Some Malaysia TV channels newscaster will wear a traditional outfit in accordance of some Malaysia cultural celebration as to celebrate our diversity.
But a national TV channel, RTM recently went under spotlight as one of their male newscaster was seen wearing a ‘cheongsam’ while in a live broadcast.
Cheongsam which also know as qipao is a close-fitting dress worn by female. This issue was made viral by a radio personality who wrote,
“If this photo is real, then it is another example of the great chasm that now exists in the cross-understanding of cultures in Malaysia,”
“The guy and station does not realised that he is wearing a woman’s cheongsam!”
To reply to that accusation, K. Krishnamoorthy, RTM’s director of public relation division said that RTM is very sensitive towards cultural and racial matters as they are a government agency.
“(On the outfit), we referred to our stylist Jenny Kueh who told us that this is a trendy wear at the moment which originates from a traditional outfit from the Machu ethnic group in China. It is called a samfu.”
Jenny Kueh did clarify that samfu has two version, the long one that almost reaches the feet and the short one. And what this newscaster wears is the latter version. However, RTM admit that they did a mistake with the size.
“One mistake we admit to is, we picked the wrong size of the outfit for our newsreader.”
Here’s a full picture of how the outfit looks and how the top half looks like.
“It is a defaming comment. While we welcome criticism, it must be done in a proper manner. Let it be a constructive criticism and not delivered in a rude way, ” said Krishnamoorthy as reported by The Star.
This issues has lead quite a debate among fashion community in Malaysia as some designers are fine with that outfit while others are not. But quite majority thinks that the outfit is not wrong but there is something off with that design and that can lead to misunderstanding.
Netizen’s responses
▼ Some netizens were like, “Nope! This is a cheongsam!”
▼ But some said, he’s wearing a right outfit, it just the pattern a bit girly!
▼ Wear Hanfu instead!
▼ Maybe they can choose other colour!
▼ But RTM still deserves an A for the effort!
▼ As long as they deliver the correct news, I’m fine!
▼ He just doing his job!
What do you think? Is that a cheongsam or a samfu with a wrong size?
Info via The Star