We all love a winner; but let's hold the Datukship

ON Monday evening I was alerted to a wave of congratulatory messages sweeping Twittersphere touting the achievements of two Malaysian thespians and their sterling exploits overseas.

Oh dear, did I miss yet-another distinctly dowdy music awards show in far-away Krankistan , or some ultra-patriots poetry recital bash in that most democratically-challenged state of Tornadosia?

I grabbed one of our very own Red Tops (the one that claims to shed some bright light into your life) and there it was in full front-page self-patting Malaysia Boleh ecstasy.

No, it was not some tiny mosquito awards of nil consequence but THE…. Golden Horse Awards, Taiwan’s prestigious film awards held for the 50th time this year. The headlines screamed about the achievements of actress Yeo Yann Yann and film director Tsai Ming-liang deservingly showered with plaudits by the Chinese-language film fraternity, walking away with a couple of significant awards.

PM TWEET ALERT

Then I was alerted by my colleague Azam to the tweet of our busy Prime Minister who had just visited Tun Dr M in IJN. The PM, bless him, too joined in the chorus of “well done” tweets in praise of the duo.

Many others joined in as their achievements were given the fulsome “yea-Malaysians-win-some-awards overseas” treatment and going to great lengths mentioning their ties to their homeland.

Wait a minute – homeland? Pray tell….!

In the mould of; we all love a winner; some other nation too can lay claim to the pair as belonging to them, if not by reason of domicile, certainly by reason of residency as presenting them their entire professional growth and nurturing.

Lets find out first if the pair had enjoyed the pampering and largesse of grants or film funding from the likes of FINAS or some film-friendly budget (I could be wrong but if I am, please do correct me).

They left our shores eons ago to pursue their craft in foreign lands where their talents were honed within a more conducive administrative environment and certainly I would think – where social mores are rather less restrictive; dare I say, permissive?

To their credit, the pair always acknowledge their Malaysian identity without rancor. For that alone, I think this is where the film and arts community in this country should pull all the stops to leverage on their new-found fame to promote this country.

FAIR SINGAPORE?

Some sections of the Singapore media deserve credit, save for the Channel News Asia video report (see the video at the start) which unabashedly led its coverage with the claim of; “Our Yeo Yann Yann: - but we forgive them.

It cannot be denied though that the film bore the creative stamp of Singapore through and through – went to great lengths to point out that Tsai Ming-liang was a Malaysian-born, Taiwan-based director and that Yeo Yann Yann was similarly Malaysia-born though Singapore based plying her profession as an actress.

Tsai also made a plug of his home country when he referred to himself as a Malaysian Chinese who had the temerity to argue with the organizers, an action for which he thought would have caused him great grief. Instead, he won the great prize!

We may have a little more claim to Yeo Yann Yann as she co-starred in Yasmin Ahmad’s Mualaf. Further back, she has the movie Petaling Street Warriors to her credit. Try as hard as I might, (courtesy of both Waze and Google Earth) I could not find a single street name in Singapore bearing the name Petaling Street. So I assume (subject to someone telling me otherwise), that this was her other link to her homeland.

We no doubt sometimes go overboard in showering praise to our “found-fame-in-foreign-lands” brethren. I guess Talent Corp is mulling what to do next. Is FINAS thinking likewise?

Whatever the course of action, I really hope we douse the level of enthusiasm one notch and not rush to recommend the immediate award of one Datukship or other; not now at least!

So let’s not be so quick to claim this one that got away as the product of our toil.

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RAZAK Chik will no doubt want to see the winning film Stray Dogs and Yann Yann in Ilo Ilo when both films do get screened here – in the original Chinese language.