Have you ever thought of pursuing a fun yet meaningful endeavour with your partner promoting cultural curiosity?
Trixie & Stephen is a couple that is in the business of promoting friendships through a card game called the Lepak Game.
The Beginning of Rojak Culture…
Rojak Culture is owned by Trixie & Stephen, an intercultural couple who desire to gather multicultural Malaysians to play together. Meeting Stephen (who is an American) helped Trixie realized how Malaysian she was.
“I began to appreciate the distinctiveness of my Malaysian identity through the process of helping Stephen ‘become Malaysian’. “ – says Trixie.
The couple believes in the value of building genuine friendships across the races, and in engaging in conversations about our Malaysian identity. They pursued an unconventional and fun way to respond to racial tensions by developing a party game called “The Lepak Game”.
The Lepak Game
The Lepak Game is a simple word-matching game that triggers fun conversations about our shared experiences, humour and rojak language. The content of the cards consists of many Malaysian references, slangs, and icons that help Malaysians reminisce our shared experiences. The subjectivity and persuasive element of the game encourages players to grow in our ability to agree to disagree and to celebrate what we have in common. The Lepak Game serves as a fun tool to facilitate conversations or friendly banter that celebrates our “Malaysianness” as one of the ways to celebrate our multicultural diversity.
Here are some benefits of playing the Lepak Game:
- Promotes intercultural curiosity
- Breaks down barriers, builds trust and social reciprocity
- Promotes optimism and empathy towards one another
- Improves your persuasive/’bodek-ing’ skills
This game is also best played among a multicultural group of friends and it is even more fun when you personally know the people you are playing with. The better you know the person, the better your ability in persuading them.
Why “Rojak Culture”?
Rojak, the salad dish, is so good because the distinctive flavours complement each other when mixed together. It’s a great analogy for Malaysia’s multi-culturalism: the individual cultures within Malaysia still hold on to their distinctive qualities and heritage, but in so doing we each contribute uniquely to our national identity. As we’re all aware it takes a lot of intentionality to allow our diversity to be our strength, rather than a source of division. We have our fellow Malaysians to thank for the richness of our inclusive identity, that truly is a cause for celebration. You can check out Stephen’s TEDx Talk where he talks about building unity through play!
Targeting the Right Audience
Rojak Culture hosted a cosy press event at a neighbourhood café on Malaysia day, 16th of September 2016. They facilitated a Bodek-King competition where participants worked in teams to convince the judges/“Boss” on why their response is the best or the most Malaysian. The highlight of the event was the hilarity of the animated acting, persuasion, and sabotaging in attempts to persuade the “Boss”. They got relatively good media coverage that got them onto a good start.
To promote their social vision, they organized monthly meet-ups for a year after the game was launched, inviting the public to join in, to make new friends and play the game with them.
They also made their game available through their online store at www.rojakculture.com and at their retail partners like Kinokuniya, APOM, Naiise Malaysia, Ilham Gallery and GerakBudaya PJ.Some of the more interesting opportunities to market the game came to them by surprise. Since they’re a micro-enterprise they don’t have the manpower to host large-scale events, but time and time again people reached out to them to include their game at their events/bazaars/workshops. Jinnyboy’s team also made a video of Jinnyboy and friends playing the game. They have also been given various opportunities to appear on radio, TV, newspapers and magazines to share about the game and their vision. Stephen was also invited to Tedx PenangRoad to share his views on unity in 2017.
What Has Worked Well for Rojak Culture:
1. A niche product that celebrates Malaysianness
It is an open-ended product and it calls for a lot of human interaction. People can use it for whatever purpose they feel appropriate – teachers have used it as an educational tool, F&B outlets make it available at their store as entertainment, companies have used it as part of their team building activity, ice breaker or conversational starter, toastmasters and debaters used it as a content trigger, and for the tourist it is the perfect souvenir. It can be used as an art, or even as a tool to inspire other products etc.
2. Sharing the Rojak Culture story.
From the beginning, they felt like their social vision is bigger than the product itself. Their brand’s story is sincere, Trixe and Stephen are a couple going through their own ups and downs of being in an intercultural relationship and they’re inviting others to journey and celebrate along.
“Let’s enjoy our multicultural friendships and continue believing that we can thrive on our diversity while maintaining an inclusive identity.”
The Rojak Culture.
3. Collaboration and partnerships.
Both of them are very thankful towards the many people who believed in their vision and came alongside them to help them. Their collaborators have included the ex-founders of All Aboard boardgame café (who helped them learn about board games and the industry), the founders of On-Pointe (who helped them set up systems for their business), the Tabletop Game Designers of Malaysia group whom they collaborate with for events and so many of their personal friends.
“It’s amazing to have experienced this camaraderie, from people coming alongside and partnering with us to help amplify the vision for unity, and spread the love of play and board games.”
How to get Inspired?
They observe what is around them, try to have an open mind, take an interest in others, and in different things. They also try not to take themselves too seriously.
On Being An Entrepreneur?
They admit that it’s pretty cool to be your own boss but the most rewarding aspect of this kind of work is definitely the many, and sometimes random, people they get to meet and collaborate with.
What Has Been Most Encouraging?
Hearing feedback of the game has been a great encouragement. A customer wrote to them saying that they played the game at a mamak and none of them look at their phones for a couple of hours. Another one said the game brought three generations to the same table to play together. A group of friends came up to Trixie at an event recently and told her that they didn’t start out close, but playing the game made them close friends.
If Trixie & Steve Had The Chance to Start Their Career All Over Again, What Would They Do Differently?
Stephen would like to explore a career expressing his thoughts on travel, culture, on unity and his journey becoming Malaysian.
Trixie would love to explore a career in peacebuilding and managing diversity, as well as researching the psychology of play in peacebuilding.
Who has been your Biggest Inspiration?
Generally, people whose calling is bigger than themselves, who find purpose in what they do, who celebrate others and thrive at building community.
What Changes Does Rojak Culture Want To Make To The World?
Rojak Culture seeks to build a culture of celebrating friendship across the races, and to strive for unity in building a better Malaysia, and to move from tolerance to acceptance.
DO BUY THE LEPAK GAME!
You can get them from:
Website: http://www.rojakculture.com/
Instagram: @RojakCulture
FB: rojakculture
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