Unit Questions

1. Do writers think alike?
As far we read and what we had understood from the play of “we could **** you, Mr Birch”, what we can say that Kee Thuan Chye is not alike with other majority writer that claimed they are nationalists. However we think that he is more alike with a bunch of minority writer that have their own style in writing and show their nationalist.Kee Thuan Chye tried to show something different in his play. In this play he tried to come out with a lot of out of norm topic that people nowadays think it is a taboo to be discussed such as the old and modern thinking. Using his play he tried to open up our nationalists and our Malaysian the way we think and some sort what we understood was he seem like he was questioning our behaviors toward our old culture. He is Chinese but we think that he have a very close relationship with malay culture and people. Why we said so??? This is because if we see in the first page of the play, he does dedicate this play to his children. And his children names are more likely an old Malay name, Jebat and Soraya. For us it shows that even he is a Chinese but he seems that he have a bond and familiar with the Malay culture in a way naming his children and he know about the conflict of slavery one time ago that become an issue during the British Colonization.

2. What shape the minds of MLIE writers?
From what we have learn and discussed in class, we think that while they were study abroad, it does change and shape the way and the minds of MLIE writer in the way of their thinking. Maybe during the study abroad, their lecture and culture over think make them to think beyond of the normal thinking and change them to become more daring to take the risk by discussing and rise up issues that suppose to be forbidden issues to be discussed. What they have learn and other culture that they faced and they adapt for a while during their study had lead them to be more open minded in their writing. What they gained and a few of them such as Salleh Ben Joned, he adapts the style of his lecturer writing. He is a student one of the famous lecturer and Australian writer. At the University of Tasmania, he became a student of a major Australian poet, James McAuley. He returned to Malaysia in 1973, and lectured in English Literature at University Malaya until 1983. The ways of writing from their lecturers do give an impact to the way of MLIE writer in their works.