Subang Stories - First Edition

I was very grateful to be able to share some of my experience on community-building at the first edition of Subang Stories at PARC.

We also had the pleasure of hearing Annie Yong share her perspective. She founded the Malaysia Stamp Hunt Community in Subang, and serves the community nationwide. If you take a peek into her community, you’ll notice the positive and friendly vibe of the community.

Even though it was great for us to share our perspective, there are many more stories that come from the members who show up and share their own personal stories about Subang. The brief mention of dragon boats in Subang Jaya hinted at the depth of personal stories existing in Subang that should be surfaced.

Something I heard earlier in the week from a business owner in Subang was also repeated by Corina Yee, the emphatic statement that “Subang is our home.” This echoes the start of the session, where it was noted how proudly Subangites identify that they’re from Subang.

For those who weren’t able to attend the session, I thought I’d share my response to one of the more interesting questions posed to me, which asked for some examples of things that have come up from the community that surprised me. I felt two good examples were:

Spreading joy

Belinda is probably one of the best-known people in this community, and I think that’s for good reason. Many people I meet often tell me that they appreciate her posts, and how the tone is always so warm and joyful. I think it brightens the day for everybody in the community.

Joy of seasonal greetings

I’m not the type to send out seasonal greetings, but over time I see the role of sending out greetings to the community has been taken on by Molly, so much so that I’ve come to expect and appreciate the regular sharing of some greetings into the community. I also always notice that Yong Ri Vern shares videos of his singing here as well. All these add a lot of colour and character to the community, for the benefit of all. These aren’t things I would have thought of or looked to address myself, so it’s a lot nicer when others have identified the need for these, and taken up those roles of their own accord.

Jenxi Seow and I designed HeySubang to be a platform for addressing the needs of a community and support complementary initiatives. In the end, if what is being built here can allow the joy and kindness that already exists within the community to be amplified and reach more people, that adds a lot of meaning to HeySubang.

During the session I failed to answer a question that I get asked a lot, which is what F&B place I’ve been gatekeeping in Subang. I usually struggle to answer this because I’m of the view that everything is mostly visible within our community group, but I gave it some thought yesterday and thought I’d answer that by suggesting that Benson Brew as a place to check out. The reason for that would be that it’s small cafe in Taipan where you can easily miss it if you’re walking by and not paying attention, but it’s run by young owners in Subang who are friendly and passionate about their business. There are a few seats at the back, allowing you to escape the rush of Taipan whenever you need a breather in that area.

Huge thanks to Daniel Cerventus Lim, the OG community builder in Malaysia, PARC for having me, Annie for joining this session, and Bengbeng Sourdough for the sandwiches and coffee. Special thanks to everybody in the community and those who attended, these things are possible because of everybody's participation.