KUALA LUMPUR: A teenager hopes that her doodle creation which depicts the multi-ethnic and multi-religous community in Malaysia would further promote patriotism and unity among the people.
Fifteen-year old Ch'ng Kai Wei, was the grand prize winner of Doodle 4 Google Malaysia competition under the theme "Celebrating Malaysia's Diversity," believe that art can bring the people together as they bring joy into the people's heart.
As the winner, Ch'ng's doodle will be featured on Google Malaysia homepage on Sept 16, for 24 hours, in conjunction with the Malaysia Day celebration.
"I have always find joy in expressing myself through art, especially through doodling.
"I hope that my doodle creation would be able to bring joy to the people particularly Malaysians, while also reminding them of the rich diversity of traditions, cultures and values that we have in our country," she said.
Ch'ng's doodle, entitled "United, We Shine," featured the major ethnic groups in Malaysia-Malay, Chinese, Indian, Bajau (Sabah) and Iban (Sarawak) in their colourful traditional costumes, while also highligting the country's iconic landmarks and unique attractions including the Petronas Twin Tower, Mount Kinabalu, the hornbills and the durian.
Managing director for Google Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and New Emerging Markets, Sajith Sivanandan, hoped that the doodle competition would inspire children and teens on the meaning of Merdeka and diversity of the country.
"In conjunction of Malaysia's 60th Independence Day, celebrating the country's diversity is a very important thing and we want the children to express what it means to them by redesigning the Google logo.
"One of the things that really excite us is the ability of children to be able to interpret the Google brand and its theme.
"We hope that it was inspirational for the children as it was to us," he told reporters at Google Malaysia office here today after announcing the winners of the doodle competition.
He also said that the doodles submitted were judged on artistic merit, creativity and theme communication as well as based on public online voting.
Sajith added that, although this is only the second time that Doodle 4 Google competition was held in Malaysia, it is not the first time that Google has created a Malaysia-centric doodle.
He said that Google had previously highlighted on its homepage Malaysia's Merdeka celebrations as well as several of the country's influential figures including filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad, freedom fighter Sybil Kathigasu, national football player Mokhtar Dahari and more recently the 88th birthday of P. Ramli.
He said that doodles are usually created by Google's doodle team but the company made special exceptions on special occasions, as in the case of the Doodle 4 Google competitions where the featured doodles were created by the winners.