For the record, I grew up as a Type C and over the years, I was heavily influenced by Type A thus causing me to evolved into a hybrid of Type A and C. I did receive some exposure to Type B but somehow, I just didn’t quite pick up its traits. I don’t speak English with an accent (errr…I think), but I do try to eliminate the use of ‘la’ in my formal conversation. I speak Cantonese, picked up a little bit of Mandarin during my short stint in China. I would like to believe my spoken and written English is “ok” but I am definitely not proud that I can't read nor write Mandarin (not much at least). As for diet, I eat almost everything. That’s me.“I shall reserve my comment, I think it’s not fair”… someone told me that after reading my “Chinese… A… B… C”.
Although humour is an element I try to incorporate into my blog, I wasn’t really trying to offend nor make fun of anyone. (Oh… you won't find much humour in this post). The reason I wrote that entry is because I think something is not quite right with the Chinese race. And since I am a Chinese, I guess I can say a thing or two about us...
Type A Chinese:
To be fair to Type A, there is a small population of them who aren’t that proud to be Type A, like some of my friends. Mostly, it’s the way they are brought up, so I can't blame them. They do realise that they are Chinese and play their part in picking up some Chinese traits from their friends, like speaking Cantonese and eating rice. Trust me, there are Type A out there who try very hard to avoid eating Chinese food… and rice.
This try-not-to-speak-‘Chinese’-and-try-not-eat-‘Chinese’ is the most fucked-up type of Chinese. If I am not wrong, they are the only people in the world who will reject their own race, their own identity. One thing I really hate about them is that they are the ONLY people in the world who will say:
“Ewww… that is so Chinese!”… describing a certain type of food, decoration or behaviour, usually in a negative context.
You will never hear a Malay or an Indian referring to their own race in such a disrespectful manner. Aren’t we Chinese fucked-up?
They are not the OCBC (Orang Cina Bukan Cina) this type is still ‘ok’, they are the OCTMJC (Orang Cina Tak Mahu Jadi Cina). Referring them as Chinese or speaking Chinese to them is worse than saying “F**ck your mother smelly c**t” to them.I may not have the right to tell them what to eat, I may not have the right to tell them what to speak, but they should never forget, that at the end of their glamorous and fanciful English name, there are 3 syllabus that make up their Chinese name, even if you can't write, read or pronounce them. That means you’re Chinese, no matter what.
One final thing to the Type A Chinese, even if you eat only pasta, or maybe you don’t even eat pork, speak only English, or even speak beautiful British/American/Australian English, and even if you have 101 English names in front of your Chinese name…. when you die… when your body returns to earth… and some archaeologist dig up your bones 100 years later… after he had done some DNA test and study your bone structure… you are going to be just… CHINESE.
Type B Chinese:
Honestly speaking, I don’t really have much thing to say about Type B Chinese. At least they didn’t lose the identity of the Chinese race. They may be the Ah Bengs and Ah Lians, but they speak, eat and live as a Chinese, which is good enough. As for the hair colour and heavily modified cars, I guess I am still ok with it… maybe I am just bias.
One thing though… Type B should make an effort to pick up the English language. I am not asking you to speak English with an accent, not asking you to totally remove the ‘la’ in your sentence… but please, no “is I cute?” or “how is you?” having the ability to speak Chinese with a decent command of the English language will make you much more cooler than just having rainbow hair.Remember, just because you know how to say “T*u lia ma chau hai”… doesn’t mean you should not say “F**ck your mother smelly c**t”…. try it… you may just give someone a surprise.
Type C Chinese:
Growing as one, I guess I don’t really have much problem about being a Type C. After all, they are the true breed of the Chinese race, bearing the all the good traits, and the bad.
But if there is one thing that I am not proud of, that will be greed. Calculative is one thing, but greed, is a totally different issue altogether. They say everyone has a price… a Chinese is just more expensive. The greed for wealth and power can turn a Type C against their own kind.A Chinese made a remark in relation to the recent Batu Talam election that threw me off my chair. He said something like….
“I hope the Chinese people in Batu Talam will not sympathise the Chinese candidate and vote him”.
That Chinese may be calling for a fair and just election, but the only thing I read from his remark is …. A Chinese telling the Chinese not to sympathise a Chinese. This made me think… will that Chinese sympathise us Chinese when we need sympathy?
There you have it my friends… we have Chinese to refuse to be Chinese, we have Chinese who are too rigid to learn other cultures, and we have Chinese will turn against each other… aren’t we fucked up?
I am proud to be a Chinese, and yet I am not proud to be a Chinese.
[The blog owner render his apology to anyone who feels offended by this entry]
40 comments:
lol~ Nice further elaboration~
U really do know alot about chinese..
excellent excellent remarks, all banana chinese must be re-educated..!!!!! keep up the good work!! ALL BANANAS LOOK AT YOURSELF AND LOOK AT THE DISGRACE YOU ARE!!
I am Chinese Type-X. Half Chinese.
Zewt,
Not offended at all, at least not this one here. I have to say though the Chinese aren't the only race in the world who are embarrassed of/reject their own race. Similar trends have been identified elsewhere, especially with some African-Americans.
While a bunch are proud to the extent they claim ethnic names from the motherland (Africa), others try to hide their ethnicity if they happened to be product of mixed-marriages and are of light enough skin tone to get away with it, or just stay away from anything too "ethnic".
When I was living in Munich, my German friends even told me most of the younger generation are embarrassed of being German due to the Holocaust. In fact, World Cup 2006 was a big turning point for this post-WW2 generation - it was a chance to learn to have national pride.
Which brings me to my next point. Not speaking for Chinese all round the world, just us Chinese here in Malaysia. There is a need to be proud of being Malaysian as well and not get too distracted by our differences. Let our differences be the spice that flavours our whole melting pot, not the hammer that cracks it.
Having said that, I got to address friendfromtaiwan. I am extremely offended by your statement. Why can't a banana be a banana? An ah-beng remain an ah-beng? Do you realise when you point out all these differences you are showing your prejudices, and that's what is truly ugly. Not the ABC's accent. Not the Ah Beng's Manglish. But your denial of them because they are not like you.
I was very banana growing up. Couldn't speak a word of Chinese and my friends at school who were from Chinese-speaking homes refused to teach me Mandarin when I asked. Why bother when you can just laugh at the banana? This is the sort of knee-jerk response that causes hate and tension.
Yet I still wanted to learn. It's my culture, my roots, I told myself. Finally, the strangest thing happened. I learned Mandarin just from mixing around with my friends from Shanghai when I was living in Germany. They were just happy to see another yellow skin and did not mind that I couldn't speak Mandarin.
You can learn from us, my brother, they said.
So, if you want to talk about culture and heritage and brotherhood, why not share it, instead of condemning? When I returned to Malaysia, some of the Type B's and Type C's I met never heard me speak a word of English.
My Mandarin was more accurate-sounding than theirs (though my vocabulary was assuredly smaller) according to them, and some even thought I was from China or Taiwan. They insisted I was Chinese-educated, which of course, I am not.
What I realised is that they fell into the same trap of only wanting to be with their "own kind" --- however, you do realise this is the same sort of mentality that breeds hate and starts wars?
I know Malays who don't want to be Malays, and I know Malays who think their bumi status alone makes them Malaysian. I know Indians who try to turn themselves white with every word, every action they take; and I know Indians who can't seem to forget the motherland. We "Chinese" are no different.
My question is, to all you Chinese and Malays and Indians living here in Malaysia, a country that has fostered you, are you Malaysian?
If your answer is yes, then perhaps your time would be better spent reaching out to your fellow citizens, your fellow men.
Dear Friendfromtaiwan,
I think you and your countrymen ARE the ones that need to be re-educated. Well, at least we are civilised enough not to trade punches, throw shoes and chairs during parliamentary sessions!
really nice nice article u've got there zewt! same goes to ur ABC one. I'm so impressed!
and i'm impressed with kenny mah's comment. i think it's far from enuf to keep that taiwanese dude mouth up.
and i LOL at cocka! how true!
bananas aren't a shame. wat is shameful is that being a banana, but admittedly hate everything chinese. and that's the most disgraceful thing that can happen on ur very own race.
bengs and lians, yeah, i do not favour them too. they can be pan yeah (action), like those lansi angmoh wannabes who contempt their own race.
the typical ang-moh bananas and bengs are similar in the sense that: the bananas (do note i mean those who contempt their own race) hate the chinese language ~ their mother tongues and cultures, while bengs hate everything not chinese, particularly angmoh culture.
that makes both of them truly disgraceful to our race, though the bengs can be better than the angmohs in the sense that they r at least proud of their chinese identity.
not only chinese, history has shown us religions can be a determining factor which caused own culture to be abandoned.
after the romans and greeks adopted christianity, some elements of the roman and greek traditions were banished forever. same goes to islam. nations where islam has planted firm roots on, their culture will definitely undergo a drastic transformation. eg Egypt, their ancient civilization is the gem of human history, but after the islamic conquest, they abandoned their distinctive egyptian traditions, language and writing system, and adopted the arabic culture and language instead. another fine example is iran. long known for its gr8 persian history, with the expansion of islam, the population was overwhelmingly islamicised. luckily they still retain their farsi (persian) language, but loan words from arabic are significant. the writing system is similar to pakistan, which is derived from arabic.
jus to add smth here, same goes to malays.
yes, they do maintain a strong self-identity with those batik and songket crafts, but the islamists in kelantan are tryng hard to demolish some of the malay traditions by arabising the population. first, it's the arab-lookin' clothings, which they claim are required by islam. then, they subsequently ban baju kebaya, mak xxx dance (i cudnt remember the exact name) which is declared a world heritage by unesco. the dance originated in kelantan, is the pride of the kelantanese malays, but these fanatics are calling it off. off the history, off the culture. their aim is to purify the malay race from pre-islamic influences, where most modern-day malay traditions can trace their origins from. to become a malay, is to become an arab. that's their thinking.
Maxforce - why la you remove your comment? anyway, it's your decision.
vegemaster - i think i dunno enough, i am still learning... haha!
friendfromtaiwan - keep it cool brother.
amir - well well, it's the famous malay male. welcome... hope you will hang around.
kenny mah - wowwwwwwww!! your comment is fit to be a blog! never thought i will receive such an intellectual comment.
thanks for the info about the germans being ashamed of being themselves. one thing though, the germans will never sell their race, chinese do. and german will always support their own race and products, chinese... you'll be glad if they dont condemn them.
I shall send a word to friendfromtaiwan regarding his comment. And I do like your final comment, it's time to forget our puny differences and live like a malaysian.
cooka doodle - i apologise to your on his behalf.
kyh - welcome my friend. another intellectual comment. i am really loving this. Indeed, banana is not a shame, but those who hate everything chinese are the ones that bring the bananas bad names.
IMHO, there's a difference between abandoning your culture and abandoning your identity. believing a new religion may require us to make some changes to our lives, but we must never forget who we are, the genes in our blood.
by the way, i am astonished to know what is happening in kelantan. thanks for the info. and hey... mind telling me your blog? i cant access it from your profile, it's blocked.
sometimes, culture and identity do intermingle, and the boundary between them is pretty hard to define. eg, using chopsticks, wearing red and avoiding black during festivities for chinese is a tradition, a culture. and yet, it's an important identity for us. once we think of these stuff, we are reminded that they are part of the chinese legacy, a tradition that holds true for thousand of yrs. yes, the chopsticks part is adopted by the japs and koreans as well, but we chinese do invented them, dont we? that's why i said it's our culture, and it's our identity as well.
my blog??? haha... it's jus kiddo stuff. u wont be interested. all daily rants and craps there. ntg intellectual. but if u do insist on visiting it, u can find it on lb's hughugclub list. my name is there. but u better dun enter it cos it's gonna bored u to death! LOL!
I am a very "Cheap" chinese - stingy, greedy, kiasu...HAHAHAHA
and im not afraid to admit that...
我是中国人！！！！
Hoho...seems I missed the fiasco over here (sorry Zewt, as you know, things have been busy with my play).
Nice one! It just so happens yesterday I was taking MCA Vice-Prez Dato' Ong Tee Keat and Selangor ADUN Dato' Lee Hwa Beng around Cambridge, after which they had a dialogue with Malaysian students here. As expectedm race issues came up, and many of the issues touched on here were raised. But I'm not touching that topic with a ten-foot pole, cos the Government's eyes are on me, and I'm a good little government servant.
I have to say though, Ong Tee Keat struck me as a brilliant politician, someone whose feelings about racial relations in Malaysia echo those of Kenny's above when he calls for all Malaysians to be Malaysian, and I have nothing but the highest respect for him.
Being partly Chinese myself, I've seen all three types, and living in Britain, I see plenty of AC types. I must correct you though, Zewt; being partly Malay and Indian, I have also seen Type A's there, who downplay their ethnic roots as much as possible. I suppose you have weirdos in every ethnic group...
Ooh, and I just noticed we haven't exchanged links! (Sorry, you know how brain-damaged I am.) You've been blogrolled! Hope you don't mind the heading I've given you :)
Oh and Kenny, I know I said this on your blog too, but I wanted to let you know that I have nothing but the highest respect for you and that comment you made. Hats off to you. You are exactly the type of citizen that Malaysia needs more of.
I think one of the few Malays who like criticising the general Malay race. I can't help it. They're lazy and mooch off the government.
I got ThaiChinese blood too. Do I fit in any of the categories? :P
I am a malay that other malays hate. becos i'd rather be chinese.
but truth be told, i have 50% chinese genes, from my mum.
heyy Zewt...great follow-up from the previous post. totally agree on the Type A part..as banana as i am, i'm not proud that i cant read in chinese or that my mandarin sucks. i wished i knew how to speak fluently as least, if not to read..but i do understand the language fairly well.
sometimes, it annoys me when my fellow colleagues or new found friends asked me if i even understand cantonese, which of cuz i do..and it always surprises them tht i understand mandarin. *eyes rolling*
i don't feel offended at all, you're just sharing what you think, and that's great!
type A chinese..i don't know where i read from, but someone once asked, why do people who goes to london for a couple of years, come back speaking with the british accent (or wutever country they go to), but you don't see people who went India for training or wut, to come back speaking like an indian?
sometimes, they're just so fake!
type b..i agree.."is i cute" is realy turning off! sometimes even guysss to that!
type c..i agree again, on the GREED part! everyone wants to be the best, they get 'red eyes' to see people better off, they want everything!
Wah lau eh.... i am starting to get tired with this chinese thingy.
I am a Malaysian Chinese.... please don't forget the word 'Malaysian' in front of our chinese... as chinese from different part of the world has totally different culture and different mindset.
Belief it or not... we are all a little bit of A, B and C. We changed, from the day we were born, till we go to sekolah rendah kebangsaan, till sekolah menengah... then become the proud college kid, then uni student, then turning into a uni grad, then into the working world... we are never the same in each stage of life. There are bound to be a little of A, B or C is some of the stages in life.
Bottom line for me... I am a Malaysian Chinese. Nothing to be proud and nothing to be shy of.
Btw, Zewt... it's a great topic to make us all realise. I read all the rest of the comments after posting my own comment. And I 100% agree with Kenny Mah. We are Malaysian!
ppl who are offended are obviously ppl living in their own dream world...maybe they just cannot accept critism...
all types ABC have their pros and cons...who are we to say that they shouldnt behave this or that way...zewt is merely giving pointers how on to maximise their potential based on their existing advantages...
zewt your comment on religion got me thinking....is burning joss stick and paper money a cultural thing or a religious thing?
if cultural then ...are some of us already abandoning our identity?
concerning joss sticks and paper money thingy, i wud say it's religious, and also cultural at the same time. Taoism and Confucianism are Chinese folk religions, originated from China, and almost exclusively practised by Chinese. So yes, that's why I said that religion can be a mighty force in causing certain cultural practices to be lost forever.
kenny,
I am a Malaysia by law but not in spirit. If there is a war, I will be the first to leave. It is a fucking racist country.
Zewt,
I am a chinese and am proud of it! Hahahaa! Chinaman rules!
Zewt, you can even blog about Chinese-educated Chinese and English-educated Chinese. I realised the significant differences when I enter university. People will brand chinese-educated and english-educated ppl into one category and stereotype them. But things have changes so much when China grows now. But I must say english ed and chinese ed people are so different. English ed ppl used to be so snobbish & think they are just one status higher than you (IMPO). I used to be known as, "Oh, you are chinese ed. No wonder....". And now its like, "You are chinese ed? Really?You dont have the traits."
I also cannot understand why the Chinese dont stand up for the Chinese, why girls dont stand up for girls etc. The list can go on and on. If the world is all about equality and fair, then there would be no war and world peace will be achieved. But will it be? Haha, did I go out of the topic? :P
Anyway, excellent writings & elaborations about the Chinese. And as Malaysian Chinese we are unique. I wouldnt like to be known as a China Chinese (No offense). We possess the Chinese tradition, cultures and practises passed down my our ancestors, and adapt to our country but work our way up with dignity and pride!
kyh - hi again. your comments on culture vs identity is very refreshing. the line is indeed very thin and difficult to define. perhaps i should blog about it next time. and rest assured, i will drop by your blog sooner rather than later.
SuLee - haha... yes, i am sure we are all proud to be a chinese one way or another. but... dont need to be so kiasu all the time la hahaha!
TheAngryMedic - wow, you managed to meet up with those people? coo! and yeah, many malaysians do believe Mr OngTK is quite a remarkable politician. Let's hope his vision, which happens to be the vision for most of us too... will come true.
Know you're a busy man, so no worries, i am sure u will drop by once a while. and of cos, it's an honour to be blogrolled by TheAngryMedic!
Sharina / FailedMalay - Hello there. Never thought my post will catch the interest of my fellow malay brethren. One thing though, I do not intend to cause or raise any dissatisfaction amongst us.... my dream is to see everyone united as one race... the malaysia race. Malay, Indian or Chinese... we are all MALAYSIANS !!!!
Grace - hahaha... maybe you should try to pick up the mandarin language and surprise a few souls. trust me... it's worth it.
Huei - I really like your 'red eyes' comment. yeah, we are all greedy and failed to cherish the things they have. let's hope we dont do anything overly stupid out of jealousy.
PurpleMushroom - you're getting tired of this chinese thingy? i was thinking whether i should dedicate this month as a chinese related blog month hahahaha....
economist - thanks bro, for your supportive comments. indeed, the line between cultural and religious stuff cant be easily drawn. But I think if we were to analyse properly, there will be a line, just that different people will draw it differently. Perhaps I should do a new entry on this…
dangerous variable - where are you going to run to? Can bring me along? Haha!
Eileen - thank you for your compliment. Very good point on Chinese ed vs English ed Chinese… that’s another notion altogether. But like what your friend purple mushroom said… ppl are getting sick of it lor… haha.
Zewt, you don't have to apologise at my blog - i loved the ABC post, and while i'm not joining in the discussions of the identity of the Chinese race, (probably because i've never actually thought of myself as 'chinese' (even though i was chinese educated in primary school) - i think of myself as 'Malaysian'), i still think what you've started here is a good and lively discussion that affects all of us Chinese to some degree.
It's true, a lot of things mentioned by the commentors, but i still prefer to think of myself as Malaysian ... mainly because we can't possibly pass ourselves off as mainland chinese even if we wanted to. And i particularly loved the 'Go to England come back with British accent, go to india don't come back with Indian accent' anecdote.
I'll be reading the comments for more insights into what others think about racial identity.
I am not Chinese, just as you are not Chinese, Zewt. Our grandparents may have been, but, if either you or I go overseas and answer the question of "Where are you from?", the most appropriate answer should be "Malaysia", regardless of how screwed up one's country of birth to adulthood may be/ have been/ will be.
On the other hand, if one is asked "What race are you?" (this mostly happens only in this country, again), just as the African-Americans should say "Black" (because most have never set foot in that continent from where they would like to be politically-correctly described), we should say "Yellow", purely because we would (in most cases) not have been from China (notwithstanding our ancestors...if we go by that line of argument, we're Afrikans, all of us). We could also say we are South East Asians, or "Asian" would be valid too.
As for the language, it should not matter. If we would like to be classified as Chinese merely because we speak a dialect from that country, then we would have claim over the world, given that this is the most widely spoken language.
Our culture may have originated from China, but we can't count ourselves Chinese by that any longer either. We are banned from doing that in some sense, remember? But seriously, China is the first civilisation (I don't care what the Westerners have to say about Ancient Greece or Egypt). This gives us, again, claim of the world.
So, what is there left for us to claim our Chinese-hood? Our greed? I don't think that's inherently Chinese - they are Communists.
Yellow Cirnelle
PS. Similar apologies/ qualifications to emotional scarring due to the above statements apply.
zewt,
great discussion and debate here. in your earlier posting, I said I was irrelevant because, well,I aint Chinese. As you can tell from my name I am Malay. Proud to be one. And as I have always said, prouder to be Malaysian -- warts and all.
But you know, zewt. when i was in primary school, right through secondary school,my sisters and I took Mandarin lessons. I used to speak Mandarin very fluently. The Chinese girls from the "remove" classes were my buddies because I (besides my sisters) were the only Malays who could speak Mandarin. And we were in a Convent school in PJ.
i lost my fluency over the years when I didnt speak it regularly and consistently. Such a pity.
But I have not lost my love for Chinese martial arts movies.
So, here you are. I may not be relevant in your discussion but I have been very much enlightened by the discourse.
So, whether you are an A, B or C chinese or a little bit of all three, it doesn't matter. If I were a Chinese,i would be very proud of my ethnicity and heritage.For one,the CHinese richness in culture and civilisation and history.
But, we're all Malaysians first, aren't we?
Kenny: what exactly is a Malaysian identity? there is none, there are only Malays, Chinese and indian. There is no such thing as a shared Malaysian identity, that only appears on goverment posters and utopian adverts seeing all the races mixing in happily... it never happens in real life in Malaysia.. until everyone in the country is treated fairly it will never happen.. until that day I will be a Chinaman. I am not here to educate everyone who is a banana on how to be a Chinese..they must do that themselves!
i have once posted something like this in my old blog talkcockking.blogspot.com i truly understand how you feel.. glad there are still people out there who are able to recognize the many types of chinese and actually try to stick to their roots =) good job
Im B for my vulgar language, C for my chinaman traits btw.
who got offended?
the ah bengs and ah lians?
weirdos...
btw, we're all chinese.
once chinese, always a chinese.
typa A chinese always thinks that they're in the the posh category...but sometimes, their attitude sucks.
experienced from my truthful pure type A friend.
dienasty - I really like your 'go to england come back with british accent, go india dont come back with indian accent' anecdote... speaks alot about ppl 'picking' up the accent when they were there. and it's also ridiculous when someone can forget the way of life in malaysia by spending just a few years overseas.
cirnelle - yeah, we cant call ourselves chinese simply becos we are not from china. but that doesnt change the fact that we are of chinese origin. oh... chinese is the first civilisation? that's pretty cool. anyway, the fact that we chinese gene is good enough to claim our chinese-hood... that's what i believe.
Nuraina - Hi, your ability to speak mandarin brings much shame to a lot of us, myself included. Hopefully we can exchange a few words one day. And yes, we are indeed all Malaysians :). Never doubt that.
friendfromtaiwan - ladies and gentlemen... this is a proud chinaman.. haha!
TTL - hmm... need to visit that blog. so it's B and C for you? No A element?
baby sa - well, as long as they think they are one class above us... then they really sucks. they should be ashame of themselves!
Ahhh... at last got ppl chut hei on behalf of me... neh... that tiuwan person lor... very the menyampah... is he your friend??
angel (which version?) - hahaha... he is my friend indeed. if he offended anyone, i apologise on his behalf. but i have to say, he is very anti type A hahaha....
and... he is a hardcore type B!!!!
ive already deleted the blog =) i met tiuniasing through the blog last time so maybe u cud ask him.. if he remembers that is haha. erm.. maybe abit of A for knowing how to speak english ? haha
Reading your previous posting on Type A Chinese was quite disturbing as I felt misunderstood. Glad you took the effort to clear the air. For the record, I am a Type A Chinese who drinks chinese green tea every day, hates earl grey, likes carbonara but love chinese home cooking the most. In my case, most of my friends think I speak funny canto (I did try to impress hee..) and it seems like I'm doing them a favour by sticking to English. Have a good day.
TTL! - aiyo... such a waste to delete your blog.. would have been a good read.
ai leen - i know, i know others prefer you to speak english. i know.
Believe, there are also many Malays who would rather be 'white' than be seen as 'kampungan' (village bumpkins)
It's interesting a half-Type A like you feel qualified to classify the rest of us. Make a Type D: 优秀的华人。
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:%E9%A6%AC%E4%BE%86%E8%A5%BF%E4%BA%9E%E8%8F%AF%E4%BA%BA
This blog discussion is in Wikipedia now, click the link above to see, you can join too.
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