Wong Xiuwei and Yan Jing Tian decided to explore this grey area through the “Uncomfortable Malaysian Quiz,” their submission to Project Future Malaysia, an initiative to feature literary and visual works of local creatives.

“Although the project’s theme centres around reimagining Malaysia’s future, there are all these important conversations about our Malaysian identity which we weren’t having, so we decided to address these questions in the quiz,” said Wong, 25, who just graduated with a degree in English.

Originally, the pair wanted to create a fun personality test that measures “how Malaysian” someone is. “But we realised that if we replicated quizzes like that, it would be very hard to achieve anything at all,” Wong told FMT.

However, after considering other options, the duo decided to come up with a quiz that investigated the relationship between ethnicity and national identity.

“I feel most people aren’t very aware of this distinction – at least I wasn’t – because we have preconceived notions that we stop challenging,” Wong said.

It goes without saying that many Malaysians draw upon colonial constructions when it comes to identifying a race. According to graphic designer Yan, also 25, it was challenging to create visuals that represented Malaysian identity.

“We often see rather stereotypical depictions of the various races, especially when it comes to outfits. For example, the Chinese person is usually seen wearing the Chinese hat, but we don’t really wear that. So, for this project, I decided to use a black silhouette to represent Malaysians,” he told FMT.

Slogans like “Malaysia Truly Asia” get thrown around a lot, but what do these slogans really mean? One of the questions in the quiz asks which of these metaphors best represents Malaysia’s multicultural society: the melting pot, the salad bowl, or the kaleidoscope.

“I was quite surprised, because we’ve always said Malaysia is a melting pot, and yet the term suggests that everyone is essentially the same,” Wong explained, adding that there are different interpretations about what it means to be multicultural.

So, what does the term “One Malaysia” really mean?

“It means different things to different people, which is unavoidable, because naturally, people have different world views, which makes it intriguing to think about what being Malaysian really means,” she shared.

Besides that, the quiz also includes statistics from a 2017 study that revealed that the ‘perceived discrimination’ against one’s ethnic group is greater than what one experiences in reality.

“That’s actually very interesting, because if you already have the mindset of people being racist, it sort of colours how you interpret their actions as well,” she pointed out.

Given enough time and money, they duo hope to add other elements to the quiz. “We would like to add a section where others can see what people have answered,” said Wong.

Moving forward, Yan hopes to come up with more ideas on how best represent Malaysians visually. “I’m currently working on another project that aims to break the visual representation of Malaysians instead of using the same designs, such as batik or Chinese motifs.”

When asked what it means to be Malaysian, Wong said she appreciated the multiculturalism in society and how people in general tried to accommodate each other.

“For example, code switching – which is the changing of language or dialect throughout a single conversation – comes naturally to us, and that’s a really good skill that allows us to connect better with each other.”

While the quiz itself can be completed in 10 minutes, the duo hope that playing the quiz will lead to conversations that are essential in creating a harmonious Malaysia. “It takes a long time to change people’s minds, but we hope that it will at least be a start in the right direction,” she said.

At the end of the day, apart from celebrating Malaysia’s glorious food and cultural diversity, it’s more important to strive towards a nation that is grounded in love, kindness and empathy, and thus equitable to people from all walks of life, regardless of one’s race, religion, gender and sexual orientation.

You can access the Uncomfortable Malaysian Quiz here.