By Chong Jia Ni
Main Campus, 12 May - Universiti Sains Malaysia Arts & Culture Festival (USM ACF) 2024 was successfully organised by Sekretariat Kebudayaan dan Kesenian Tionghua Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM SKKT) at Padang Kawad, USM on 12 May 2024 that started from 12.00pm to 11.00pm.
USM ACF is one of the annual events conducted by USM SKKT. There were around 700 participants from USM students, other university representatives and media representatives who joined this festival.
The participants are doing the windmill step-by-step. Picture by Chong Jia Ni
Project director of USM ACF 2024, Chu Su Xuan Ruth emphasised that the event name is ‘Homeward’. In this digital era, young people are not familiar with traditional culture because they think cultural traditions are out of date and do not match current fashion. This event’s objective is to enhance the knowledge of the young generation about the valuable cultural heritage of our ancestors.
“Theme concept of the festival is ‘Rustic Splendour’ with the wish to bring back the joys of rural life, highlight Malaysian villages' dynamic beauty and promote cultural heritage,” she said.
Chu added that the core value of this festival is 'Perpetual Heartstring’ which aims to connect the younger and older generations to preserve and inherit the rural arts and culture.
Head of the Cultural Department, Tan Zhao Xian, introduced the cultural booth, including three main races’ the village house exhibition, the tikam and the windmill workshop. The purpose of this booth is to improve the understanding of the young generation about the village culture, such as the characteristics of buildings and the traditional games.
“The village houses are made from ice-cream sticks to copy the woody village house in the 1980s. While tikam is the traditional lucky draw which only need 50sen per each at that time. Besides, the participants can do a windmill by themselves and experience the happiness when they play together,” she added.
"Although the products of the cultural booth do not meet expectations, but the participants' feedback is good. The following year can improve and come out more portfolios to let the public learn more about the different aspects of culture that are being forgotten or missing now,” Tan said.
Che Xin Wei, Communication 2, said the overall USM ACF has improved than last year. Everything complied with the theme, especially the cultural booth, and she got a lot of information about the village’s life.
“I am surprise that the organiser has invite a Malaysian female singer-songwriter, JieYing Tha as a special guest to attend the event. I believed that with the power of the well-known artist, the more people will give attention on the villages culture and pass it down to the next generation,” Che expressed.
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