Chinese race can be found in almost every part of the world is undeniable due to Chinese Diaspora. Prior to the founding of The People’s Republic of China in 1949, they migrated en masse in search of better lives due to upheavals of various kinds in their motherland.
Many eventually chose to go back to settle down after making good whilst many others decided to take roots in their host countries. What is interesting to note here is the descendants of this migrant Chinese now are not only very different from each other but distinctive too due to the process of acculturation. This brings us to mind the nature vs. nurture argument.
Closer to home, there are also different Chinese and I’m not talking about the various dialect groups they belong to but the Chinese educated and the non Chinese educated groups. This being the case, the former group tends to view their counterpart with unease and disdain because the latter are not seen as Chinese enough. The main point of contention here is the inability of the non-Chinese educated Chinese to speak and read in the Chinese language. This gives rise to the derogatory moniker of “Bananas” given to the non-Chinese educated Chinese, yellow on the outside but white on the inside. Is Chinese literacy the ultimate measurement of whether one is Chinese or not? Frankly, I find this unfortunate viewpoint to be simplistic, shallow, condescending and reek of hypocrisy.
It’s a bold statement on my behalf but nevertheless, one that is not without basis. First of all, we must appreciate the fact that the overwhelming number of Malaysians of Chinese descents belong to the Southern Chinese stock. There are the Teochew, Hainanese, Hakka, Hokkien, Cantonese Chinese, amongst others. Each group speaks their own dialect and I dare say with unshakeable conviction that the Mandarin language is not and can never be categorised as the mother tongue of the Southern Chinese stock.
Historically, Mandarin was a dialect spoken mainly in the northern part and southwestern provinces of China, concentrated mainly in Beijing. As China is a vast country, many dialects are spoken and are mostly intelligible to other Chinese. Unfortunately, many Chinese chauvinists are ignorant of the fact that Cantonese nearly became the China’s official language but was edged by Mandarin by a mere vote in 1911, during the founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China after the Xinhai Revolution. The late Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the modern Republic of China, was a Southern Chinese who wanted Cantonese to be adopted but out of political expediency, he persuaded his countrymen in the Congress to give up Cantonese. The then Mandarin dialect then took precedence. Since then, it gained currency and is now a unifying language that binds the diverse Chinese groups.
Against this backdrop, the Chinese-educated Chinese must not use the command of Chinese language as a yardstick to judge their Chinese illiterate brethren as being less Chinese. If language really was the unquestionable marker of a Chinese race, how can we justify those foreigners who have not a single drop of Chinese blood in them to qualify as ethnic Chinese just because they have impeccable command of the Mandarin language? Between an ethnic Chinese who doesn’t speak and a Negro who speaks Mandarin, who qualifies to be called a Chinese? Since I speak English and Bahasa Malaysia as well, does this mean I’m English and a Malay all at the same time?
The Chinese chauvinists conveniently overlook the fact that there exist the older generation of mainland Chinese who don’t speak, write and read Chinese but they are Chinese nationals nonetheless. Based on this premise alone, these mainland Chinese are surely more Chinese than the Chinese chauvinists we so readily find in Malaysia.
Therefore, in all earnest; I fervently implore these Chinese Malaysian chauvinists to stop judging the so called “Bananas” as being less Chinese because your insistence on doing so will only expose your sheer ignorance.
