I am a performer and classical musician, my friends often expect me to have a desire to be spotlighted on a stage, on the stage mass crowd would be shouting when I sustain the high pitch, and I would lightly fling the tail of my tuxedo when I bow to the audience. Indeed, those glamorous imaginations did exist when I was younger, but when I grew older, my imagination on the stage altered to a different direction. I remember once I participated in a music workshop, the participants together they wrote a poem spontaneously and one of them asked me to sing in impromptu with a pianist. Personally, I am a fan of Aretha Franklin, whenever I improvise, I would unintentionally turn every phrase into her style, and to simplify her way of singing, I would put it this way – Climax at the end of the song. On that day, I did the same thing, I was raising my voice at a higher pitch in the last few bars and extracting every drip of my emotions by stretching my voice. After I finished the last prolonged high F, everyone was applauding for me. In contrary to that glamorous moment, I did not wear any fancy clothes, I only wore plain t-shirt, a Thai fisherman trousers and a pair of worn slippers. I expressed my gratification to the audiences, I picked up the microphone again and said “Although it is not an official performance, but I have accomplished my dream partially, it is to wear slippers and pyjamas-liked outfit to perform on stage. ”

I performed classically for a few years, every time I went on stage with the tight tuxedo or suits, I would often ask myself why should we wear such an uncomfortable outfit on stage. However, in this profession, it seems to be normal to wear suits, perhaps because of most of the classical music are from the west, so it is completely normal to also wear western outfit? And those who oppose to this idea or raise their disapproval are easily considered trouble makers.

The world is definitely getting more and more globalised, and people from different culture have different perspectives in their lives. I am not here to condemn those posh people who denigrate people who wear slippers, I am here to promote the idea that the world is big and diverse, do not succumb to your own single mindedness. Those who like to wear slippers should understand some people are more comfortable wearing suits; vice versa, those who wear elegant tuxedo should stop denigrate people who like to wear relaxed outfits.

I did have experiences with people having derogatory comments to wearing slippers. I was a professional chorister in Taiwan, my choir conductor asked me not to wear slippers when I attended rehearsal just because he said it was not polite, moreover, due to I am bald, he also asked me to wear a wig while performing on stage so I became less stood out among the crowd. Visual efficiency, that is a term that I have invented for these situations. When we judge someone based on how they look and what they wear, what they want to achieve is visual efficiency. Overall, many humans get affected by what they see subconsciously.

No matter you understand or you do not not understand my anecdote, I would make it short here. In a nut shell, we have to gradually embrace that people are different, compromise is needed on both sides, try to understand others without prejudice and biased. Last but not least, I’ve eventually found someone who holds important position in a country and still wearing slippers during his meeting, the 10th prime minister of my country, Malaysia – Anwar Ibrahim. The herald of my wearing slipper philosophy.