UPM TESL CLASS OF 1993 THROWBACK SERIES - PUTTING ON AN EXHIBITION ON MALAYSIAN LITERARY FIGURES AT THE LIBRARY

discussion stage

My 6 years in Universiti Pertanian Malaysia was fabulous and I enjoyed myself there a lot. Besides having great friends and getting involved in college activities, I always found the chance to venture beyond the campus fences just to get certain assignments done exhilarating. I remember going places together with my coursemates - taking photos at Zoo Negara and the night market at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, watching numerous plays and theatres and even going to the British Council Library to find reference books.

at the NST building for the interview

We had to do this one assignment under the tutelage of Mr. Malachi Edwin for his subject: Malaysian Literature in English. I could not remember which semester we were in when we did this. In groups, we had to first choose a local author/poet/playwright (a few whose names we had not heard before) and come up with something like a biography on this literary figure. In order to do that, we had to conduct an interview, do more research on him. For the final product, each group had to put on an exhibition at the university's library.

Mr. Kee Thuan Chye in the middle

My group members for this project were Mr. Mohd. Azman Awang, Mr. Daniel Chow Ung T'Chiang, Ms. Sharon Taty Mokhtar, Ms.Christina Chan and Ms. Wendy Chan. We picked Kee Thuan Chye from the name list and we happily went to see him at his office in the New Straits Times building in Kuala Lumpur.

We also went to interview Mr. Krishen Jit. I couldn't remember why we went to see him because we were working on Kee Thuan Chye for our assignment and not him.

After a few weeks, it was about time for us to set up our booths at the UPM Library where the exhibition was about to take place. This project was HUGE and we had to display our very best products to the campus community (even though only a small percentage of the population would be interested to pay us a visit).

It was not easy to have this exhibition at the library as we would have to keep the volume low all the time. I guess we behaved well as there was no complaint at all that I knew of, or no librarians trying to shoo us away.

a TESL junior

A few of the writers that the groups were researching on turned up at the exhibition. Apart from Mr. Kee Thuan Chye, there were also Salleh Ben Joned, Muhammad Haji Salleh and Anwar Ridhwan. They must be proud that we had chosen them for our assignments and had to check that we got the facts right about them.

This assignment required us to spend a lot of money and time, but knowing us, we pulled it through eventually. All the hard work paid off as my group members were awarded with As for this course (I think). It was a good experience and we would have to thank our lecturer, Mr. Malachi Edwin, for giving us the opportunity to take up the challenge and see the real people outside once in a while. I wonder if he still asks students with this kind of assignment anymore.