Pickup trucks in Malaysia
In the United States the pickup truck is of enduring popularity - the Ford F-150, in particular, has been the best-selling vehicle in the States for 23 years. In southern Thailand, too, the general populace can’t seem to get enough of the pickup truck. In Malaysia, however, it’s something of a fad amongst urbanites. Each new model becomes all the rage, but after a few months, sales taper off again.
Ford Malaysia started this trend in the late nineties with the Ranger which was the first to come with creature comforts and good looks. Before this the Toyota Hilux and the Ford Courier were merely utility vehicles for people who carry around heavy tools and machinery. The Ford Ranger was a hit with urbanites who wanted to distinguish themselves from their peers - notwithstanding the fact that pickup trucks are particularly unsuited to congested Klang Valley roads and crowded shopping mall car parks. Not long after, Mitsubishi sent its L200 to finishing school and christened it the Storm, and the Ranger had a formidable rival, at least in terms of market share.
Isuzu which has traditionally been strong in the trucking segment didn’t enjoy the same fortune, however, with its Rodeo. Toyota, on the other hand, seemed intent on ignoring this new trend amongst Malaysian drivers and continued positioning the Hilux as the most durable pickup truck on the planet for true offroaders. And thus the Ranger and the Storm dominated the scene for a few more years, albeit at a slower pace.
Almost a decade after the introduction of the Ranger, there was suddenly a bit more variety, and thus, renewed interest - Nissan launched the Frontier, Toyota made the Hilux more agreeable to city slickers, and Mitsubishi came up with a radical new design in the form of the Triton. Also, Isuzu finally vindicated its existence with the second-generation D-Max, after thoroughly flat sales of the first generation despite heavy advertising. Interestingly, the Mitsubishi Storm was reintroduced to the market shorn of make-up as the “normal” L200, which only served to highlight the fact that the Storm was but a dolled-up utility vehicle. I could only hope that current owners of the previously-hot Mitsubishi aren’t feeling too slighted at this demotion.
The novelty seems to have worn off yet again, and there doesn’t seem to be any Rangers, Frontiers or Tritons with new license plates on the road. The Hilux has gone back to being the perennial but low-key favourite with builders and lumberjacks, whilst the D-Max seems to have found its niche as an alternative to the Toyota. I suppose it might be possible that Malaysians have regained their common sense and are going for practicality: the rising popularity of MPVs such as the Citra, the Avanza, the Grand Livina and the Exora - and for the more well-heeled, the Innova, the Stream, the Odyssey, the Estima and the Alphard - might be testament to this.
Protagonists and gender
I find it interesting that male novelists do on occasion put forth female protagonists … but (as far as I know) female novelists never write from the point of view of a man.
I would like to qualify my observation: short stories don’t count, neither do novels about boys or teenagers (e.g. Harry Potter).
I wonder why this could be.
Maybe because being a man is boring, except when he’s an action hero/a lawyer fighting injustice/a spy.
On the other hand, for a woman, even receiving a phone call from a beau (or, in the case of Jane Austen’s heroines, a letter) can bring the greatest of raptures.
So female authors have more than enough material on their hands with which to write countless variations on a theme, which is to be a woman and have relationships.
Male authors, on the other hand, need to come up with stuff ranging from politics to car chases to global conspiracies. And then, to spice things up, they would sometimes feature female protagonists.
If I were to write a novel, would I ever have a woman as the central character?
Maybe. But she would first be scared, and when push comes to shove, she would lob IEDs at the bad guys and ride an RX-Z down the Masjid Jamek Putra LRT station.
Oh well. Goodbye.
One day our children will ask us, “who’s Michael Jackson?”
He’s only the guy who’s indelibly imprinted in our collective memories of the eighties!
Anyway, here’s my tribute:
Billie Jean is not my lover (’uh)
She’s just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son (hooo!)
She says I am the one
But the kid is not my son (… eee-hee-hee)
Screamo?
Have you heard of screamo? Yesterday I was talking to this guy who’s apparently into heavy metal. I got to know him when I parked my car next to his, and his stereo was blaring what sounded like Cromok. He seemed an amiable sort of fellow so I aired my suspicions with him. No, he said, it’s Burgerkid, and it’s Indonesian. I tried googling it, after a few minutes I stumbled upon Burgerkill. I had misheard.
So I bumped into him again and got into a longer conversation about the metal scene in Malaysia. It’s not the season, he said. Malaysia is now more into indie. Anyway, in terms of metal, kids now are enthralled with screamo. I theorized that it was screaming + emo.
Then I mentioned Ride the Lightning and Kill ‘Em All to test whether we were talking about the same sort of genre. He didn’t have a clue!
Kids nowadays, they have no idea what it’s all about.
Not exactly karaoke, but it does involve playlists
In the evening, as Marianne was discovered to be musical, she was invited to play. The instrument was unlocked, every body prepared to be charmed, and Marianne, who sang very well, at their request went through the chief of the songs which Lady Middleton had brought into the family on her marriage …
– from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
