Just A Persona | Lin

Bad Art, Empowering Art, and the Danger of Emptiness No such thing as rubbish art. Truly? Do you believe in that? I do not. I believe there is such a thing as rubbish art. Art is worth more than a thousand words, but not all words are worth speaking. Inspiration can come from anywhere — but what if it comes from somewhere dehumanizing? Isn’t that a form of bad art? Dehumanizing. Strip off one soul so the art can take place. Is it still art, or is it propaganda? Theodor Adorno argued that art cannot be divorced from the conditions of its creation. For him, art born from oppressive systems risks reinforcing those systems rather than transcending them. Marcel Duchamp, on the other hand, challenged the very notion of “bad art,” suggesting that context and intention redefine value. I agree with Duchamp — context and intention matter. But bad art isn’t about poor technique or lack of polish. It’s about emptiness. When context and intention collapse into mere spectacle, when the work no...

 Self-Worth In Islam, people often repeat the saying “bukak bungkusan manisan, habis hilang saham wanita itu.” But is that really true? In my view, it isn’t. Even if the “wrapping” is open, there will always be people who value and cherish that woman. So the real question is this: does a person’s worth come from the wrapping, or from who she truly is? If someone only cares about the wrapping, then whatever comes after is predictable and shallow. But if someone values character, kindness, intelligence, and compatibility, then the wrapping becomes secondary. A relationship built on sincerity and personality will always outlast one built on appearances. That is why loyalty matters most. Loyalty means that even when no one is watching, I still stand by you. Loyalty is rare — especially today, when betrayal is treated like entertainment and backstabbing is almost fashionable. Popular culture, from films like Mean Girls to social media trends, normalises this behaviour. However, at the e...

Transgender / Khunsa Transgender issues remain a taboo topic in Malaysia. Many conservatives still believe that transgender people are somehow “not normal.” But science tells a very different story. Human biology is far more complex than the simple categories we are taught. The development of the X and Y chromosomes does not always occur at the same pace, and this can lead to natural variations in sexual development—variations that are not a choice, not a trend, and not a moral failing. In Malaysia, we have long recognised this complexity through the term Khunsa. A Khunsa is someone whose gender is assigned at birth based on whichever sexual characteristics appear dominant. If the baby shows more male traits, the child is registered as male—even if female genetic or anatomical traits also exist. But nature does not always reveal itself fully at birth. Some individuals assigned male at birth only begin to develop female characteristics during puberty. By then, their official documents, ...

A Moving Picture Is Never Just 'You' They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But a moving picture? That’s thousands of pictures per frame, rushing past in seconds. It’s no wonder film feels so alive, so overwhelming, so deeply personal. And yet, here’s the paradox: sometimes people watch a movie and feel as though their life has been stolen, projected onto the screen. As if someone took their story and claimed it as art. But that’s not quite true. Film is never entirely you . It may borrow fragments of your experience, echo your emotions, or resemble your struggles. But the content — the narrative, the rhythm, the dialogue — is not a direct copy of your life. It’s a transformation. That’s the beauty of cinema and scriptwriting. Whose Story Is It, Really? More than anything, film belongs to the scriptwriter. It’s their way of expressing themselves, their lens on the world. They weave together inspirations, archetypes, and fragments of reality into something new. If it reso...