On the very first day of the E and C week, my class, together with 1I, was assigned to do wayang kulit as our aesthetics programme. The vendors introduced and explained to us kindly about wayang kulit, how 'wayang' means 'puppets' while 'kulit' means 'skin' and so wayang kulit basically means puppets that are made out of leather. While the vendor displayed to us the different types of puppets made by different countries due to the different cultures there, I noticed that wayang kulit was very similar to the Chinese's shadow puppetry. Both were shadow puppets and made out of leather. To me, this suggested how arts are passed down not only from generations to generations but also introduced and exposed to different cultures as well. However, I was quite disappointed. Why was there a need to do wayang kulit when i was already doing the Chinese shadow puppetry in the RV literature programme. With that, i expected less from the forklores that wayang kulit had to offer but to my surprise, the Ramayana story, the story that we had to act out, was very interesting and was super different from the stories that i had expected. Nonetheless, I had fun discussing with my friends and coming out with an agreed plot despite the presence of contrasting ideas within the team. Though it might seem mundane, it was my first step to opening the doors of the Malay culture, my very first step in being exposed to the different cultures so in depth.
Following up to that were the trips to Little India, Kampong Glam and Madrasah Aljunied.
On the second and third day, we visited Little India and Kampong Glam. In terms of food, what i saw were the common cuisines like nasi lemak, briyani, kueh lapis and dried gulab jamun. However, i noticed that what i had in mind was just the tip of the ice berg but what was really underneath it was the racial harmony present at Tekka centre in Little India and the Arab street in Kampong Glam. At Tekka Centre, I thought that there would be a lot of Indian stalls but to my astonishment, there were Chinese, Malay and even Western food sold there. I questioned myself, why are there a range of different kinds of cuisines sold there? Is Little India not filled with Indians? At Arab Street, as I walked past the narrow walkways between the stalls there, I saw non-Muslims working at the different textile stalls and were selling traditional and infusion of Malay attires. It dawned on me how diverse the culture are here in Singapore and we can get along with one another well, thus, not much tension between the different ethnic groups living here. Reminiscing it, I am really thankful for having such peace and harmony here because the world is now full of wars, terrorist attacks and riots, very unstable yet, we are still able to make peace with one another and are sensitive of what we say about our thoughts and stereotypical mindsets of each and every races here. 
On the third day, we visited the Sultan Mosque and Madrasah Aljunied. At the mosque, pillars of Islam and articles of faith, mosque etiquettes, ablution of Wudu and the 5 obligatory of prayers were some of the things taught to us. Other than learning that the Malays have to cleanse themselves and go through the 8 steps of Ablution 5 times per day, I realised that there were certain protocols that they have to follow and that the Malay culture had some fusion of Christianity as well. This was very surprising and shocking to me. How did the fusions occur in history and how has such fusions impacted customs and beliefs in the Malay community? Moving on from the Sultan Mosque, I visited Madrasah Aljunied, 2nd oldest madrasah living in Singapore, celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. Conversing with them through our questions and their educational power points introducing the Malay culture and their school, I was astonished by the fact that they studied an average of 14 subjects and how they were still able to cope with this myriad amount of subjects. However, other than the difference in the number of subjects that they needed to take up, their co-curriculum's duration were much much shorter than ours. Throughout the three outdoor activities, I spotted many cultural differences- for the Malay, one unique difference is islamic arts like Khat which is having a sharp point at the end of each words, thus, preventing enemies in the olden days to change the meaning of the message when sending from empire to empire; for the Indians are the garlands like the lime garland is used to potentially ward off any evil spirits around them.
After embarking the exciting cultural journey in Singapore during E and C week, I have found myself questioning why i did not have the urge to learn more of the races here and my knowledge towards the diverse cultures here. As i look back at the amount of time planned for this programme, I feel that the main objective is that culture is very complex and multi-dimensional. Only if we spend time living and being with people can we truly understand a culture and see what is underneath the tip of an ice berg. The experience has indeed made me achieve the goal of this programme. I have deepened my understanding of Singapore's culture and realised that there was more than meets the eye. I discovered that what my mindset of Singapore before the trip was insufficient to truly understand and embrace the cultural differences among every Singaporeans. This was very much impactful because I would have never thought of going to these cultural places and having brief conversations with strangers on the streets to understand what was beneath the surface which in this context, my idea of Singapore's culture in an iceberg. In spite of the smooth flow of events throughout the E and C week, the time allocated for each location was a bit too short and so there were many points that i noted were lacking content and sufficient explanation. Also, the app we were told to download in our phones did not really come in handy because most of the time, my group was just using our data to locate places through google maps and the password for access to map for Little India did not work so we were spending most of our time on out instincts or google map.
As the saying goes, "Experiencing another's culture may open the doors that were previously closed...but the choice to walk through those doors is entirely up to you." It is only if we take the initiative to understand another culture well, understand the different practices ranging from different races, can we open these doors that are already in front of us, available for us to open anywhere and anytime. It is only when we are accepting to other cultures, optimistic towards everything and be humble, can we be able to be more aware of culture and practices of the Indian and Malay community and learn to be pro-active in building a multi-racial Singapore. If I can have such an attitude, why can't you?
Thank you for reading this blog. :D
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