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Koleksi Khas Digital
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She looks out of place, but Jazmin Alag is unperturbed. In a competition arena where most competitors are Chinese, the dusky-skinned pint-sized young woman stands out as perhaps the only Indian girl on the floor.
Yet when she steps before the judges, any sense of difference fades. With the jian, the straight sword, in hand, Jazmin moves with speed and precision. The blade glides through the air in clean, fluid lines, each movement light yet controlled, with quick footwork and extended stances that define northern wushu.
Her face set with focus, Jazmin channels years of training into her routine. Over three days of competition, she performs different sets: changquan (barehand), jian (straight sword) and gunshu (staff).
Each routine follows a set of standard techniques, but Jazmin pieces them together herself, building her own choreography from what she has learnt.
Since the age of 12, Jazmin has quietly built an impressive record, collecting accolades and medals both locally and internationally from 2019 onwards.
Flying the Jalur Gemilang high at the 1st Jeju Korea International Wushu Championship in 2019.
Being different did not deter this Seremban native. If anything, it sharpened her resolve to prove that passion and discipline matter more than fitting in.
Just three years ago, Jazmin added to her growing list of international achievements, clinching three gold medals and emerging overall champion at the 15th Hong Kong International Wushu Championship.
In the same year, she also secured two golds and a silver at the 9th World Kungfu Championships in Emeishan, China — results that reflect her steady rise on the international stage and all the more remarkable for a young Malaysian Indian carving her place in a sport where she stands out.
In 2023, Jazmin Alag stamped her mark on the world stage with two golds and one silver at the 9th World Kungfu Championships in Emeishan, China.
"Don't you get nervous?" I ask as we sit down for coffee. The 19-year-old, now studying in Subang Jaya, has her father with her.
She nods quickly. "Oh yes. Very nervous," she exclaims, before adding: "I don't look at the participants before me. I'll get even more nervous!"
So, what does she do instead?
"Just let go," she replies, adding: "And definitely pray."
Her family, she shares, is always there. "Oh yes, I know they're there. They come early, mah!" she says with a smile, the little mah at the end spoken with a Chinese lilt. After all, she reveals it is her mother who helps apply her make-up before she steps onto the competition floor.
Beside her, Waran Shanmugam, 51, confides: "We make sure we're there for every competition. We go as a family to support her. Whatever it takes, we'll be there."
GROWING UP
Since kindergarten, Jazmin Alag has been driven by big dreams and the courage to try everything.
It is this close-knit family that has given Jazmin the space to grow. Keen to try anything she sets her mind to, she has always had their backing.
"We let her try and support her as she does it," says Waran.
From early on, Waran and his wife, Suzan, were intentional about how they wanted to raise Jazmin and her elder brother, Juztin. They chose to send both children to a Chinese school — a decision shaped, in part, by Waran's own complicated past.
As the sixth of seven siblings, he recalls being placed in a Chinese primary school where he was the only Indian student.
"I suffered quite a bit," he says plainly. Bullying was constant, from name-calling to being singled out in class. He was later denied entry into a Chinese secondary school, an experience that stayed with him.
Yet, looking back, Waran, now a life coach and emotional therapist, does not dismiss those years entirely.
"They taught me how to be respectful, mindful, disciplined. At that time, I didn't understand it, but later I realised it shaped me," he confides. He found himself carrying both worlds — the grounding of his own upbringing and the values he had absorbed in school.
So, when it came to his own children, he made a deliberate choice. Despite what he had gone through, he believed in what the system could offer. It was not the experience he wanted to replicate, but the discipline and exposure he hoped they would gain.
Jazmin graduated from Chung Hua High School with the Best Talent Award, pictured here with her parents, Waran and Suzan.
The experience, however, was not entirely different for his children. "They both encountered bullying to varying degrees," he acknowledges.
Jazmin shrugs. It did not hit her at first. "I thought I was Chinese!" she declares, chuckling with mirth.
Nodding, Waran shares: "From kindergarten, she really thought she was Chinese. She would even look in the mirror and say it."
At that age, he adds, children do not see skin colour. "Racism is something that's taught, not something they are born with."
Jazmin remembers it the same way. "I thought I was just like them. I spoke the same language and we did the same things in class every day. I didn't think I was any different."
That changed when she got older and when the name-calling began. She went home confused.
"I kept asking, why are they calling me Indian?" she recalls. It was the start of an identity crisis that came far earlier than her parents had expected.
"They called me 'black dog' or hēi gǒu," she remembers. But the feisty streak in her showed early. She did not back down.
"When I was younger, I would fight back," she shares, adding: "Who are they to say I'm dark? I would tell them, 'You very white meh? Ghost also white colour mah!'"
It worked. After that, she says, they stopped speaking to her that way.
NEW ADVENTURE
Striking a ballerina pose, young Jazmin was once just as determined in dance.
Challenges at school taught her resilience and how to stand up for herself. There is something steely about the soft-spoken girl that becomes evident the longer you speak to her.
What did she want to be growing up?
"A lot of things," she says with a laugh. "I wanted to be a ballet star, a teacher, a policewoman, an actress, a singer… I'd watch one movie and then change my mind."
So, what is it now?
"Criminologist!" she replies, laughing, before adding: "After watching CSI!"
Waran, for his part, has always encouraged his children to pursue their own paths. Today, he says, Juztin is in Los Angeles, chasing his dream of becoming a filmmaker. He allowed both Juztin and Jazmin to pursue whatever caught their interest.
For Jazmin, it began when she was about 6, watching her brother come home from wushu training.
"He would come back looking so tired," she recalls. Curious, she asked him about it. "He told me, you try and see la."
So, she did. "When I went for wushu training, wah… really very tiring," she says, chuckling.
For a time, she juggled both ballet and wushu. But it was wushu that stayed.
Shares Jazmin: "My first wushu teacher, Ms Tai, made me feel very welcome. She treated me like everyone else. We stretched together, trained together."
What stood out most was how she was taught. "She would guide me hand in hand so I could get the movement right. I didn't feel different there," remembers Jazmin.
That sense of belonging made all the difference — and it was one of the reasons she kept going.
The spunky girl wanted to try everything, says Waran.
"I was actually trying to stop her. Her schedule was already so full. But she wanted to do everything — violin, piano, ballet, Latin dance."
"I really wanted to try everything," Jazmin chimes in.
Their days quickly filled up. She would go to school in the morning, then be sent to a daycare centre in the afternoon while her parents were at work. There, she would have lunch, rest for a while and wait until they picked her up in the evening.
A talented ballerina, until Jazmin chose a different path.
After that, it was straight into classes. "One day piano, one day wushu, one day Latin dance, one day ballet," Waran reels off her pursuits. Even with such a packed schedule, Jazmin was also an accomplished sprinter, juggling athletics alongside it all.
Competing in the 200m track and field event at the 2024 interschool meet.
If something did not hold her interest, she would stop. But a few things stayed — wushu and ballet.
"You can see what each one gave her," says Waran, adding: "Ballet taught her discipline and performance, and wushu built her strength."
Jazmin pursued ballet for 13 years before eventually stepping away. She downplays the decision.
"Ballet was only once or twice a week, and most of the time I had wushu," she explains, adding: "So, I couldn't attend ballet that much."
Waran, however, sees it differently. "If I'm being honest, there was some bias," he reveals candidly. "Because of her skin colour, opportunities were not always the same."
There were difficult moments. He recalls her coming home upset after being singled out in class, sometimes even being scolded in front of the other students. "But she persevered," he says, adding: "She kept going until she herself decided to stop."
Jazmin won a medal in the 200m track and field event at the 2023 Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Daerah (MSSD).
Wushu soon became her focus.
After completing Level Six, her coach encouraged her to take the next step.
"He told me, you're ready, come and compete with the team," Jazmin says.
She was just 7 when she entered her first competition. She did not win, and Waran, ever the protective parent, wanted her to stop. He recalls: "I told her, enough lah. I tried to pull her out."
But Jazmin was not ready to give up. "No, I want to try again," she insisted.
It was not easy to watch. Waran could see it in her — the way she brushed it off on the outside, but carried the disappointment quietly within.
"She will act like nothing is happening, but inside, I know she's hurting," he says, adding: "As a parent, it's hard to see."
A little wushu champion at just eight.
They decided to give it one more year. At the next inter-school competition, she won one gold and one silver.
"That was when everything changed," he shares, adding: "After that, she just kept winning."
Jazmin threw herself into training, determined to improve. If anything, standing out pushed her to work harder. Over time, she became someone others looked up to.
Waran continues with a laugh: "The coach would point to her and say, 'See Jazmin, she won this. What did you all get?'"
At just eight, Jazmin was already winning wushu competitions.
Behind those moments, Jazmin is quick to credit the people who stood by her. She speaks of her former headmaster at Chung Hua High School, Seremban, who recognised her potential early and supported her financially, as well as her family, who showed up for every competition and never wavered in their belief in her.
There was no turning back for this Wushu powerhouse.
MOVING FORWARD
Striking a wushu pose with a Chinese wushu master in Hong Kong, 2018.
These days, she is on a temporary hiatus to focus on her exams. The Negri Sembilan lass is pursuing her Foundation in Arts at HELP University, supported by scholarships from the university and the Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur Diraja that enabled her to continue her studies.
But despite the medals and accolades, there have been disappointments.
Form Four and Five are often the crucial years for athletes hoping to be selected for the national team, yet Jazmin was not chosen despite winning medals both locally and internationally.
"It was disappointing," admits Waran, adding: "Nobody really gave her a chance. We don't know why."
Jazmin pauses when asked about it. She then replies: "When I was younger, not being given a chance did sting. But now, it doesn't hurt as much."
Jazmin is all in, giving everything she has to wushu.
For Waran, the disappointment runs deeper when he thinks about the effort behind it. Training is relentless — six days a week, long hours, little room for rest. Even when she is unwell, she would show up early, warm up, go through her routines, complete hours of coaching and still return home to prepare for classes the next day.
"You just hope there's some recognition," he says. "Some acknowledgement for all that she had put in."
For now, her focus has shifted to her studies, but the pause feels temporary rather than final. With Sukan Malaysia 2026 on the horizon, she is preparing to return to the punishing training schedule that lies ahead.
Despite the setbacks, Jazmin remains determined to give her best. The disappointment of not being selected has not dimmed her drive. If anything, it has strengthened her resolve to keep improving, to keep showing up and to prove herself on her own terms.
Back in 2023, Jazmin clinched one gold and three silver medals in a wushu competition under the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Wushu Federation of Malaysia.
Says Waran: "It is what it is. We always tell her God has His plans."
Jazmin has, in her own way, made peace with it.
"I used to wonder why I was so different," she muses, adding: "Among my friends, I didn't see the positive side of it."
Learning to deal with disappointment became part of that journey. Being bullied, being overlooked — it forced her to look beyond validation and find her own footing.
It was on the competition floor that things shifted. Under the lights, she stood out, not in spite of her difference, but because of it. Judges noticed. Cameras found her.
"When I perform, people look at me first," she says, adding: "Because I look different."
Today, she carries that realisation with conviction, setting her sights higher with every step.
Smiling, she concludes: "Being different is a gift. Not everyone gets that chance. So, use it wisely."
elena@nst.com.my
There’s no stopping Jazmin Alag — fierce, focused and flying the Jalur Gemilang high in wushu. Photos courtesy of Waran Shanmugam.
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