A few weeks ago, there was some crazy news about the Malaysian Tourism Ministry spending RM1.8million (approx. US$600,000) on their Facebook Page – Cuti Cuti 1 Malaysia. Which inspired me to write a post suggesting 3 ways Tourism Malaysia can maximize their social media investment.

This week, the Ministry released a statement to clarify that the total amount spent was for 6 Pages and the development of  their apps, not just that 1 page.

• Citrawarna 1Malaysia (no confirmation if it’s the official page)
• 1Malaysia Malaysia Mega Sale/Malaysia Year End Sale
• Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia (link as seen above)
• 1Malaysia Contemporary Art Tourism contest
• 1Malaysia Green and Clean Campaign
• Fabulous Food 1Malaysia

Unfortunately, I could not find links to the remaining Pages. Why do we need 6 separate Pages – I have no idea. But I digress.

You see, I believe that you should be paid what you’re worth. And in this industry, there are tons of high quality agencies and individuals out there who would be able to add immense value to this project. So if the Malaysian Tourism Ministry has to pay for quality, I totally get it, and will support it.

But my problem (and I think everyone else’s problem really) is that we do not see quality.

As a Malaysian taxpayer, I’m wondering where that RM1.8 million went to – and for what. I’m also wondering which agency is responsible for the management and who’s responsible for the target-setting.

But this isn’t a political bashing post.

I believe there are 3 basic social media rules. Super, duper, duper basic ones. So far, Tourism Malaysia has not played by these rules.

#1. Success ≠ Number of Fans

The media statement from the ministry’s Facebook Page states:

The success of a digital campaign is reflected in the number of fans joining the Fanpage. We have been very successful in the first campaign i.e the Citrawarna 2011 which has todate,  recorded  24, 736 fans, thereby providing Tourism Malaysia with 24, 736 potential tourists; all these gotten within four (4) weeks only.

I don’t expect the Malaysian Tourism Ministry to be social media experts. But the agency they paid RM1.8million to should be knowledgeable enough to know that that sentence is crazy wrong.

Success is not the number of people who Like your Page, or play your game. That’s a shallow measurement. Success is how engaged these people are. Success is the quality of information you provide them. Success is Tourism Malaysia’s website, or Facebook Page being the most reliable site on the Internet for all things Malaysia. Certainly not the number of fans on the page.

I can safely say that a hefty chunk of Tourism Malaysia 26,000+ fans (as of 15 June 2011), have clicked “Like” just to ridicule / mock / express their objections. I highly doubt they’re real “fans”.

#2. Measurable KPIs

As mentioned in the media statement, these are their KPIs.

1. An average of 20,000 fans per campaign
2. Minimum 120,000 fans by the end of December 2011
3. To increase traffic and encourage domestic and international tourism
4. To act as a promotional tool to disseminate information for Tourism Malaysia, Ministry of Tourism and Government.
5. Tourism Malaysia and the Ministry of Tourism will be able to communicate directly with at least 120,000 fans (Malaysians and foreigners) by the end of the year through the Fanpage and Database compiled from the applications.

I have to agree with the GreyReview on this – 120,000 fans by Dec 2011 (for a total of 6 Pages) with that large budget, is highly uninspiring. I mean, my team and I grew the FinerMinds Fan Page from 2K – 22K in a few months – with zero ad budget, and no fancy schmancy flash applications. For a website that has 250,000 subscribers, not a country with 11,164,840 people on Facebook (taken from Facebook Ad data).

So yes, I agree with the GreyReview – 20,000 fans per Page is crazy lame.

But again, I digress. My focus should really be on the following KPI:

To increase traffic and encourage domestic and international tourism

How does our Ministry and their agency plan on measuring this?

That’s a goal, not a KPI. Their KPIs should be about measuring their engagement – how many times were their links clicked? How many people are talking about their campaign – not just on Facebook, but all over the web? How many times their content has been shared?

Those are actual performance indicators.

#3. Engagement Is Not Just Talking – It’s Asking & Listening

A brief overview of the Page shows a lot of talking on the Page admins’ part, and not enough interaction. Instead of asking for experiences, pictures, or questions, all we see is Tourism Malaysia talking. And who wants to listen, really?

To top it all off – comments from fans have been disabled.

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And I haven’t even gotten into the decently designed, but completely user-unfriendly (and unshare-able) websites that the agencies have cooked up for the ministry.

If you were wondering which agencies have contracts with Tourism Malaysia for 2011-2013, ADOI magazine published this some time ago. They’re:

1)        Naga DDB Sdn Bhd                              (ASEAN)
2)        Smascom & Designs Sdn Bhd        (North & East Asia)
3)        Sen Media Sdn Bhd                            (South Asia, West Asia & Africa)
4)        M & C Saatchi Sdn Bhd                      (Europe, America, Oceania)
5)        Impact Creations (M) Sdn Bhd        (Domestic & Events)

I don’t think the money invested in social media is bad, or wrong, at all. I think it’s quite fair. After all, it’s only 6% of the total Tourism marketing budget. I just think we’re not getting our money’s worth, and the campaign is (so far) not optimized sufficiently to bring about actual results.

Do you think RM1.8million (or US$600K) is unreasonable for this?

Social Media & Marketing

1. How to Optimize Your Content on Twitter. Akshay Brijkrishnan shares 8 simple tips to tweeting efficiently.
2. What do Zombies & Community Building Have in Common? What happens when you put a community builder and a zombie fanatic in the same room? A zombie community mash up. Geno shares really awesome insights on how the Zombieland survival rules can be applied to your community.
3. The Marketer’s Biggest Mistake. You’re not selling to yourself, and your buyers don’t automatically just like you (even though they’ve clicked “Like” on your Facebook page). Chris Brogan offers 3 ways you can avoid making the ultimate marketing mistake.
4. 15 Facebook Marketing Tips & Tactics. 15 ways you can take your Facebook marketing beyond just the “Like”.
5. 23 Tips to Engage Me After Facebook Like. So I “Like” you. Now what? Another great resource on how you can take your Facebook Marketing beyond the “Like”.
6. 8 Brands That Have Found Success on Facebook And What You Can Learn. There’s no better way than learning by example. Learn what makes The Pampered Chef, Restaurant.com, Oreo, Vitamin Water, Boloco, LOFT, 1-800-Flowers.com and the Brooklyn Museum so successful on Facebook.

Search Engine Resources

1. The Ultimate Link Building Resource! Kissmetrics has compiled the ultimate link building resource. Everything you need to know about linkbuilding for SEO is right here!
2. How Mobile Searchers Are Changing Keyword Research. Keyword research for SEO is still super relevant now, but for how long? Interesting perspective on the future of keyword research for SEO now that mobile search is in the mix.
3. Redefining Unique Content. Among SEO practitioners, duplicate content has been a major topic that keeps returning. And advice has typically centered on the need to develop unique content for your website. With Google’s Panda release, however, there’s a need to redefine how we think about unique content.
4. 30+ Tools to Automate Link Building. Link building is one of the most tedious tasks in SEO. And in the bad old days, many tools that claim to “lessen the link building burden” indulge in some really spammy blackhat activities. Here are some 30+ tools that take the best of the old ways, and make them even better. You’ve got tools for contact research, link management, relationship markets and some other tools that help you with the tedium of emailing your prospective contacts. Enjoy!

Cool social media tool for May: Timely

Timely (by FlowTown) claims to analyze your past 199 tweets and come up with the best times to Tweet for optimal response / views / retweets. I don’t know how accurate their calculations are, but one thing I love about Timely is the ability to just chuck tweets in (if you connect it to your bit.ly account, it automatically shortens your links too) without the hassle of scheduling! Super simple interface, and fast Tweeting.

BONUS: Sleeping Kitties!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Which got me thinking – how can bloggers write educational / informational blog posts that are less “blah” and more “huh that was nice and succinct”.

I’m not the best writer / blogger out there. But very quickly, before I head to lunch, these are a few things I picked up during my MindValley days as the blog editor for FinerMinds.

1. Break It Up! : If you know it’s going to be long, break it up! Use sub-headers to make your content easily scannable.
2. Write lists. Posts on websites like Cracked.com get passed around like CRAZY. And it’s not just because they feature some pretty bizarre shit. It utilizes the “lists formula”. It works because online readers are lazy. And lists look neat. It gives your reader the idea that “this dude isn’t rambling”. They’re more likely to read your entire post.
3. Use pictures.People are visual creatures. Supplementing your posts with pictures usually captures a reader’s attention. Pictures that usually work:
   • Emotions – basic ones like happy, sad, angry – pictures of basic emotions ping our brains and say, “Hey I can relate to that!”
   • Funny images that are slightly bizarre
   • Cartoons
4. K.I.S.S.. Shorter information posts = much better absorption. Think Seth Godin. The Internet and channel surfing has trained our attention span to be nice and short. So remember that when you write. Unless, of course, it’s a story. People LOVE stories.

Anything else I missed out?

I found a couple of pretty awesome Tourism Facebook Pages to share. They’ve got quite a number of elements that make a great Page (great content, engagement and even landing page).

1. Canada Keep Exploring

Link: http://www.facebook.com/KeepExploring

Great pictures. They respond frequently to postings and comments. And provide up to date, non Lonely Planet stuff in their stream daily.

The only thing I wish they would change – their welcome tab still says “Congratulations, William & Kate!”.

2. Arizona – The Official Grand Canyon State’

Link: http://www.facebook.com/arizonatravel

Beautiful design of the Landing Page – and it actually gives you a Visitor’s Guide. How awesome is that?

3. See Sydney

Link: http://www.facebook.com/seesydney

4. I Love NY

Link: http://www.facebook.com/iloveny

One of the oldest (and most catchy) city brands around.

5. Love UK

Link:  http://www.facebook.com/LoveUK

This asks for a Like before you can view content. But they’ve got compelling content for any person wanting to visit the UK. So thumbs up to them for this

And they say… “It doesn’t matter if you’re living here, visiting here, wanna visit here, leaving here (don’t go!) or none of the above, join us in spreading the Love UK.”

6. See Australia

Link: http://www.facebook.com/SeeAustralia

7. Georgetown, Penang

Shoutout to Penang’s Facebook Page. 100,000+ Likes, frequent updates and interaction, and shareable content (they post LOADS of pictures).

Now, if only they could Like other pages other than CM Lim Guan Eng….

Link: http://www.facebook.com/VisitPenang

Bonus Mention: Tourism Selangor’s Twitter

Link: http://twitter.com/tourismselangor

I just started following them, and I do appreciate their stuff on my Twitter feed, especially since I’m not native to Selangor. So they’re doing a pretty good job so far. Now to replicate that on their pretty dead Facebook Page….

——————————————————————————————————————————————————–

What other great city / Tourism Pages have you come across?

I figured if it was RM1.8 million, their Facebook page should be pretty damn spectacular, right?

Well, I have to say I was horribly disappointed.

So, in my humble opinion, here are 3 basic things the ad agency in charge of this campaign, can do to maximize that RM1.8million Malaysian citizens are paying them.

1. Have A More Welcoming Welcome Tab

This was what greeted me when I first landed on the page:

No welcome tab / Like gate is much better than this!

This is what an awesome welcome tab looks like.

And many more. For more resources, you can go check here: http://blog.ewaydirect.com/10-companies-with-amazing-facebook-welcome-tabs/

2. Give people a reason to “Like” you

The current Landing Page says – “Click Like to read the content”. It would work if you HAD exclusive content to begin with.

But when you click “Like”, all you see is this:

So if you aren’t going to offer exclusive content (e.g. a discount for all hotels in Malaysia), stick to basic stuff like…

• Stuff about Malaysia you’re not gonna find on your Lonely Planet guide.
• The most up to date and comprehensive list of events happening ALL OVER MALAYSIA.
• Learn about the best experiences in Malaysia
• The best deals in Malaysia.

Or whatever else really. But a really good reason. Something better than…

1 Destination. So many activities.
1 Experience. So much to treasure
1 Malaysia. So much to discover.

3. Share content that’s relevant to your target audience.

One of the first few things I see when I finally hit the Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia (it’s a damn long name) wall is this.

Then I see this.

B-B-B-B-B-O-R-I-N-G.

Already, there are 3700+ people who “Like” the page. And so far, none of the content is compelling. If your target audience are tourists who you want to introduce to Malaysia, then…

1. Give me touristy content. Pictures of Malaysia. Events. The top 5 places in Malaysia YOU HAVE TO VISIT. Not “The launch of the fanpage by YB Dato Bla Bla Bla. As a tourist. I don’t give a shit about who the Minister of Tourism is. Or even connecting with the ministry of tourism. I just want to know what I can do there. Why Malaysia is AWESOME.
2. Update in English, at least. Malaysia might not want to admit it, but we’re the only country in the world that uses Bahasa Melayu. If people swing by the Page and see, “Oh foreign language. How will I ever benefit?” and leave. What’s the point?

Have to say, the Georgetown, Penang Facebook Page understands this much better than Tourism Malaysia does. In fact, Tourism Selangor’s Twitter is pretty awesome at providing relevant content as well.

Bonus: A more interesting About Page.

Nuff said.

What do you think? How can Tourism Malaysia spend our RM1.8mil better aside from a Facebook Page & App?

I mean, the average Techcrunch / Mashable / Problogger blog post sees hundreds (if not thousands) of Tweets and Shares, but significantly fewer comments – no matter which commenting platform. The difference is pretty crazy.

I’m of the opinion that social sharing beats comments, hands down, and is just as good a measure of interaction. You may agree / disagree with me on this, but here’s why:

Post comments are just confined to your blog. But when someone shares your site/article, you’re reaching a golden crowd – your sharer’s circle of friends.

When someone comments on your blog, the only people who actually see it are you, the person who commented, and 1% of your site viewers who actually bother reading comments.

But, when someone shares your article with his social networks, you’re reaching his/her circle of friends – that’s the golden crowd right there. Plus, you get the added benefit of a comment attached with his/her Tweet / Share.

Best of both worlds is, of course, the Facebook Comment Box plugin. Lower likelihood of spam, and everyone’s ALREADY logged into their Facebook account anyway – so it’s just a matter of typing something in and submitting. They’ve updated it so that when your someone comments on a shared link on Facebook, the comment will also appear on your site. Pretty neat, eh? But until they manage to make it more “open” ability to import/export comments, Facebook pretty much owns your commenting ass. Not so favourable for larger content sites.

In this day and age, where you have ADD-Internet-users, something as simple as clicking a share button is highly preferable to commenting. It takes a whole lot less effort, but means even more. After all, if someone shares your article, the person is pretty much saying, “this piece has my personal endorsement I think it’s awesome” or “this piece is so shit you have to read it”.

Anyway, rant over.

Over the weekend saw this awesome study about the value of Shares vs. Tweets.. and I can see why a Share is worth more than a Tweet.

Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/boothyboy/275569/facebook-share-vs-twitter-share-which-generates-more-revenue

What do people do on Twitter? Share stuff and read the 10 most recent tweets on their Twitter feed.

What do people do on Facebook? Consume information, check out what their friends are up to, visit their pages… and check out the stuff on their Facebook feed – which is often time the most relevant to them (thanks to Facebook’s scary feed algorithm).

Facebookers are more inclined to share, connect & consume, while Twitterers are more inclined to just share.

Thoughts anyone?

But then Facebook and Twitter just had to come along and complicate that relationship.

So, I was surfing the web late, late last night, and came across this very recent post by Amit Singhal on the Google Webmaster Central blog on “What counts as a high quality site on Google?”

BEWARE: It’s a crazy long list.

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• How much quality control is done on content?
• Does the article describe both sides of a story?
• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

(Source: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html)

Told you it was long.

Between the 2-3rd point, I was reminded of some sage old advice passed down from mother, to mother… and eventually to me.

Treat others, as you would like others to treat you.

Wise advice from our mothers and grandmothers. But do we implement it in our quest for more readers, better search positions and more traffic?

Not always.

We forget that other users are like us – selective with content we choose to consume. And it’s no surprise that Google’s decided they want to mimic that behavior with their new algorithm.

If you want to read only great high-quality content, why would you allow yourself to publish half-arsed mediocre articles / resources for other people to read?

I mean, When you produce mediocre content from Fiverr writers, plagiarizing, or other low-quality materials, you’re at Google’s mercy whenever they decide, “Hackathon coming on! Time to change the algorithm…” and BAM, you’re back to square one starting from scratch.

Before you jump the gun and hire an SEO consultant who will most probably charge you shitloads of money to be on Page 1, remember that sage advice your mother gave you.

And that the secret to evergreen SEO is – Great content that is optimized to help Google see you as a great resource for users.

After all, Great content = more Shares / Tweets / comments =  more traffic = Google Love.

So remember what your momma said: Treat others, as you would like others to treat you.

And give her a big hug for mothers’ Day today.

Leaving MindValley has been bittersweet. I’ve learned a lot there and love the people there. Which is why even the thought of leaving was, at first, an unfathomable one. Even though the idea of going out there and exploring the wild terrain called life on my own has been swimming around in my brain for months, it took a lot of courage to push me over the edge and actually say, “I’m gonna do it”.

But during a plane ride back to Penang for Chinese New Year with my dad, explaining to him my desire to explore self-employment…. I realized something very important.

I have no excuse not to take this crazy flying leap.

What do I have to be afraid of? I am 23. Responsible for no one. Own nothing (not even my car since the bank still technically owns it). And I’ve got abundant resources to realize any dream in the world I have.

What excuse do I have to not throw caution to the wind, consequences be damned, and seek the realization of my passions, and financial freedom and abundance?

None really.

And so I did it. Tendered my resignation, and let the reality of my decision sink in. First came a rush of excitement that lasted weeks. Then the onset of a mild sense of panic that plagued the back of my mind, and resulted in a few really crazy dreams.

But I’m ploughing ahead, and I’m not turning back anytime soon. Not when I’ve got nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

But when I look back at the past 22 months, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude. For being courageous enough to choose MindValley in the first place, and for MindValley to have blessed me with the knowledge and the courage to embark on the wildest (so far) ride of my life.

I have tons to be grateful for during my almost-2 years at MindValley.

I met the most amazing, smartest, best-est people in the world.

People here are crazy – and I mean crazy – smart. And dedicated. And rockstars. Would I have learned as abundantly as I did without these people learning and growing with me? I highly doubt it.

It’s through having met people like Mike, Vishen, Leanne, Alex, Grace, Dawn, Gabby, Marina, Juan, Justyna, Ewa, Omar, Veena, Miriam, Ajit, Sabri, Cecilia, and the best tech team I’ve ever worked with – Wuhan, Sheue, Calvin, Tristan, Jimmy, oldies like Prashant, Paul & Prabu – that have helped me truly grow, learn and be courageous enough to take crazy big steps in my life.

I learned that pursuing your passion = success.

And nothing less. And I don’t mean success by just money. I mean success in the form of health, wealth, happiness, contentment, and the drive to do more, learn more and push yourself more. I mean a form of holistic success that cannot be achieved without pursuing your passions.

This was a lesson that may have taken me a much longer time to learn if I had gone the conventional corporate-ladder-climbing route.

But most of all, I thank MindValley for…

Giving me the courage to pursue my dreams

In a company where the first code of awesomeness is “I dare to dream big”… I had no excuse not to dream, and not to take charge of pursuing those dreams.

Would I have been given the access to this sort of education in another company? I truly think not.  In MindValley, you strive for awesomeness. And as vague as that may sound, you just strive for the best and mastery in everything and anything you do. And that’s infectious.

The REAL reason why I left MindValley: Not because I was unhappy there. But because in MindValley, I learned to dream really big. And I learned to achieve greatness. And I learned to settle for nothing less than what I’m passionate about.

And that’s why I left. Because even though I love MindValley, and consider it to be one of the best places to work ever…. it’s not my vehicle of contribution to the world. And I’m setting off on a journey to discover what that vehicle is, and maybe start my own revolution.

So what’s next?

Moving forward, I’ve got a few ideas I want to realize. In the past month I’ve moved into freelancing social media management with my learnings and experiments from managing MindValley’s largest online community. I’ve put up a little portfolio you can check out here.

In May I’ll be relaunching UNITEES and attempt the creation of a student-focused business.

And I’m working with my fellow wing chick, dreamer and adventure partner, Gabby,  to teach men the ins and outs of dating and seduction… and hopefully start a revolution of high quality men. And eventually own a hotel or two.

The options are abundant, and it’s gonna be a wild, wild ride. And that’s the way I want to live my life.

I’ve decided that, my post a week will feature the most interesting / exciting / thought-provoking thing I read or happened to me in the week! At the end of the year, I’ll have 52 posts to document my entire year. Well, 51 since I missed last week’s post.

Anyway, back to the most interesting / exciting / thought-provoking thing I read or happened to me this week. This week’s award goes to…. Amy Chua.

If you haven’t heard of her yet, you must be living under a rock that has no Internet connection, or you must not follow me very closely on Twitter / Facebook (shame on you! Follow me here).

A few days ago, while lunching in our usual siewyoke-pan-mee hotspot at Lucky Garden, Wuhan shared with us an excerpt of Amy Chua’s new book (not to be confused with the “Joy Luck Club” author, Amy Tan) that was published on the Wall Street Journal, and it got of our Chinese heads nodding in astonished agreement, and a hint of relief at the validation of the way we were brought up.

You’ll get the gist of what it’s about simply by reading the short intro:

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it’s like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I’ve done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

- attend a sleepover
- have a playdate
- be in a school play
- complain about not being in a school play
- watch TV or play computer games
- choose their own extracurricular activities
- get any grade less than an A
- not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
- play any instrument other than the piano or violin
- not play the piano or violin.

If you were brought up in a typical Asian family, odds are high that at least 6 of the 10 bullets above would’ve applied to you, no matter where in the world you live. And anyone who’s not Asian, won’t get it as much.

In fact, while my Chinese friends find her pretty funny because of how accurately it described their childhood, my non-Chinese friends, just gasp in horror, scream “ABUSE!” and find it a major controversy. So if your reaction is similar to theirs, read these articles from The Guardian and Oprah to get the bigger picture of her parenting choices, and the current path she’s on.

Do I think all Chinese parents are like that? No. There are many of my Chinese friends’ parents who allow their children tons of freedom while growing up. But the essence remains the same — how and why they do it.

For me, well, if you’ve met me, you’ll know that I think of my mum as a “crazy Chinese mother”.. and use 2 adjectives to describe her most – crazy, and neurotic. And while I do say it with fondness and affection, I truly can’t think of 2 words that could be more apt. And of the list of 10 above, at least 7 applied to me. Unfortunately for my mother, while in high school, I point blank refused to put any effort into studying, and as such As were tough to come by unless they were English and Math.

But, my mother pretty much controlled everything she could in a pretty draconian way.

• My hairstyle – which never changed until I came to KL and chopped my long locks off, then called her after to say I did it.
• My very crazy tight schedule – extra tuition classes or piano or ballet classes daily. As in Monday to Sunday, for a good 5 years.
• My teeth – yes, you read that right. When I was 13, she dragged me sobbing, screaming and protesting to the orthodontist to get braces slapped on my pearly whites, which really didn’t need to be mended.
• My phone calls – she would keep close track of how long I was on the phone for, with whom and how often.

And tons more.

At the time, I was pretty pissed. Sometimes, I still am pissed. I relished the freedom of movement I suddenly had when I chopped my waist length hair off, and in a really masochistic way enjoyed (and still enjoy) her nagging me about how I’ve chopped all my beautiful hair (and, beauty) away. I still glare at her whenever she talks about the condition of my teeth because she and I both know that they’re much worse of now that the braces have come off. And I distinctly remember being smacked for getting a C, being called lazy (I was) and once being called stupid. Actually, more than once.

Some of my friends with more liberal / chilled out parents would think that my mother’s just super duper strict and controlling, and, well, crazy. And I’m not saying she isn’t. She is. But I don’t think it’s as severe as it sounds.

I posted the article on Facebook and Twitter, and got such varied responses!

Esther (Chinese) found that it validated her childhood and laughed throughout most of the article. I’m guessing, so did Joanne (Chinese) and Lyn (Chinese).

There was a crazy long debate going on on my Facebook wall though:

And an even longer thread on Quora.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be a parent, and if I ever become one, I don’t know what sort of parenting route I might choose. Granted, I think that my parents could’ve done some things differently, but I also think they did many things right, and to the best of their abilities / knowledge. As such, I’m not as quick to dismiss the benefits of strict, draconian, Chinese parenting and if I ever have a kid (God bless that kid), there are tons of Chinese values that I will try instilling the Chinese draconian way. Today, Chinese parenting is coming under a lot of fire because liberal Western (more specifically, American) values are mainstream. But as the world’s focus shifts to Asia, I wonder if the Asian style of upbringing will be just as mainstream.

What do you think? Would you raise your child “Tiger Mother” style? Or adopt a “Mama Bear” stance?

With that, let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes from that article, and a few links to learn more about Amy Chua, her book and why she wrote what she wrote.

What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you’re good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences.

Photo Credits: Polyvore

Sorta kinda like lomography itself.

Thing is, I’ve always been tempted by lomography. I remember Kingsley and I discussing the possibility of one day investing in a lomo camera. That was 2 years ago.. and until recently, I’d always hesitated.

Why?

Probably because I’m super comfortable with my Canon semi-pro? The wonders of digital photography is that you can never really make mistakes — there’s always a second chance. And third. And fourth. And hundredth. Not satisfied with your photo of the Eiffel Tower? Keep clicking until someone shoos you away! No loss there.

But with analogue… now that’s a completely different story. There are rarely second chances. You’ve got one shot, and that’s it.

No instant gratification of knowing that “Wow, I took a great photo!” until you get to the shop to get it processed (and even then, you wait an entire day to see the fruits of your labor.

No “Hey, that photo sucked, I can take like 1000x more!”. No way in hell when a roll of 35mm Fuji Superia 400 costs rM8 and can only shoot 36 frames. Definitely no way in hell when a roll of 120mm film costs RM12, and can only shoot 12-16 frames.

It didn’t take much convincing to get the Diana F+ (well, when you’re not the one footing the bill, it’s much harder to argue).. and I decided to give myself a shot — do one full year in analog. No whipping out the Canon for a back up shot, no post-processing, just old-school point & shoot.

I thought it would be pretty easy. After all, I’m a decent photographer when you hand me a digital camera.

Oh boy I couldn’t be more wrong.

My first 2 rolls of 35mm film came out looking like I was shooting blind. Literally.

All I got in each frame were bits of a person’s chin.

Or their foreheads.

Occasionally, I’d miss completely.

Trust me, after having pixel after pixel of the perfect digital shot… it was mega-demotivating (and embarrassing) to get back from the photo processing studio with blurry, out of focus, accidental shots.

For someone who’s used to producing stellar pictures under various light conditions, I was pretty stumped.

So I went online and researched like crazy.

• What film worked best under what light conditions, which lens to use if I were to shoot on 35mm, and which for 120mm?
• The apertures to select when using film with less than ideal ISO.
• Which light conditions would require manually keeping the shutter open, and which for one-click?
• What apertures for which weather condition?
• How to focus when your viewfinder and lens, aren’t connected?

After a good 4 months with my Diana F+… I’m far from perfecting the art, but I’ve learned a couple of things along the way.

#1 Frame, Then Shoot.

One of the joys of digital photography is the ability to frame your shot in the LCD screen before even hitting the shutter. No such thing with my Diana F+. I had to shed a bazillion habits, just to be able to photograph correctly, accurately, and nicely with the Diana F+, and this was the first habit I had to kick.

I’m not saying don’t frame your shots. I’m saying frame them in your mind.

It’s sorta the same thing with life. Don’t just take wild guesses. Take a moment to think about it, frame your problem / situation / proposal, and then shoot.

#2 Perfection Be Damned: You’ve Only Got 1 Shot

One thing lomography has taught me is to be quick to act — you may only get one chance at a great shot.

Accidental shot of a smiley (and clean) baby Josephine, post-shower

#3 Always Expect the Unexpected

With analogue, and specifically, the unstable build of the Diana F+ you never know what you’re going to get and you soon learn that imperfection can also be perfection.

Joel in the sea one morning before stormy clouds hit. I wasn't aware that I'd accidentally exposed my 120mm film, resulting in light leaks

#4 Don’t Be Afraid To Try

Because film isn’t cheap (and I’m not a millionaire… yet), it’s easy to hesitate before taking a shot. Especially if I’m playing around with pricier films such as slide, redscale, redscale XR or black & white.

Taken while trying to quickly finish off my roll of film before sending it in to be processed

Accidental shot while getting into the car in Centrepoint

Scary-looking cables in Vientiane, Laos

But really, what do I have to lose?

#5 It’s Okay To Make Mistakes, Just Try Again

I’m onto my umpteenth roll, and I still make the silliest mistakes. Like forgetting to focus. Or using the wrong viewfinder attachment for the wrong lens. Or even forgetting to remove the InstantBack refocus unit before reverting back to 120mm film (point: blurry out of focus shots like below)

Gabby, at horse-riding class

Little cafes around the Nam Phu Fountain in Vientiane

But you’ll never know, some mistakes may surprise you with gems.

Marney in the Mirror: Taken while visiting Prashant @ Damansara Hospital

#6 The Only Way To Do Something Right, Is To Go All The Way

If I had dabbled only mildly in analogue photography, and held on to my trusty Canon digital, I’d've given up after the first, few unsuccessful rolls and never bothered to try again. Why? Because I would never be fully immersed in it.

But by committing to going analogue (and fully manual for that matter) for one entire year, nothing digital, forced me to stick to my guns and learn to swim.

It’s like being thrown headfirst into a pool, not knowing how to swim that well. If you give up, you drown for sure. But if you try, you’ve got a chance.

And this is not much different with work, relationships, family, new chances… not much different from life.

Taken at the Buddha Park in Laos

Taken at YouthAsia Office, The Top

Light leaks on Baby Josephine

Khailee as T-Rex this Halloween

I’m on my 5th month of pure analogue, and with 7-8 months to go, I think I’m going to learn tons more.

All photos featured in this post were taken with my Diana F+ Snow Cat.