malaysians shanghaied in World Expo

Today is Day 1 of World Expo in Shanghai.

I had eyed this expo since last year, but as circumstances of life changes beyond my expectation. way beyond, I was unable to proceed as wish. I'm afterall not without commitments in life.

But something tickled me as I follow our Malaysian Pavillion there cyberly.

This is Rumah Gadang architecture of Minangkabau, originated from West Sumatra, Indonesia.

Someone commented in one of the BERNAMA site:

At the Shanghai expo news web site (#247), a Malaysian senator has also mentioned that “…..the project was somehow ‘hijacked’ to a foreign company in China which has absolutely no knowledge of our local Minangkabau culture and history, resulting in a ‘rojak’ design of a pavilion which had incorporated graphic nuances that are more Indonesian rather than Malaysian. Such a project of national pride, in the first place, should have been a 100% Malaysian effort. To the more knowledgeable people, this will appear to be a gross misrepresentation of our local Minangkabau culture and Malaysia will yet again become a laughing stock of the world!”

And if you really got the time, maybe you can read about the mastermind(s) behind this project.

I guess we'd been shanghaied once again of our tax money. Dang.

Wait. It's our culture after all.