WALKING around Bangsar one balmy night six years ago, I bumped into filmmaker Amir Muhammad and film academic Khoo Gaik Cheng sitting with a rather foppish Mat Salleh man. It took less than an hour of my being introduced before all of us banded together to bully the hapless Australian Mat Salleh to prove that [...]

THIS year will mark the eighth, and final, Boh Cameronian Arts Awards, an annual event highlighting and acknowledging the achievements of Malaysian artists and performing groups. The Cammies, as the awards are fondly called, honour arts practitioners for achievements within the categories of dance, music, theatre and musical theatre. The awards have to close because [...]

KATHY Rowland gets asked a lot about where she’s from. It wouldn’t be an issue but for the fact that she is Malaysian, has a Caucasian surname and doesn’t look white. And so in racially-defined Malaysia, with its obsession for categories, Rowland is the odd “dan lain-lain”. The Petaling Jaya native is co-founder and managing [...]