My name is Zuhairah. I am a Singaporean born Malay, and my, my dad is from Javanese and my mom is Boyanese.
I grew up in a Malay household where we practice most of the Malay stuff either at home. But because we are in a modern era, we do not really practice the traditional way of how it is. The way we dress and way we act around people is different from how it was last time. So, we don't really deeply practice the traditional side. To me, it's because the generation now has changed and we are living in Singapore. It's a multi racial country. So, we mix around with a lot of cultures from other ethnicity. There's a lot of mix in Singapore. I think it changes us somewhat.
For me, Singapore identity is Singlish. I resonate most with Singlish, because even if you're overseas or other countries, and you hear someone talks English, you can simply know that that person is Singaporean. Just by way of their accent. And second thing that I resonate with is definitely Kiasu. Where Singaporeans is always very rushy, even if they are even if they are calm.I think that's okay, because it's actually funny that we are living in such a busy environment, so kiasu has become a part of us. So to me it is normal. But another way I look at it is that Kiasu can actually create chaos. So I guess if Singaporeans want to be more calm, we can be a bit peaceful.
It's called Samping where I bought it over in Indonesia. I choose this to represent myself is because I used to compete in national level where I present Singapore in tunggal category.
In that category, we routinely need to do the choreographed movement and need to wear the samping in order for us to perform. So, since I've already practiced in that sports for years, mostly half of my life, I chose samping to represent myself.
I don't even know myself. I guess I’m influenced by various culture, a little bit of this and that. I realised this because of how I dress. Sometimes I prefer to be very minimal in how I dress. But at some point of time, I prefer to be very loud in the way I dress. And although I am a fashion student, I am more interested towards filming. I like taking videos and making videos. But mostly videos and pictures of people. I just like to create memories for myself.
Stereotypes definitely links to racism, because in fashion industry, hijab can be a problem for jobs and stuff like that. The world's more accepting of people from different cultures, how they dress, and how they identify themselves.So, I don't really support stereotyping, because I feel like it will eventually give way to racism.
