One of Persatuan Bahasa Tionghua’s (PBT) annual event – Freshman’s Welcoming Night – just ended last night. This event of PBT involves only the Chinese students of USM Engineering Campus. So first I’ll explain how PBT works. So each year, there’ll be a new batch of first year students coming in. In USM Engineering Campus, there are 6 schools, namely: School of Aerospace Engineering, School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, School of Civil Engineering and School of Chemical Engineering.
So usually during the second week here in campus, the first year Chinese students will be called out by the second year Chinese students for a meeting. Meetings are conducted according to schools, which means there will be in total 6 meetings. These meetings are conducted by the second year students. During this meeting, the first thing that the first years have to do is to introduce themselves to the second year. Next, they will pick a leader for their batch which is commonly known here as Dailou and Daigajie. After this is done, they will then pick their school’s flower and grass in which they call it Xihua and Xicao. So Xihua and Xicao is basically the prettiest and most handsome in the school, sort of like an image for their school I guess. Once these selections are done, each first year will be assigned a mentor (second year students) in which they will address as Abang or Kakak. And well that’s about all there is to this meeting.
Xihua and Xicao aren’t just glamorous titles. These pairs from each schools are actually chosen to compete against other schools to achieve the campus flower and campus grass title a.k.a Xiaohua and Xiaocao. These duos from respective schools have to undergo dance practices almost every night, get coupled up for photo shooting and also individual photo shoots just for this Freshman’s Welcoming Night. It’s sort of like a in-campus pageant competition. And well I seem to be quite familiar with this because I’m speaking from experience. I was the previous flower of School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering. Haha. And it was some experience.
Alright I guess I’ll start with what I went through last year. So last year during the meeting with second years, I was nominated as the Xihua along with a few other girls. When they were voting, I never expect to get the highest votes lah. Firstly I thought that the other girls who got nominated were much prettier than me. And well I was never really the pretty daughter of the faimly. So yeah, just some average tall dark girl. Aiya and somehow don’t know why I got the most votes and was selected as the flower of School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering lo.
When I heard that we had to dance I was like O_O. And I’m not that typical girly kinda girl so I was wondering how I was going to get through this thing. So there are 6 flowers and 6 grasses in the whole campus. We had dance practice almost everyday once we’ve got selected. For me, the dance was the most terrible part. I am a really kayu person. I can’t like shake my hips or move my body in a gentle and flexible way. Plus in my opinion, I was the most stubborn flower during my batch. Whatever they needed me to do I would be like “No I don’t want to do it”. I was paired up with School of Chemical Engineering’s grass for photo shoots and also during the entrance of the flowers and grass. Photo shoots were so hard man. I didn’t know the guy at that time and we had to take couple shots. Wtf. So it was really awkward.
Even though I hated the idea that I was a Xihua and had to go through all these, I totally enjoyed the preparation process. Our dance tutors and pageant managers were really nice and understanding even though I was a tough flower. During the whole process, I got to know friends from different schools and years. My social circle got expanded by just a little bit. So after numerous dance practices and photo shoots, the day finally arrived.
This Xihua and Xicao pageant thing is actually the climax of Freshman’s Welcoming Night. This event is actually used to introduce to Chinese students about the clubs that are under PBT such as Dance Club, Litlegras Music Club etc. When I was a Xihua, I wore a strapless white dress, the bridesmaid’s dress for Tiff’s wedding. Haha. To be honest I was super nervous lah. Never in my life have I imagined myself doing something like this. LOL. So during the climax of this events, the Xihuas and Xicaos will enter the main hall and go up the stage. And then we will be called out one by one to introduce ourselves. Once this is done we will go back backstage to change and get ready for our dance performance. Once Xihua and Xicao are done performing, the audience will vote for their favorite Xihua and Xicao. Then there will be counting of votes and announcement of the Xiaohua and Xiaocao.
During my time, the Xiaocao was from School of Aerospace Engineering and the Xiaohua was from School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. After the announcement was made, I went backstage wanting to change out of the dress. But the committee there were like “Go find your schoolmates and take pictures”. So Dave (my school’s Xicao) and I went out in search of our schoolmates, only to find that all of them have already gone back. While other Xihuas and Xicaos had their schoolmates with them. It was quite a sad moment for us lah. Dave and I are both from Mineral Resources Engineering, there are only 3 Chinese in my course for my batch. So all our other schoolmates are from Material Engineering and Polymer Engineering. Our third coursemate Douglas probably just followed the majority. The feeling was like arriving at an airport and everyone else has someone picking them up and you’re just there alone. That sucks. Well I guess that’s all for my experience. Haha.
For this year, I was so-called one of the committee. Aerospace’s Xihua last year – Joanne – asked if ex-Xihua and ex-Xicao wanted to go to the Freshman’s Welcoming Night. If yes, we gotta pay RM 5 for the ticket but dinner is provided. But the deal for committee was that you pay RM 8, you’ll get a T-shirt and dinner. So obviously the RM 8 deal was good, so I sort of bugged her to let me in as one of the committee. The whole of last night, all I did was man the door that the flowers and grass were going to enter the hall from and help to count votes. Also last night, there was a BBQ event for first and second year students of Mineral Resources Engineering (this is an all race event). Whole of last night, I tried to go for 2 events. Borrowed a friend’s car just to do it, Haha.
As the so-called committee this year, I got the chance to observe how things work. The counting of the votes was extremely terrible. It was so unorganized, there was no one leading. I did my best to help out, got told off a little, urgh. So this year, there was 1 Xihua (let’s assume she’s P) which in many people’s eyes – extremely beautiful. The other 5 are pretty girls too. There was one so skinny I thought she was gonna break any moment. And also there was one Xihua (let’s assume she’s Q) which isn’t the ‘typical beautiful’ kinda girl lah. She’s slightly chubbier than other Xihuas. But I find her pretty cute and bubbly.
So when they were about to announce the Xiaohua and Xiaocao, I was backstage observing and I overheard a conversation that disgusted me so much. It was between a third year senior (she wasn’t committee and technically not suppose to be backstage too) and her friends, kot. She knows who the winners are already. Here’s how the conversation went:
Conversation translated from Chinese.
3rd Year Senior: Hey you guys, I told you that P would win. Imagine if Q’s votes were the highest. What would you guys do if you were in charge of counting the votes?
Her friends: (they mumbled something in which I wasn’t paying attention to)
3rd Year Senior: If I were in charged of counting the votes and if Q’s votes were the highest, I would totally change the votes.
I was so disgusted when I heard what she just blurted out from that terrible mouth of hers. After a while I was still quite annoyed by it I decided to leave. I went to WC and said “let’s go”. WC was there because he was performing with the band under Litlegras Music Club and I didn’t manage to watch him perform as I was helping out with the counting of votes. Duish. In the car, I told him what I heard and WC was like “What’s her problem. Every girl deserves to be called beautiful.” And I totally agree with him. I know who this third year senior is, lucky her I don’t know her name if not I would have broadcast her awful attitude to the whole world. She deserves a kick in the ass.
Typical people only look at typical beauty. And there are a lot of these kinda typical people in this campus. I feel that if you think a person is handsome or pretty to you, compliment him or her. Otherwise if a person is not in your definition of pretty or handsome, just shut your damn mouth and keep your thoughts to yourself. The world is already such a nasty place, with such people (e.g: third year senior) in it, just makes the world even nastier. You’re not even employed and you have this horrible attitude. You need to be put right.
Kim’s Glossary (LOL):kayu – wood. Meaning my movements are stiff like a tree. Haha
PBT – Chinese Student’s Society of USM Engineering Campus
Dailou – Male Big Boss
Daigajie – Female Big Boss
Xihua – Course flower (Literally), School flower (Actual Meaning)
Xicao – Course grass (Literally), School grass (Actual Meaning)
Xiaohua – School flower (Literally), Campus flower (Actual Meaning)
Xiaocao – School grass (Literally), Campus grass (Actual Meaning)
P/s: All definitions weren’t put much thought into. Haha.
