuala Terengganu,

Back in Ipoh, I heard of the infamous new toilet replacing the historic Birch fountain in Little India, the demolition of a whole row of buildings once filmed in Ang Lee’s ‘Lust, Caution’ and the Yau Tet Shin market-turned-carpark and most recently, crumbling of 2 of the 7 dangerous buildings in Concubine Lane( Lorong Panglima ) making national news.

Birch fountain ( demolished )

 toilet ( current) 

(photos taken from Ipoh Echo)

In Napier, New Zealand, I joined an art deco walk guided by volunteers. There were only 2 of us, a middle aged woman from Australia and me. Being on a very tight budget, I’d forgone 2 other heritage walks (in Dunedin and Wellington) that I was interested in and shortly after the Napier walk, felt that I should have joined the heritage walks instead. As I have no basics in architecture, I think I only understood about 50 % of what the guide said, retained about 2% as I made the silly mistake of throwing away the art deco walk brochure (into the recycle bin). Retrospectively, I have no regret joining the Napier walk, although I still wish I’d joined the heritage walks. That 2% of knowledge has sparked off in me a new found interest in heritage buildings.

When I came back to Ipoh, it became clear to me that Napier and Ipoh have a lot in common: 

 In 1892, the ‘Great Fire of Ipoh’ destroyed over 120 houses. Town planners reorganized the town’s layout and replaced soil paths with proper straight roads. Old town was founded. The population swelled to 11,000!

Fast forward to 1930, Ipoh became the first town in Malaya to supply electricity. In the same year, Napier was devastated by an earthquake, which was followed by a fire, The disaster changes, forever, its geological landmark, giving it more land and a new start, with wider roads, and most notably, the opportunity to build what was very fashionable back then – art deco buildings.

Source:

1. Ipoh, the sentimental side: A self-guided heritage tour to touch the past( brochure) 

2. memory from guided tour ( brain cells) 

Sadly the similarity stopped pretty much there, at least in the efforts made for heritage preservation and tourism. Napier has an impressive collection of art deco buildings. It is not shy to show it to the world, promoting it in the form of art deco guided walks and the annual art deco festival, a major tourist attraction. On that day, people in art deco costumes would go on street to dance and sing and be spectators of a vintage car parade.

Art Deco festival in Napier ( photo taken from punahou)

And as most cities in the First World, they are very strict about the preservation of the art deco buildings. Renovations of an art deco building are to follow strict rules on what constitutes art deco architecture. 

Ipoh has been commended by visitors as a very well planned town, some even said that it’s the best planned in Malaysia ( Putrajaya doesn’t count)! Neat rows of buildings, 45 degree design( don’t know the technical term) at major junctions to enable motorists to have a better view of vehicles approaching from sides, old and new Towns flanked by 2 major roads( Hugh Low and Brewster Rds) and clearly demarcated by the Kinta river( another sad story for another day). Sadly, the CBD in Ipoh seems to have shifted to Greentown (with no historic value at all). 

On my recent trips to Georgetown, I was very impressed by the effort made to preserve heritage buildings and to promote heritage tourism, especially after visiting Mr Tan Yeow Wooi’s office, an architect specializing in heritage building restoration.

It dawned on me that Penang was doing as good, if not better, as the cities in New Zealand! I was pleasantly surprised as frequently as every few steps on streets like Armenian Street, Love Lane, Muntri street by its bilingual/trilingual street name signage,

   heritage building turned boutique hotels/ hostels,

Ryokan Chic Hotel, Muntri Street

 art galleries,

 quirky souvenir stores eg 14 Living Story,

14 Living Story, Armenian street.

restored temples

Khoo Kongsi

various heritage organizations in beautiful heritage buildings with lots of free tourist info brochures,  Just like isite, the government tourist info centre seen everywhere in NZ, even in rural towns with only 330 people ( Norsewood ).

Georgetown World heritage Inc building
(photo taken from the star)

Speaking of Norsewood, this reminds me of another happy discovery in Georgetown, community arts! Fuh, now very excited! The first evidence of community art I spotted in Penang is an impressive wall mural by English artist Ernest Zacharevic. It’s a mural of old man  on the wall of Armenian Art café.

Impressive wall mural, Armenian Art cafe

There’re also quite a lot of giant sized wall photographs of normal people of Georgetown, praises for Georgetown by world renowned people like Zang Toi, printed on boards fixed on walls. And the one that tickled my heart the most was a kind of thick wire art depicting stories of the old Penang.

wire art , Muntri st.

 How much does it cost to make wire art like this? I’d rather the money to build the ugly toilet in Little India be channeled to decorate Ipoh. Speaking of the ugly toilet, there’s a pile of horrendous-looking fake stones under the flyover near Kampar Road. I bet it’ll cost much lesser if the money’d been used to sponsor local artists to paint mural on walls of the flyover.

 If I were to be given the chance to be part of a group to introduce community art in Ipoh, I’d do it in a heartbeat! Maybe I’m just not aware of an existence of community art in Ipoh, just as I was not aware of the availability of the Ipoh heritage walk. Maybe there is hope for Ipoh art! We could print LAT’s cartoons of old Ipoh and famous Ipoh food on giant sized boards and put them around Old and New towns!

LAT's cartoon of the demolished Yau tet Shin market, now a carpark =(

 When I expressed my concern over Ipoh’s lack of effort to a staff of Georgetown heritage Inc ( an ex-Ipohite, who attended the same school, Anderson school as LAT) , he lamented that Perak was not meant to strive on tourism, but tin. But Greymouth in New Zealand (commented by many to be the ugliest town in nz) was not meant to strive on tourism either, but Gold! So they focused on that and built a gold mining heritage theme park.

 Greymouth brochures explained extensively about the history of Gold mining. Although I was not attracted, my boyfriend certainly was. There have been talks on building a tin mining heritage museum/gallery in Ipoh but where is it?

 Something must be done to revive Ipoh’s past glory. I am leaving Ipoh in a short while and may never live here except for the occasional balik kampong trips on holidays. I hope that my fellow hometown people may someday realize that what we have is very special and it depends on us to preserve it. And what I can do right now, as my time before leaving Ipoh dwindles from weeks to days, is to sketch as many of the heritage buildings as possible before they deteriorate beyond recognition and repair, and I wholeheartedly wish that that day will never come.

My sketch of Ipoh Old Town

Sketching Georgetown The Second Time! 念念槟岛

      I went to Georgetown for the second time this year. I did a warm up sketch in the ferry and a little old lady asked to see my sketches. She then started talking about how crime rate was high these days and depicted a robbery story she heard from someone she knew. She reminded me of an old man in KL, who reminded me to hide my wallet in my bag. 

ferry

   When I reached the terminal, Kiah Kien was already waiting there. He brought me to a printing shop and I saw some really nice paintings on the wall. One of them inspired me to try out a new watercolour style. He then left me to go back to his parents' house. I walked along Church Street and settled down at the junction of Church st and King st to draw a Chinese association and the temple beside it. 

Guangdong Chinese Association

As I was starting to paint, Kiah Kien joined me and produced a vertical sketch of the building I was sitting in front of. Some of the passersby stopped and looked at us sketch. One of them was an amateur photographer who spent 2 weeks photographing a street, which I forgot the name. 

We were then joined by Cheang Jing, another painter friend and had some local food. Cheang Jin did a quick sketch at the hawker stall. 

I then continued sketching and found a nice spot at Armenian street. I lingered for quite a while before settling down, trying to decide between sketching yet another temple and a row of old buildings. The later won. Just as I started sketching, a man walked up to me and started commenting: 

''Why are you using pen instead of pencil ar? Use pencil ma, can correct mistake.''

''Why your leaves so round ar? Dun bluff la. The leaves are pointed.''

To my horror, he then insisted upon showing me his pencil colour drawings and said he'd tear up the ones that I didn't like. What a weird guy.

Anyway, I got rid of him by saying I needed time to sketch and he could show me his drawings later. Fuh, peace at last. 

Armenian street 

I then walked to Love Lane and had a pleasant discovery, a new art gallery exhibiting cheerful and colourful paintings by artist Joey Lim and her students. I saw a nice all white table with some wooden coloured pencils and was tempted to draw something so I did! 

Unique PenangArt Gallery ( check out their facebook! Owned by a lovely couple Clovis and Joey)

Then I spent my evening visiting 2 art exhibitions at  Straits Quay and A2( nice food!) 

On the second day, I woke up to heavy downpour and was worried that the sketching session organized by penang sketchers group'd be cancelled. Luckily it's not and I sketched something simple. 

Campbell street market

All of us!




After lunch, I continued sketching and was joined by Marni half way through. We sketched on Love Lane.

Love Lane 爱情巷

Then we moved to Muntri Street. A man saw us and walked across the street from Muntri Mews and chatted with us( actually I kind of ignored him cuz I wanted to save time to sketch so Marni was the one answering his questions). Then Kiah Kien arrived to fetch us and the man's friend was holding Kiah Kieh's book - 素描老槟城 Sketches of Pulo Pinang and he shouted,'' Hey this is the man lah! '' and took a photo with Kiah Kien.

Muntri Mews, Muntri Street

We then attended a mid autumn gathering at a very unique art gallery. By that time I was quite exhausted. But upon reaching my Penang host, WanLu and Yong Qing's house, wanlu and I talked til 2.40am. yak yak yak....

On the third day, I did a sketch and met with Kuan Yew.

Carnavon Street, sketched in front of  Penang Heritage Inc. building

Lebuh Carvanon

Kuan Yew and me

We had homemade cake and vanilla ice cream at Moontree 47. Delicious! 

I really do love Georgetown. I wish I could work there. I hope that Kuan Yew'd one day fall in love with Georgetown as I have.