Carissa Chua Wen Huei (She/Her)
Hi! I find this introduction part really difficult to write but in simple words, I sit behind my mac all day designing while watching horror movies or listening to music.
Beware the Gui-Kia
Social media has led us into an age of envy. Our addiction leads us to prioritize resume values instead of eulogy values. Aristotle defined envy as pain at the sight of another’s good fortune, stirred by “those who have what we ought to have”. But this constant comparison and jealousy is creating an inner demon in all of us. Mental illness, be it how it was perceived in olden times or in the modern-day, is a fight against the demons.
We understand the consequences social media can pose to our mental health, but feeding too much into it could result in a demon greater than we can ever control. Similar to the “Gui-Kia” (also known as a toyol, is an undead infant in South East Asian folklore invoked as a helper by shamans by the means of black magic) that’s difficult to get rid of once you adopt it. The talismans are symbolic of the things we should be reminding ourselves so as to not lose our identity or let social media get to our heads.
Note: The toyol is known by different names from one community to another. In Hokkien (a kind of Chinese dialect), it is known as the “Gui Kia”. These undead infants are made from either a fetus that miscarried or been aborted. They are usually adopted by people with ill intentions; make use of this creature to rob or cause harm to others. The toyol is stored in a jar with corpse oil and requires the owner to feed it a drop of blood every now and then. Similar to social media, we adopt/use it with the idea that we’ll be able to control it. But as we feed more into it, we realise that we’re slowly losing control of things and our greed towards what this creature/app can bring to us is unsatisfiable. Eventually, it’ll consume us; our identity, thoughts and actions.
What if a man had done that
Gender Inequality. We’ve heard about it, seen it happen, maybe even been a part of the equality movement. But to see true gender equality happening in this lifetime is quite unlikely. According to “The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report”, it’ll take 100 years for us to reach gender parity. But it might take even longer if we don’t start more inclusive conversations around it, and that means getting more men on board this movement. We need to talk about what’s fundamentally wrong (values and human rights), regardless of gender. Human to human.
What if a man had done that aims to help people understand gender inequality from the opposite genders’ perspective through the notion of role reversal. Along with the board game titled “Gender Myth”, the concept is based on a hypothetical idea: involving or based on a suggested idea or theory; not real; imagined as an example. And a myth: existing only in the imagination: fictitious and imaginary: existing only in stories. It uses the idea of that to sarcastically highlight the ignorance of those who brush off gender inequality and the ideas/comments they make on men and women. But anyway, what do you think of “Going Dutch” on dates? Chivalry?
