BRIAN Yap is Mr Jack-of-all-trades. He has been successively and successfully a writer, a thinker, an actor, an activist and a dreamer.
He is also cute. A (female) colleague gushed, after Brian's departure from Malaysiakini office, "Eye candy. Such eye candy."
But there is a lot more to Brian than meets the eye. Better known in the Malaysian social scene as a staff writer for the city magazine KLue, Brian has been writing event and venue reviews for the past six years. He also has a column in the magazine.
Brian joined the KLue staff after graduating from Emerson College, a performing arts and communications college in the United States.
"I didn't actually plan to be at Emerson long," he recalls. "I thought I would try it out for a semester and transfer back, but I ended up liking it so much that I stayed and graduated."
Although a science student throughout high school and into his A-levels, Brian majored in journalism - according to him, a largely arbitrary decision.
"I really had no idea what to do," he says. "And someone said to me, 'Eh, your English quite good. Might as well do journalism.'"
The well-meaning but ill-founded advice proved to be an epiphany for Brian. He started taking classes in journalism and really liked them, graduating with a degree in journalism two years later.
Upon graduation, he pursued his dream of working for a magazine company in the Big Apple - New York City. He waited tables for a year on a student visa to make a living while applying for jobs at magazine offices. He didn't get one.
Klue a family thing
"I was really picky," Brian says now. "I said, I don't want this, I don't want that. No one gets a job that way."
So after a year, he left for home, and KLue.
" KLue initially started as a website," says Brian. "It's sort of a family business." In fact, Brian's brother Adrian Yap developed KLue as an internet start-up company, which later expanded into the magazine. The magazine, and the original website, carries independent reviews of happenings in Kuala Lumpur, including write-ups of restaurants, nightspots, performing arts and music events.
"I was already interested in that sort of stuff to begin with," he says. "So I hopped on board."
A few years later, in addition to his other articles, Brian began writing a column for KLue . "In such a small company, you end up doing everything." He sighs.
The extra work paid off.
Joan Lau, the editor for the New Straits Times' "Life and Times" section, noticed Brian's work, and offered him the chance to write a weekly column in the newspaper.
After deliberating for a while, Brian accepted. His column, Just Sayin' has appeared every Wednesday since March 2006.
He sees the weekly column as an opportunity to introduce alternative viewpoints into the Malaysian mass media.
Brian explains. "There are certain topics and issues that you rarely see in the mainstream media" and are only mentioned in alternative media like Malaysiakini.
"But the people who read these alternative media are self-selective, and a lot of other people in the country don't have access to these views."
"A column in a widely-read daily like the New Straits Times gives me the opportunity to reach out to a different set of people."
Mature column
However, he has no set agenda or target audience for his column. "I just write."
Yet, his column is honest, thoughtfully written, and astonishingly mature - as his column readers never stop telling him.
"Usually I get older people expressing surprise at my maturity. I'm not that young!" he laughs.
In contrast to other columnists in major dailies, however, Brian's column is a refreshing, casual voice on Malaysian life and culture.
He has recently had the opportunity to reflect Malaysian culture in a new way - starring in director Yasmin Ahmad's latest movie,
Muallaf.
"I think my whole life is a series of people asking me to do things," Brian chuckles, "and me saying yes."
Just like the Joan Lau story, Yasmin contacted Brian and offered him a starring role in her next movie. Brian turned out to be the perfect fit for a schoolteacher character in Muallaf.
The movie, currently in post-production stage, was shot in Ipoh, and is co-starring sisters Sharifah Amani and Sharifah Aleysha. Muallaf, like Yasmin's previous movies, raises thought-provoking questions about the nature of Malaysian culture.
Brian plays a schoolteacher with a traumatic childhood, who meets two runaway sisters. As their friendship deepens, they each let go of the past.
"I had a great time," Brian says of the movie. "I have a newfound respect for the people in the film industry. It isn't an easy profession to be in."
When asked how he would deal with his newfound fame as a movie star, Brian shudders. "I'm not looking forward to it." He says. "All this picture-taking and autograph nonsense - It's hard for me to deal with."
Brian added that although he enjoyed acting in Muallaf, he did not consider himself an actor and would not pursue the career further.
"But if someone asked me to be in a movie, I would still think about it." He mused. If only the rest of us were as lucky.
Helping out here and there
Currently, Brian is also peripherally involved in a number of organisations, such as Youth For Change (Y4C) and Suaram. He helps publicise events, most recently Y4C's "Youth Can Make A Difference" young voters' campaign, and has previously written for and edited Suaram's annual human rights report.
"I do whatever I can here and there." He says. "I'm not really part of any organisation."
Brian admits that he has not yet found a cause he is completely passionate about.
"I haven't found something I can devote my time to," he claims, "I haven't found a place where I know I can do my best."
However, he notes that although the social climate in Malaysia is slowly changing, most Malaysians are apathetic about effecting that change.
"Most people aren't as involved as I am, although I don't do very much," he laments.
"But I do see change happening, in baby steps. Small little battles are being won, and will hopefully add up to a larger picture."
Brian is fighting those small little battles each day, in a number of different capacities. He has taken risks and faced challenging new situations, but has overcome them in each situation.
"I don't know what's next." Brian says, as he packs up to leave. "But I can wait and see."
We hope that he will discover his true calling eventually, maybe with another out-of-the-blue phone call. Right now, one only hopes that other young Malaysians are as "little involved" as Brian Yap.
JOYCE TAGAL is an intern with Malaysiakini.