Meet the Nazars: a Mandarin-speaking, lion-dancing Tamil Muslim family

Free Malaysia Today

Abdul Nazar Naina Mohamed's four children speak fluent Mandarin - as well as Malay, Tamil and English - and two of them are also part of a lion dance troupe.  Read More: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2024/02/11/meet-the-nazars-a-mandarin-speaking-lion-dancing-tamil-muslim-family/  Free Malaysia Today is an independent, bi-lingual news portal with a focus on Malaysian current affairs.    Subscribe to our channel - http://bit.ly/2Qo08ry   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check us out at https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com Follow FMT on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2Rn6xEV Follow FMT on Dailymotion: https://bit.ly/2WGITHM Follow FMT on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2OCwH8a  Follow FMT on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2OKJbc6 Follow FMT on TikTok : https://bit.ly/3cpbWKK Follow FMT Telegram - https://bit.ly/2VUfOrv Follow FMT LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/3B1e8lN Follow FMT Lifestyle on Instagram: https://bit.ly/39dBDbe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download FMT News App: Google Play – http://bit.ly/2YSuV46 App Store – https://apple.co/2HNH7gZ Huawei AppGallery - https://bit.ly/2D2OpNP  #FMTLifestyle #CNY2024 #Multicultural #Family #LionDance #ChineseDrum

Transcript

00:00 [Gunshots]

00:02 [Dramatic music]

00:04 [Dramatic music]

00:31 Abdul Nazar Naina Muhammad's family looks just like any ordinary household in Malaysia.

00:37 [Dramatic music]

00:42 The retiree is a proud father of four and enjoys spending his time with his grandchild.

00:48 But, conversations in his family take a unique twist.

00:54 [Speaking in Mandarin]

01:07 Nazar, who grew up going to Chinese school, decided that his children will also follow in his footsteps.

01:16 [Dramatic music]

01:21 [Speaking in Mandarin]

01:33 The only person in the family who doesn't speak Mandarin is Nazar's wife, Hasna Parwadi Abdullah.

01:41 But, she enjoys hearing her children converse in Mandarin, even if she does not understand the language.

01:48 Hasna doesn't mind that they sometimes cheekily gossip about her in Mandarin.

01:53 She is just proud to have raised a multilingual family.

01:57 [Speaking in Mandarin]

02:02 But, it is not only Nazar and his children who can speak Mandarin.

02:08 Those marrying into the family, like his daughter, Mariam's husband, have also mastered the language.

02:15 [Dramatic music]

02:17 In fact, when Mariam met her now-husband, one of her father's criteria was Mandarin proficiency.

02:23 [Speaking in Mandarin]

02:29 Not only has Nazar encouraged his children to learn Mandarin, he is also a great supporter of their participation

02:36 in one of the Chinese community's more popular cultural performances, the lion dance.

02:41 [Dramatic music]

02:48 Both Mariam and her brother, Nur Sultan Nazar, have been actively involved in the Kuan Lok Dragon and Lion Dance Association

02:56 for more than a decade.

02:58 Nur Sultan started off first playing the cymbals, gong and drums, and Mariam soon followed suit.

03:05 [Dramatic music]

03:09 But, it was not always easy for the siblings, due to people often wrongly associating the lion dance with religion.

03:17 [Speaking in Mandarin]

03:18 This is a sport for me, and even my relatives also say the same thing.

03:23 [Speaking in Mandarin]

03:30 [Speaking in Mandarin]

03:33 But my main support is there, who is my parent is there.

03:38 To show their support, Nazar and his wife are always present at competitions Mariam and Nur Sultan participate in.

03:46 [Drumming]

03:48 [Drumming]

04:06 Nazar is proud of his children's linguistic skills and mastery of lion dance.

04:12 [Drumming]

04:14 I'm proud because all of them can speak Chinese.

04:18 With Indian they can speak Tandoori, with Malay they can speak Malay, with Chinese they can speak Chinese.

04:23 [Drumming]

04:24 [Speaking in Mandarin]

04:33 [Drumming]

04:35 Amira Hooda, FMT News.

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Transcript

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