Faces of FIUTS: Meet Bing
Faces of FIUTS is a new campaign that collects personal stories from individuals who are part of our work. This week, meet Bing!
Where are you from?
I come from Kuantan, a coastal city in Malaysia. Growing up in Malaysia, spending 19 years of my lifetime there, I recognize myself as Malaysian Chinese. "Above Singapore, below Thailand" is how we Malaysians always describe the location of our country.
What’s your FIUTS story?
My first experience with FIUTS was performing at CulturalFest my freshman year with the dance group Tanak Borneo. In my sophomore year, I became a lot more involved with three different FIUTS committees. The thing I learned the most about from FIUTS is cross-cultural understanding. Even though I grew up in a multicultural country, people are still separated by culture. I grew up mostly around people from one background, and when I started to meet people from different backgrounds, my mindset started to change.
How will you change the world?
I want to contribute to making PEACE in this world by inspiring people with the most important FIUTS value that I have learnt: embracing difference. As a multicultural country, citizens in Malaysia are not 100% united. Racism is still a huge issue. Even though my contribution is small, I still wish to influence as many people as I can. I may not change the world, but I'll persist in spreading love.
Bing Yu Lee is a sophomore from Malaysia, majoring in geology and oceanography. He has performed at FIUTS CulturalFest and served on the Community Programs, Global Gala, and CulturalFest Expo committees.
Photo Credit: Lucy Deng
Faces of FIUTS is published every two weeks on the FIUTS blog, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Read past posts collected here!
Interested in being featured as a Face of FIUTS? Contact Ellen Frierson at ellen@fiuts.org.