GEORGE TOWN, July 24 — What do you call someone whose father is one ethnicity and mother another? A Malaysian, of course.

Lithuanian Paulius Staniunas fell in love with Malaysia and its racial/cultural diversity four years ago so he started a project to showcase how beautiful he thought it all is.

This is how the photographer started the Same Same project in December last year—a never-ending online project telling the stories of Malaysians who are neither Malay, Chinese or Indian but of mixed race.

“The main goal of the project is to remind Malaysians that you are beautiful and so diverse, that if you can fall in love with someone who is culturally and physically different from you, get married and start a family, it means love transcends all so don’t put yourself in a box. You are all Malaysians,” Staniunas said in an interview with the Malay Mail Online recently.

The 30-year-old will be showcasing a photography installation for George Town Festival next month, an off-shoot from his Same Same project, titled Same Same: A Dan Lain-Lain Project featuring 30 Penangites.

Similar to Same Same, the Dan Lain-Lain Project will tell the stories of 30 people, some who are individuals, some are families and some are couples in mixed race relationships.

“I talked to individuals who are of mixed race, couples of different races and mixed race families to compile their stories and took photographs of them,” he said.

Staniunas has over 30 stories in the Same Same project of people he met from all over Malaysia and he has no intention of ending the project anytime soon.

Also known for his “All is Amazing” photography work, Staniunas remembered when he first came to Malaysia all those years ago and how awed he was by the diversity here where he could speak Mandarin, Malay and English to the people here.

The young art director had picked up Indonesian (which has similarities to Malay) and Mandarin during his studies in Indonesia and in Beijing previously before he came to Kuala Lumpur for a short holiday.

The short holiday was enough to keep drawing him back here until he decided to move here and started working here.

“After a while, I’ve forgotten the initial awe I felt when I first came here so I wanted to relive that, I wanted to capture that awe for the incredible diversity here and that is why I decided to document how amazing and beautiful Malaysians are,” he said.

He started by talking to friends and colleagues who are of mixed race and from there, he also approached people on the streets and he reached out to others through his website and the social media.

It was a journey he loved and he didn’t want to end as he wanted to tell the stories of these people and show Malaysia to the world through his Same Same website (samesame.my) for as long as possible.

“My ultimate goal is for Malaysia to celebrate its diversity by having a mixed race day, much like how Father’s Day or Mother’s Day is celebrated,” he said.

The Same Same: A Dan Lain-Lain Project will open to the public at 7pm on August 1 at Dewan Sri Pinang and will be on throughout the month.