Culture Chronicles #2

Where I share five fun cultural delights from China and Malaysia every month.

I spent a few days in tropical paradise.

Welcome to Culture Chronicles, where I share quick doses of cultural delights from Chinese and Malaysian culture. While you can often find these snippets shared in my Notes section too, I usually expand on them or have new delights!

A holiday in paradise. Kinda.

The picture above? Yes, I spent a few days in tropical paradise! You may think that this resort is on an island somewhere, but actually, it’s a suburb about a 30-minute drive from my apartment.

If you tell a Malaysian where this resort is, they’d be like, “Where??”

PS: The resort is located in a place called Cyberjaya. Yes, this township is really named after computers and robots.

It’s not a sexy location, but it works! I don’t have to spend hours traveling to a distant place - it is just half an hour’s drive away. I usually only do this when I really, really, need a break, and the last few weeks had been so hectic at work I really needed an escape. So this resort delivered!

(I wrote about this resort in my blog, so you can have a read if you like.)

Ramadan delights

It is now Ramadan in Malaysia and specialty products are often rolled out. Dates are usually sold, but so are beautiful tins of cookies! I fell for this gorgeous tin and despite walking away, ended up buying it the next day. I am happy to report that the butter cookies inside are also yummy!

Koi-way to heaven

Saw these stairs while on a walk around my neighborhood this week. The shophouses in this row usually have dark, dingy and dirty stairways.

But the sudden splash of beauty caught me by surprise; I had to take a picture.

A scent to wake up to

Environmental drama

Of all the countries I expect to produce hopeful fiction about the environment, China was not at the top of the list. I had initially thought of Sunrise on the River as a dry drama about saving the environment, but there is a dead body, fishy bureaucrats, a possible conspiracy, and a mysterious environmental mystery.

Worth a watch! The drama is on Youtube with English subtitles.

Watch here: youtube.com/watch?v=n8oVpL7770I