Malaysian students to host Culture Night

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Editor’s note: This article has been changed to accurately reflect the date of the Malaysian Culture Night.

Razi Shaha, a transfer student from Malaysia, spent the past four years in America learning about new cultures.

The biochemistry senior will get an opportunity to return the favor Saturday during Malaysian Culture Night.

“You fly here from Malaysia — you’re going to let people know about your culture,” Shaha said.

Malaysian Culture Night, hosted by the Malaysian Students Organization, will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the East Lansing Hannah Community Center theater, 819 Abbot Road.

The event will include multiple small performances woven into a bigger story called “When Hairi Met Se Li.” The show is written and performed by MSU students, and this is the first year the night will focus on performance rather than food.

Biochemistry senior Syarfa Akhiar, one of the night’s project directors, said she felt in the past people didn’t learn about Malaysian culture.

“People came because they wanted to eat the food,” Akhiar said. “We want people to know what Malaysia is all about.”

Peter Briggs, director of the Office of International Students and Scholars, said showcasing MSU’s various cultures provides students with an important opportunity to learn more about the world.

“We’re so lucky to have people from Malaysia. The more we can get them to share, it’s good for everybody,” Briggs said. “You get a sense of people and influences, what are they proud of, what is important to them.”

About 75 students are involved in the show, either performing or working behind the scenes and promoting the show, said Sarah Iqbal, a biochemistry and microbiology senior.

The hour and a half performance is a father’s story to his son about two romances in his youth. The story takes place at several locations in Malaysia, and references the Malaysian legend of Mahsuri, a woman who was accused of adultery and sentenced to death. However, when they stabbed her, the blood ran white, a sign of her innocence.

“The objective of the event is to show the real character of Malaysia,” Iqbal said. “We decided to show more of the cultures of Malaysia. We included the legend because we wanted to tell the audience how we saw things before and after.”

The performance also incorporates various traditional Malaysian performances.

The show begins with a “syair,” or a poem, which will be spoken in three different languages to represent the three main nationalities in Malaysia — native Malaysians, Chinese and Indians, Iqbal said.

Other traditional performances include “dikir barat,” a group of traditionally all-male singers, and the “kurik kundi,” a traditional women’s dance.

“A dance that requires the dancers to dance in rhythmic movements according to the lively background music,” Iqbal said.

The final dance scene is called Tarian Muhibbah.

“The word ‘muhibbah’ means togetherness,” Iqbal said. “This dance is portraying how all the races in Malaysia live harmoniously.”

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