GEORGE TOWN, Aug 2 — He is an art director but he takes photographs as a hobby and last year, he took on a project to showcase Malaysia’s unique cultural diversity called the Same Same project.
Lithuanian Paulius Staniunas started photographing Malaysia’s night life initially for his “All is Amazing” project (www.allisamazing.com) where he took photos of people in night clubs, concerts and music events.
After living here for about three years, the 30-year-old suddenly realised he had lost the awe he first felt for Malaysia’s cultural diversity when he first arrived here.
To recapture this feeling, Staniunas started the Same Same project (www.samesame.my) at the end of last year.
His project is a showcase of Malaysians who are neither ethnic Malay, Chinese or Indian but are of mixed race parentage.
He would interview his subjects — most of whom are either mixed race or families and couples of different races — photograph them and tell their stories on his website and Facebook page.
Staniunas has recorded the stories of about 30 Malaysians and recently, 30 Penangites for his exhibition at George Town Festival titled “Same Same: A Dan Lain-Lain” project.
The exhibition will be at Dewan Sri Pinang for the whole of August.
Here, he shares how he came to Asia and why he is so passionate about the project.
In his own words:
My journey started eight years ago when I applied for a scholarship in Indonesia and I got it. Before that I was living a happy life in the city centre, working for MTV, doing art direction, and then I got the scholarship.
It lasted for one year... I applied for another scholarship, this time to Beijing, to study the Chinese language. When I lived in Indonesia, besides my studies, I handled freelance design work... I realised that I can stay back in Europe and live in a society I’m used to and do freelance work or I can do freelance work, live in Asia, travel, study, meet new people and get the same amount of money I get back home.
I finished my studies in 2008 and I decided to stay in China for two more years... I worked for local companies, I worked for an architectural company that designed one of the Olympic’s information building, the BeiZhu studio, then worked for an advertising agency and after that worked for a photography association in Beijing. Then I moved to Shanghai and worked for the world expo representing my own country, Lithuania, it was really fun.
After that, it was time to go back to Europe. On the way back, I stopped at K... I was fascinated by how cool Malaysia is... everybody speaks English, Malay, Chinese. In Malaysia, you have Malays, Chinese, Indians all living together and there are Bangladeshis here, Nepalis living together here, I’m thinking this country, it is the United States of Asia.
Show me any other country like Malaysia, there is none. Indonesia is Indonesians, China is Chinese, Korea is Koreans, they are all very homogenous societies while Malaysia is actually a melting pot of Asian countries and Asian cultures. I fell in love with that and really thought it would be cool to live in Malaysia. When I came back here, I started working for a local company in KL.
I started “All is Amazing”, it is night life photography of Asia, especially KL. What I do is night life photography of clubs, concerts, music events. After three years of doing that, I thought it’s time to do something more mature so I came up with “Same Same.” One of the reasons is the way I saw Malaysia when I first arrived three years ago and how I saw Malaysia after three years. The way I see Malaysia has changed over the years because I have friends, I hear stories, I read newspapers, and I miss Malaysia, the one I fell in love with, I believe this Malaysia still exists, it’s still here.
This project is to remind Malaysians that you are the United States of Asia. I thought to myself why can’t people do what they want to do. Why are people being told how to live their lives even though they are adults. Why one ethnic group can’t do this, can’t do that. We are all grown up, we are all mature. I know what I’m telling you is very sensitive. This is just how I see it.
I believe we shouldn’t be put into boxes. I believe you should all be Malaysians. When I go to work, I see my colleagues of different races, they are friends, some of them, they’ve been friends since childhood and they don’t judge each other, by the skin colour, what religion they follow, it was obsolete among my friends and colleagues. This is the Malaysia I fell in love with but when I read online, I don’t like what I read. So I want to make news with the Malaysian identity which is “Same Same.”
I learn so much through this project... when people fall in love with each other from different cultures and different races, they never question that the person they fall in love with is different. I ask them, when you fall in love, did you notice that she’s Indian or he’s Malay, and they reply, they never notice. The thing is when people fall in love, they don’t see the differences.
This project will go on and on and on forever. I’m really happy that this exhibition is happening here. I would like to do an exhibition in KL. I would like to go to Sabah and Sarawak to do the project there too. I want to spread my message to smaller villages, to show how beautiful your country is. It would interesting to bring this to the more rural areas to see how they react to this.
