What is orang poklen? Orang poklen is in direct translation to English will be 'poklen people'. So what is poklen? Well to my understanding lah ah, it's those who are culturally deprived and so that what they see as cool, they will try to copy that 'cool' style and then literally 'overuse' that coolness. For example, we have the fedora hats that is well, used to be cool I suppose but ever since we see orang poklen wearing those hats everywhere anytime, the cool people will refuse to wear it. This in socialogical term is known as the prole drift which will be explained later on.
Other definitions of orang poklen by others is that they are similar to orang perkampungan, i.e, that they are very erm... rural? You know what I mean? Like they wear hand-me-downs and then they are very sakai (think of the expression 'deer out of the woods'), and that they are not used to the 'urban' life.
Another way to categorise poklen people is the way they type. An example would be like "@ku k@n mAin buLa Ni yO cOoLzZZzz k@Li aH aHaHaKZZZzzz''.
Yeah makes you really look at the words carefully to understand.
Another way to identify a poklen is to see how 'wannabe' they are. For example they like to have a beat up car with a mediocre sound sytem installed and they like to pass by cafes or other places where people hang out.
I don't know how these people came about but I do know that I think lah, that the term was meant for those from Kg Ayer. I have no idea why they are looked down on but before I heard the word 'poklen' I always hear people saying "macam orang Kg Aing kau ane eh". This is because the Water Village people were known to abuse 'current' trends and then if they wear that particualr style of clothing no one else would want to wear that anymore.
I asked a friend of mine once, or was it a relative who was older then me and I asked where does the word poklen come from. His reply was that poklen came from the word 'portland' (and to be honest when I first heard the word I thought it was pronounced as portland). Portland is a town or city in UK and the as the saying goes they had a very bad football team. So in a way they were branded as losers. So as people here prefer to support Manchester United or Liverpool, this people began to insult others in reference to a losing team. It's like saying "eh team mu ane, cawir macam Wigam".
I first heard the word 'poklen' when I think I was in Form 3 or 4 when this guy called these 2 girls poklen. Of course I did not understand so I asked him what the fuck it meant? And then he says "eh macam orang Kg Aing bah, yang mihir apa".
Over the years the term has evolved. It was first meant for the Kg Ayer people, and then it meant for those who liked to wear baggy clothing and red baseball cap on backwards. Then it meant for the punks, and then it meant for those who liked to wear wrestling theme t-shirt, and then it meant for the emos, and now it meant for shufflers. Hahaha... Sorry couldn't resist to laugh.
So basically orang poklen ane, they are labeled as poklen because of their appearence. It is because of what they wear, and how they speak, that they are judged as orang poklen.
Now we go on about the prole drift. Prole drift is short for proletarian drifting. Hahaha nadalah just plain old proletarian drift. This refers to the trend that was once appealing to the upperclass, but became appealing to the lowerclass and fully utilising it. This was coined by Paul Fussel to explain the phenomenon of the trends of the upperclasses became trendy in the lower classes.
So this is related to how poklen people are. What 'we' as the upper or middle class people once consider something cool, like the fedora hat as an example, became cool for the poklen people eventually and fully utilising it which made it untrendy for 'we'.
The interesting fact is that this poklen phenomena does not only apply to Brunei, but in other countries as well. In the US they have rednecks, in the UK they have chavs. I am not familiar with other countries though but the point is that they are all similar expressions. By this I mean that they are similar in terms of the clothes they wear, the way they speak and perhaps how 'rural' they are.
I was inspired to write about poklen because when I was checking my facebook I saw my friend, that s/he joined a 'Anti-poklen' group. So I checked out that page and it was full of anti-poklen remarks and making fun of them.
Ok to be honest poklen people are funny like how they wear but to have a group to promote more hatred towards them? I know it's just created for fun and I'm sure they do not mean to say things like "we should wipe them off Brunei" but how low can one go to create a group like that?
I think these poklen people are just starving for attention and that they just want to be accepted in 'our' circle of friends, but it's just that they have a different way to do so.
it just makes me wonder what happens if being a poklen was suddenly in? It can happen as there are evidence people who want to 'slum it' up. For example it was cool to be a punk right before? But of course that was before the poklen masses took up the trend too. But it's funny how a trend that was for the low class, became trendy for the upper class, then became trendy for the low class again.
Right now what is considerd poklen, I've been told is the shufflers. It's funny how like a year ago it was the emo's and you could see people wearing emo 'stuff' and emo hairstyle. Now we see skinny jeans and...I don't know really because I don't go to the mall that often anymore to see what is 'in' now.
After hearing the poklen for the first time, I discovered that it was considered the ultimate insult here. We don't want to be labeled as a poklen! No one does.
Other definitions of orang poklen by others is that they are similar to orang perkampungan, i.e, that they are very erm... rural? You know what I mean? Like they wear hand-me-downs and then they are very sakai (think of the expression 'deer out of the woods'), and that they are not used to the 'urban' life.
Another way to categorise poklen people is the way they type. An example would be like "@ku k@n mAin buLa Ni yO cOoLzZZzz k@Li aH aHaHaKZZZzzz''.
Yeah makes you really look at the words carefully to understand.
Another way to identify a poklen is to see how 'wannabe' they are. For example they like to have a beat up car with a mediocre sound sytem installed and they like to pass by cafes or other places where people hang out.
I don't know how these people came about but I do know that I think lah, that the term was meant for those from Kg Ayer. I have no idea why they are looked down on but before I heard the word 'poklen' I always hear people saying "macam orang Kg Aing kau ane eh". This is because the Water Village people were known to abuse 'current' trends and then if they wear that particualr style of clothing no one else would want to wear that anymore.
I asked a friend of mine once, or was it a relative who was older then me and I asked where does the word poklen come from. His reply was that poklen came from the word 'portland' (and to be honest when I first heard the word I thought it was pronounced as portland). Portland is a town or city in UK and the as the saying goes they had a very bad football team. So in a way they were branded as losers. So as people here prefer to support Manchester United or Liverpool, this people began to insult others in reference to a losing team. It's like saying "eh team mu ane, cawir macam Wigam".
I first heard the word 'poklen' when I think I was in Form 3 or 4 when this guy called these 2 girls poklen. Of course I did not understand so I asked him what the fuck it meant? And then he says "eh macam orang Kg Aing bah, yang mihir apa".
Over the years the term has evolved. It was first meant for the Kg Ayer people, and then it meant for those who liked to wear baggy clothing and red baseball cap on backwards. Then it meant for the punks, and then it meant for those who liked to wear wrestling theme t-shirt, and then it meant for the emos, and now it meant for shufflers. Hahaha... Sorry couldn't resist to laugh.
So basically orang poklen ane, they are labeled as poklen because of their appearence. It is because of what they wear, and how they speak, that they are judged as orang poklen.
Now we go on about the prole drift. Prole drift is short for proletarian drifting. Hahaha nadalah just plain old proletarian drift. This refers to the trend that was once appealing to the upperclass, but became appealing to the lowerclass and fully utilising it. This was coined by Paul Fussel to explain the phenomenon of the trends of the upperclasses became trendy in the lower classes.
So this is related to how poklen people are. What 'we' as the upper or middle class people once consider something cool, like the fedora hat as an example, became cool for the poklen people eventually and fully utilising it which made it untrendy for 'we'.
The interesting fact is that this poklen phenomena does not only apply to Brunei, but in other countries as well. In the US they have rednecks, in the UK they have chavs. I am not familiar with other countries though but the point is that they are all similar expressions. By this I mean that they are similar in terms of the clothes they wear, the way they speak and perhaps how 'rural' they are.
I was inspired to write about poklen because when I was checking my facebook I saw my friend, that s/he joined a 'Anti-poklen' group. So I checked out that page and it was full of anti-poklen remarks and making fun of them.
Ok to be honest poklen people are funny like how they wear but to have a group to promote more hatred towards them? I know it's just created for fun and I'm sure they do not mean to say things like "we should wipe them off Brunei" but how low can one go to create a group like that?
I think these poklen people are just starving for attention and that they just want to be accepted in 'our' circle of friends, but it's just that they have a different way to do so.
it just makes me wonder what happens if being a poklen was suddenly in? It can happen as there are evidence people who want to 'slum it' up. For example it was cool to be a punk right before? But of course that was before the poklen masses took up the trend too. But it's funny how a trend that was for the low class, became trendy for the upper class, then became trendy for the low class again.
Right now what is considerd poklen, I've been told is the shufflers. It's funny how like a year ago it was the emo's and you could see people wearing emo 'stuff' and emo hairstyle. Now we see skinny jeans and...I don't know really because I don't go to the mall that often anymore to see what is 'in' now.
After hearing the poklen for the first time, I discovered that it was considered the ultimate insult here. We don't want to be labeled as a poklen! No one does.
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