We're in Accord
by Unknown
^ Forgive me, but we're wasting time here. Button down & let it out. I picked question 7 because it's easier to understand and it gives me a satisfying writing space, which, in other words, opens the door to my writing style. If my choice of words gets hollow like gun barrels, please bear with it, because, yeah, it's not loaded YET.
If we ask dictionary 'What's a celebrity?', straightforwardly at your face he says 'a famous, or well-known person'. That's all. Thank you for reading.
You, sir, deserve a cookie. Let us continue.
Everything is not as simple as it seems. When I hear 'celebrity', Paris Hilton's cum-stained face pops in my head; are all celebrities like that? Oh if so I'm so going to hell when I die, because Jesus is known universally. But anyway, there's a saying that goes 'famous for being famous' (Daniel J. Boorstin, 1964), which shrunk down my opinion on 'celebrity'; it generally means, a famous person. No one really give a shit on how he or she crawled all the way from the bottom to the front cover of magazines.
But doesn't that make a fool out of other famous individuals like Shakespeare, Chopin, Beethoven, JS Bach, and...and... Yasmin Ahmad? They were prodigies that made their own marks in the history, and songs of their stories are still heard today. They didn't do porn. So what's wrong here?
The definition varies.
'Explore the definition of 'celebrity' in Malaysia...'
Right...
In Malaysia, we know celebrities like Nicol David, Dato' Lee Chong Wei, Cao Ge, Guang Liang, Siti Nurhaliza and so on. I know artists and athletes are two different clans, but they do share a similarity here. They are celebrated for their very own achievements for the country.
Basically, now we know how are' celebrity' defined in Malaysia, so let's move onto the next part,
'compare it with another culture of your choice...'
Okay...
Not going to lie, but, I have not decided which culture I'm going to choose to compare, but I do have a list of considerations, they are:
- Malaysia/Other country's Mythology
- Malaysia/Other country's Religion (I can sense great peril in this one)
- Malaysia/Other country's Music
- Malaysia/Other country's Fashion
References:
Cook, C (2011) 'The Making of Modern Celebrity: Famous for fifteen minutes - and longer.' Gresham College Web. Available online: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-making-of-modern-celebrity-famous-for-fifteen-minutes-and-longer [Accessed on 12th of June, 2014]
Interesting interpretation of a celebrity you have there.
ReplyDeleteJust one thought btw: with the widespread of social media today, we Malaysians (and I believe other nationals as well) have created a new line in defining celebrities. It seems to me that two levels of celebrity exists right now, the first is the one that you have mentioned: pop stars, national heroes and such, and the second goes to the young adults today that found fame through the platform of social media. Think Joyce Chu from "Malaysian Zharbor".
The question right now is how are we going to really define a celebrity? Are we to stick to the conventional perception of cum-stained-face Paris Hilton or are we to widen the perspective and accept the kin of Joyce Chu? If we are to widen the perspective, then wouldn't it be two kinds of celebrities? ie. the 'nobles' and the 'peasants' (you know what i mean)
What do you think? :o
My very first feedback! First of all, thank you for reading my post! It is true that in our technology-driven world today, nailing the word 'celebrity' into one's pocket is so much easier compared to the period when social platforms hadn't exist. Contrary to what I've mentioned in this post, there's actually no need for a person to do something big for the nation to be famous. I can be famous by posting a video of me eating cat poop (just an example) even though I could be hospitalized for that.
DeleteTo answer your question, I in my earnest opinion think that the term 'celebrity' is not limited to just one common implication, because the term is vastly used on people from completely different spectrum like Youtube artists, athletes, pornographer, religious figures, and even criminals.
However, I think it is also very important to hop around the context to find out what a celebrity truly is in Malaysia. We have to shape it well in order to compare it with another culture of our choice.
I wouldn't mind categorizing different celebrity, but I'm not very sure if it's applicable in our essays. What say you? :3
Forgive me for I have laughed at your poop eating comment.
DeleteYou have my thanks for clearing up my doubt, it seems that I have left out the most important thing which is to find out what a celebrity truly means to us Malaysians.
But then, how do we find out? I'm actually very curious about this, since I doubt that there is any academic materials out there that reference Malaysia, but I surely hope there is .___.
I think categorizing them would be interesting tho, like, they are both well known, but the 'nobles' are usually the ones that are really excellent: Shakesphere, Siti Nurhaliza, Yasmin Ahmad.
While the 'peasants', well, to be brutally honest, sometimes gains their fame through their looks (while I do agree that some are really talented i.e. Jinnyboy), and also out of men's pure desire to look and interact with beautiful young ladies.
If we could narrow it down to just by looking at certain type of celebrities. I think it might be viable :o
Again, just raw thoughts. Brain's still scrambled :/