I thought I would do an introduction post in English as well, just so I cover all grounds 😝 My name is See -- you know, like Avatar's greeting "I See You" or "See you tomorrow". Plenty of funny stories when I traveled in Italy two years ago, having had to repeat my name a few times at introduction -- "Si, si, si, my name is Seeeeeeeee, just like Si " -- yes, the Yes girl. Oh, it just so happens that my full first name is See Yin, so yes there you go again, the all seeing.
It's really a shame that I am not religious or holy in anyway, or I could have been The Holy See. Or the holy all-seeing See.
The only problem with my name is that in my grandmother's tongue, a Chinese dialect from the Hokkien/Fujian province, See would mean death, literally.
Anyway, after 18930537950058 words about my name, all I meant to say was: Nice to meet you Steemers, my name is See and I am very excited to be here!
I read that in order to prove that I am a real person, I will have to hold up a piece of paper that says 'Steemit' with the current date on it but because I am in my cozy sleep time fashion at the moment (It is 1.40AM here in Malaysia), I will try my best to prove that I am real and that this girl sitting under 'Voices of Singapore' is indeed me. Here's it:
- This was taken at National Museum of Singapore
- I was wearing a Batik skirt -- a traditional Indonesian Javanese wax-resist dyeing fabric that is also common in Malaysia. Tho, not many wear them anymore.
- I was sitting on 'DREAM'
Real much?
Never mind that, I will prove my realness in my upcoming posts -- it's getting late here in Kuala Lumpur.
I am a born and bred Malaysian, a third generation Chinese in Malaysia. It'd always been an awkward conversation to explain my ancestry especially to international friends who had no idea about brief history of Malaysia or South East Asia in general, which is, very well understood, as we are a tiny country right below Thailand, and neighbouring big brothers like Singapore and Indonesia. I had a hard time explaining myself when I studied abroad in Istanbul, "B-B-B----U-T, you are a Chinese! You can speak and write Chinese fluently but not from China, and you are from Malaysia but not a Malay?"
The story dates back to 19th when the war broke out in China and many left to Southeast Asia for fortune and opportunities, while many were brought in later by British to work in tin mines and rubber plantations as laborers. FAST FORWARD... Chinese prospered in where they settled, some started businesses, controlled lands and rose up to be prominent players in the colonial economies, and many continued to stay on even after Malaysia gained independence from the Brits. Our Chinese ancestors shed blood so that in my generation, I got to go to Chinese schools to learn Chinese.
As a mandatory requirement from government, I started learning three languages from primary school: Malay, Chinese, English. And that, made most of us Malaysians, trilingual 😊 Plus Chinese dialects Hokkien (remember my grandmother?) and Cantonese, I know 5 spoken languages!
I hope that clarifies! Of my trivial existence in this universe, I have tried a few things interesting. Here's a few other pointers about me:
- I studied abroad in Istanbul, Turkey (İstanbulu özlüyorum!)
- I couch-surfed and hitch-hiked my way through Eastern Europe (jumping trucks in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece...and sometimes camping in the mountains)
- I shaved my hair bald once for charity (and really I think I looked stunning in it)
- For about 10 years I was a contemporary dancer, and now an occasional painter - I love oil painting! (more as a hobby, painter is not real)
- I am learning Python programming at the moment, most specifically Python for data analysis
- and it is my sleep time now.
I will continue. Good night.
See 🤖