I've been having some really engaging classes and learning a tonne of stuff I've never known before so thought I'd jot a few points down!

So I did a presentation about revenge porn to my gender class and none of them had even heard of revenge porn or cases of it in Malaysia! It's crazy to think that something so prominent back home is not here at all - which I guess is positive in this instance! It was a cool topic to discuss since I wouldn't normally hit up randoms to chat about relationships and sex due to how taboo it is here. Endpoint re revenge porn was that since there is not a culture of sharing photos it isn't heard of and that both taking photos or asking for them in the first instance just isn't a thing!

Okay so my Indian history class has been mind blowing. Why do we not learn that the British were f***ing horrible?!! I never even knew the British were in India let alone the fact that Indian people blame them for so many cultural and economic issues. I learn one-on-one with my teacher since the class is in Malay, which has been good because I ask like 1000 questions a meeting!! It's really been eye opening and in some ways saddening because I really do love the British and our history but it's so shameful.

Another gender class discussion - this has been my favourite for getting into some detailed cultural stuff! So a guy in my class did a presentation and was discussing white privilege. Naturally I'm aware but super interesting to hear it from a students mouth what they think. A questions was posed to me by our teacher who asked if I felt I was being treated differently here and if so, whether I think it's due to my gender or my race. Bloody tough one! But amazing question!! Like I'm noticing that I get stared at which I guess is a combo of both since both guys and girls take second glances, but for instance being given seats on the train I just go along with it but who knows if that's a female thing, a race thing, or just because I look tired haha! Lots of food for thought coming out of this gender class!

Chinese religion has probably been the most content-heavy so far but I find it super interesting. We've had some talks about how when western scholars have come to do research they've really misinterpreted things, or wrongly grouped things. So religion in China is a bit (read: very very) confusing because they all copy things from each other in terms of practices and rituals. So the lines become very blurred. This meant that when western scholars started looking at religion in China they just grouped them together as "Chinese Religions" rather than seperate entities eg Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism. As we've gone into depth a bit more I can see the lines of seperation but yeah, definitely blurry! But yeah super interesting the reactions of the Chinese and thus the arguments that have emerged in the literature debating whether we should class them as 3 or 1.