Bringing The World Together – The International Student Carnival
Contributed by Lee Jian Ren (Junior Leader Programme, A-Levels)
The International Student Carnival 2008 (ISC) brandished the theme “One Global Village”: unity amongst diverse cultures and races throughout the whole world. The main objective of the Carnival was to instill integration amongst different cultures and races across the globe, facilitated by the International Sports Carnival, the International Student Forum, and the Cultural Night, all of which stretched over two long days, right here in campus!
And with a total of 35 local universities and colleges bringing over 1200 international students coming from all over the globe, this was no mean feat! The mammoth event was a co-joint effort between the Ministry of Higher Education and Sun-U.
The ISC kicked off with the Sports Carnival, which was held on the 8th of August. Students from as far as 
Bangladesh, India, the UK and Nigeria, were brought together in the love for sports, as they vied for the top prize in games of futsal, basketball, male tug-of-war, female tug-of-war and captain ball. Yang Berhormat Dr. Hou Kok Chung, Deputy Minister of Higher Education Malaysia, and Professor Dr. Mohd Fauzi, the chairman of the event, were present to officiate the event. To bring all spirits closer, they both joined in with everyone else in the aerobics exercise that followed shortly after. And what a thrilling warm-up it was! Participants 
showed great excitement as they started dancing vibrantly to the music!
The Sports Carnival incidentally coinciding with the greatly-anticipated opening of the Beijing Olympics, it provided a meaningful experience to all the players, as Max Lim, advisor to Sun-U’s Sports Council, explained, “Sorry you’ll be missing your Olympics tonight, but we’ll have our own mini Olympics right here!”.
Needless to say, the enthusiasm was felt all over. The selected players were playing for their 
college/university as well as their respective country. Chants of support could be heard from all corners of the field. If you had been there, you would definitely feel the air sizzling with excitement. The competitive atmosphere filled with adrenaline led the games to a success. The Sports Carnival stretched till midnight. When it all had ended, everyone was relieved and proud that it all went so well. Some of the players danced with their shirts off around the field, feeling proud of their college/university.
The results for the games:
|
|
Champion |
1st Runner-Up |
2nd Runner-Up |
|
Futsal |
Asia Pacific University College of Technology and Innovation 2 |
Nilai International University College |
University Technology Mara 2/ Legenda College 1 |
|
Basketball |
Multimedia University |
Legenda College 1 |
Legenda College 3/ University Kebangsaan Malaysia 2 |
|
Captain Ball |
Kolej University Islam Antarabangsa Selangor |
Sun-U |
|
|
Tug-of war (Male) |
University Putra Malysia |
Nilai International University College |
Segi University College/ Multimedia University |
|
Tug-of-war (Female) |
University Sains Malaysia 1 |
University of Malaya |
University Sains Malaysia 2 |
The following day’s proceedings began in Auditorium 7 with the International Student Forum. The forum’s 
five speakers discussed the common challenges faced by international students, providing the opportunity for them and, subsequently, others when the floor was opened at the end, to voice out their predicament and also their experiences from studying in Malaysia. The purpose of this was to provide a better accommodative and learning environment for international students. The knowledge shared throughout the forum gave a whole new insight and understanding to the social welfare of foreign students in the country.
Later that night, everyone was getting ready for the most anticipated event of the year, the Cultural Night. The MPH was packed to the brim: imagine the number of participants who attended! As the “curtains” drew 
back, the emcees for the night, Ausmat-ian Nicole Asha and SSD Staff Terence Lim, welcomed the crowd accompanied with an instrumental opening featuring a fusion of eastern and western music courtesy of Ethnicity, Sun-U’s newly-formed musical ensemble. Shortly after, the arrival of Yang Berhormat Dr. Hou Kok Chung, Deputy 
Minister of Higher Education Malaysia, Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah, Chancellor of Sun-U, together with the other VIPs were accompanied with the Kompang and vibrantly welcomed by a traditional zapin dance performance.
The ceremony was once again officiated by Yang Berhormat Dr. Hou Kok Chung together with Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah by hitting on a golden gong thrice.
The ambience of the ceremony was shifted as the 12 Season Drums troupe stole the spotlight with an exhilarating performance on the Chinese drums. The crowd was then enthralled with an Indian cultural dance by Sun-U, famously named the ‘Mirchi Gudiyan’, translated as ‘spicy girls’. The main highlight of the Cultural Night was the international cultural 
performances, which were the combined efforts of the various institutions. The ambience of the night stayed at its apex throughout the whole time as the crowd was surprised each time with each unique cultural performance.
Later that night, Legenda College was announced as the overall sport champions of the Sports Carnival and was presented with an trophy by Yang Berhormat Dr. Hou Kok Chung.
‘Bolly Vibes’ by Monash University stole the stage as they presented a truly vibrant performance from Bollywood itself! But the crowd truly brought the house down when the Spaxx Theatre Club from LimKokWing University of Creative Technology (LICT) presented an African dance called ‘Celebration’, a combination of the Zulu and Tswana cultures of Africa. They gave an energetic performance as they stomped their feet to the uplifting beat of afropop.
The night came to a close with all the performers gathering on stage to dance for one last time. The emcees concluded by reinforcing the theme of the International Student Carnival: ‘One Global Village’, a truly remarkable event.
