Reporters: Peng Siwei, Ma Xin
Editors: Xiao Mingwei, Wang Guanqi
BANGI, 18 Dec - Global Cafe, a food cultural exchange opportunity for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) exchange students, was held at Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan
(FSSK).
The event was organized by UKM Global Buddies, which is responsible for exchange student activities at UKM, and involved 46 students from six countries.
Nievya Aramasivam, director of Global Cafe, said that this is an annual event organized by UKM Global to enable exchange students to have a better cultural experience in Malaysia.
During the opening ceremony, Debora Ajeng Wahyuningtyas, an exchange student from Indonesia, performed the song "Satu Satu".
"This song is a very famous folk song in Indonesia, and at the same time, it is also famous in Malaysia," said Debora. "I hope that this song will resonate with people in both of our countries, and I hope to make our friends in other countries aware of our interesting music culture."
The Chinese exchange students prepared a variety of Chinese teas to introduce to their partners from other countries.
A doctoral exchange student from China, Zhang Yuhang said, "We have noticed that Malaysians also like to drink tea, but their tea-drinking culture is very different from ours in that they like to add a lot of sugar to their tea.
(Photo by: Peng Siwei)
"But in China, we don't do that;, we focus more on tasting the tea itself. We want to introduce the Chinese tea- drinking culture to everyone."
A Malay visitor from FSSK, Amirah Abdullah said, "It was a big culture shock for me., I had a hard time believing in drinking tea without sugar at first, but after they introduced me to it, I realized that there is something special about tea in its original flavor."
The exchange students from Kazakhstan even wore their national costumes and brought ethnic food.
Kongyrbayeva Amina, Fakulti Pendidikan (FPEND) exchange student from Kazakhstan said, "We started preparing the ingredients at 9pm the night before and didn't finish until 5am this morning.
"This is not only a food exchange opportunity for us, but it's a great time to be able to introduce our country to students from various countries, so we want to make the most of it.
"We specifically brought Bauyrsaq, which in Kazakhstan is only made at grand holiday banquets. It also represents the hospitality of our people in Kazakhstan and we hope that you will have the opportunity to visit Kazakhstan in the future."
The local student from the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (FKAB) Tan Chang Yong said, "I also enjoyed the cuisines from Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Japan and their cultural presentations.
"I was most impressed by the exchange students from the Philippines, who introduced me to many tourist attractions in the Philippines, which made me even more eager for the Philippines!"
