The Censored Titanic

By The Journalists' Project

UTAR Warriors in Vocal

By Ivy Kho

KAMPAR: With his excellent voice, Chew Shern Hui stood out to be the champion of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) Second Karaokay Competition 2011 and won RM5, 500 cash prize.

           The event was organized by UTAR Music Club, which was held in UTAR Heritage Hall, from 4pm to 10pm. The entrance fee was RM8 for each person.

           “This competition aims to cultivate singing talents among UTAR students, inspire their potentials and enhance their interest in singing,” said Isaac Foh Jia Sheng, chairperson of the event.

           The top 10 finalists who had been selected from nearly 200 participants were Chong Yen Peng, Sushi Lim Shrn See, Edward Cheang Kok Wei, Satthiya a/p Kandi, Noel Tan Xin Ngoh, Wendy Ooi Wen Lih, Chew Shern Hui, Wayne Low Cheon Ying, Cheong Hui Ting and Jessica Chai Wan Fung. Due to personal reason, Sushi Lim Shrn See chose to withdraw from the competition. There were 9 contestants competing in the final.

          Satthiya a/p Kandi, the only Indian among the contestants, brightens up the entire atmosphere and received warm applause from the audience when she performed a Chinese song.

          The organiser invited a number of guests to take part in this event. The judges invited were Soong Hoong Cheng (UTAR lecturer), Christopher Lay (Director of I-dreams Talent) and Fan Ya Fu (Local singer). The special guests invited were Yean (Local singer) and Tan Mei Jiao from One Million Star Season Seven.

Special Guest: Mei Jiao from One Million Star Season Seven was singing in her beautiful voice.

          After the first two rounds, the judges eliminated four contestants. The top five finalists were Noel Tan Xin Ngoh, Ooi Wen Lih, Chew Shern Hui, Wayne Low Cheon Ying and Cheong Hui Ting.

          The theme given to the top five finalists was “Rock” songs. The contestants sang enthusiastically and had successfully warmed up the atmosphere of the whole event. The audience thoroughly enjoyed the event.

          Chew Shern Hui was announced as the champion of the UTAR Second Karaokay Competition 2011. The first and second runners-up winners were Cheong Hui Ting and Noel Tan Xin Ngoh respectively. Wayne Low Cheon Ying achieved Best Popularity Award. The event was wrapped up with a photo taking session.

The Champion: Shern Hui (right) received prizes from Christoper Lay (left).

The Ability to Enable the Disables!

By Wong Yin Mun

IPOH: A group of children with learning disabilities within the age group of 7-20 years old from the Ray of Hope (ROH) centre were invited to give a mesmerizing performance in Ipoh Parade shopping mall yesterday.

          The event started at 8p.m. and it took approximately 2 hours. Several thrilling performances, such as singing, animals’ sounds mimicking, hand gestures, Malay dance and even Indian dance were presented by these down-syndrome or autistic children. Although these recitals were challenging for the performers, they were able to complete every single act smoothly.

Ending pose: The performers end the "Little Grass" dance with a cherry post.

          Surprisingly, the performers were steady and unruffled during the whole event; even though the sound system was not functioning well and it indeed stopped unexpectedly at the beginning of the performance. Also, applause from the audiences were incessant after every performance throughout the entire event.

          This event was organized by the Popular Book Store, the area manager of Popular, Esther Yee said in her speech that the main purpose of inviting ROH to perform is to allow the public to know more and to refine the community’s understanding on down-syndrome and autistic children.

          “This is something special that we are able to do in order to make a payment to the society,” said Yee. She also stated that the company will invite ROH to perform again during the middle of the year as well as end of the year.

          Besides that, Datin Mary Yeoh, the chairperson of ROH centre along with Agnes Cheah, the person in charge of the ROH Café, were impressed and felt proud of these children. They also felt grateful and thanked Popular Book Store for the invitation by giving away the souvenir to Yee.

          “I feel so glad to see my son performing on the stage and I have never thought of it since the day he was born,” said Wan Yoke Mui, 50, mother of Wong Hoon Kuen, 17, one of the performers who is a down-syndrome child. She also thanked ROH centre for giving her son a chance to learn as she never expected her son will perform on the stage in front of the public one day. 

The performers waved their hands while singing for the last song of the event.

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