11/14/2011

Angry to be spoken to in Mandarin

I read the discussion about a Daniel Chua posting his encounter with a Chinese waiter at Harbour Front. He was unhappy to be taken for granted, that a waiter had the audacity to choose to speak to him in Mandarin. He snapped back at the waiter with the ‘Do I look like a Chinaman’ act. To add insults to injury, the waiter replied that he should be proud of China as his ancestor also came from China too. And this talented Sinkie replied smugly that his ancestors came from Singapore.

Many China Chinese have this wrong imprssion of Sinkie Chinese. They did not know that the ancestors of Sinkie Chinese did not come from China, maybe from Europe or even America, anywhere else but definitely not from China. Singapore is the perfect answer. And it is rude to assume that they can speak Mandarin. Their mother tongue is English.

Now, why should the waiter want to speak to him in Mandarin? This really beats me. How could a China Chinese mistook a Sinkie Chinese as Chinese from his appearance? So ridiculous! I also fuming.

From the appearance one can easily tell that a Sinkie Chinese is likely to be of non Chinese origin. Look at his slant eyes, flat nose, high cheek bones, and the colour of his skin and hair, every inch is so non Chinese, but Sinkie. Absolutely no doubt about it.

To make things easier for the China Chinese, Sinkies should wear a tag on their chest with the Chinese characters, ‘wo bu shi zhong guo ren.’ See , look at me, I am Daniel, my name is Daniel, not ‘da niau’.

19 comments:

pp said...

The PRC waiter spoke to you in Mandarin cos he cant speak English fluently.
No thanks to those mandarin in charge at MOM.

Anonymous said...

Singaporean Chinese, Chinese Sinaporeans, LPPL.

Your ancestors come from Singapore oso lah.

Anonymous said...

Redbean,

You dunno got plastic surgery meh, hair dye, skin bleach, blue contact lens? You must keep up to date hor.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Hi anon 11:34,

Whether you are Chinese Singaporean or Singaporean Chinese, the Chinese part of you cannot be changed. The Singaporean part is a legalistic construct and easily changed if you migrated. Today Singaporean, tomorrow Australian, Malaysian, American or whatever.

It is not something you can discard or be stolen from you.

It is like you cannot change your mother, or ethnicity. That is the real you. Your ancestors were from China and no where else.

When other people screwed up Singaporeans, and if you feel bad about it, you can take up a different citizenship and ignore the remarks once you are no longer Singaporean.

When people insult, mock, denigrate your ethnicity, whether you are Singaporean, Malaysian, Australian, American or anything else, they are attacking and insulting you and your ancestors.

Sorry, you are a Chinese, forever a Chinese, wherever you are or whatever you called yourself. Even bleaching and dying will not make you anything else.

Anonymous said...

Those who are ashamed of their ethnicity, life is going to be very miserable, a life sentence. Probably getting nightmare everytime they looked into the mirror.

There is only one way out. Go jump into Bedok Reservoir.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Hi pp, welcome to the blog.

It's very thick to be offended just because someone spoke to you in a language you did not expect.

Do I have to yell at anyone for wrong number on my phone?

Anonymous said...

Dear redbean
I am in complete agreement with you about my ethnicity. It is Chinese. It cannot be changed.

But you show dis-respect and dis-loyalty to our fellow Singaporeans by calling yourself "Singaporean Chinese".

As long as I carry my pink i/c, my loyalty is to my fellow Singaporeans first. Regardless of race, language or religion.

In a war, my fellow Singaporeans will be fighting along side me. Regardless of race, language or religion. China did not, could not, protect our ancestors. That's how we ended up in Singapore.

Hence, I am Chinese Singaporean.
Loyalty to Singaporeans first.
Regardless of race, language or religion.

Anonymous said...

To anon who objected to Redbean using the term Singaporean Chinese. There is nothing wrong with that phrase. When the topic of discussion is nationality, you use nationality as a noun, Chinese Singaporean, Indian Singaporean, Malay Singaporean.

When the issue is ethnicity, you use China Chinese, Singaporean Chinese, Thai Chinese, Indonesian Chinese, American Chinese, Malaysian Chinese. If you are going to be offended by this, then follow the advice of the blogger who suggested jumping into the Bedok Reservoir.

Your mindset is sooooo narrow. So pathetic. No wonder you are sooooo unhappy. Go get a life.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Hi Anon 1:03,

The above anon has replied quite clearly that you need not get yourself so worked up with semantics. And there is a proper use of the language in different context.

Nothing wrong with using the term Singaporean Chinese, nothing disloyal about it. Unless you get a clear perspective of what you are discussing and the right context, you will get yourself mixed up in a discussion that has nothing to do with loyalty.

Just like Daniel, why should he got offended because the waiter spoke to him in Mandarin? He is being an idiot for doing that.

Anonymous said...

Singapore has finally arrived as a nation, at least with the declarations by some Singaporeans here. Are they all Singaporean Chinese and or there are some other Races, me knows not, but, sure Singapore has arrived as a nation.

They will protect and defend Singapore when Singapore is invaded or invading. Or, when Singaporeans arrest Singaporeans in any internal dispute. Well, it happened everywhere, Philippinos shooting Philippinos, Syrians shooting Syrians, Iraqis and Libyans killing their own Rulers. And of course Chinese killing Chinese at Tian Ann Men.

What is nationality in a globalized world? It is as changeable as a pair of shoes. What is ethnicity? There could be many answers to those who know not their origins. To those fidel to their origins, there is ONLY ONE ANSWER.

BUT, let's live and let live, no need to be angry, we can at least be cordial and diplomatic, if not friendly.

patriot

Anonymous said...

You so comfortable fighting a war with new citizens by your side? The Americans have great experience in this and many of their soldiers were killed by friendly fire. When the number of immigrants got too big, it is a dicey affair.

Remember, we lost two officers in Sidney to a new citizen.

Anonymous said...

The problem is that these PRCs go to USA, Europe or South East Asia and yet expect people to adapt to them and act like they are in China, acting like a brute in these countries.

These PRCs refuse to adapt nor respect other people's culture and remain rude as they were when they were still in China. That's the real problem.

These PRCs created so much bad impression of Asians especially for Chinese since Americans and Europeans cannot differentiate PRCs from other Asian Chinese.

Lost4ever said...

The term to use is BANANA MAN or YELLOW TRASH...

The race is Chinese, but Daniel is a DOG's name, just like 'Lucky', 'Blackie'... these are all dog names... I guess his kids calls him Daddy, which is also not Chinese, if he is a Singapore Chinese or Chinese Singaporean..

Daniel is not like Harry, who decides to leave out his DOG's name, and not to have DOGGY name for his kids.... which implies also that Harry's policy has gone totally wrong that resulted in LOTS of Daniel who becomes BANANA... SAD, SAD ending to the Harry era.

Perhaps all the Daniel(s) need to go under the knife + Bleaching to remove the Chinese-ness in them and become ANG-MO or Yankees; or accept the fact that they are Chinese in race and be proud of the Ethnicity.

Which by the way, Chinese has been around for 5000 years while the British became civilized probably less than 2000 years, and US Yankee was not even a country 250 years ago.

Anonymous said...

When I was in a western country and got my lunch from a Chinese takeaway shop. The shop waitress is a PRC Chinese and speaks not bad English. Initially, I thought she was from an Asian country other than PRC so we spoke in English. When I heard over she spoke mandarin to her colleagues. I tried to speak mandarin with her but she never replied and continue our conversation in mandarin. Thereafter, we continue to converse in English. You see, something is wrong with some PRC Chinese overseas. Of course, this is an isolated case. I also came across those who are effectively bilingual but are happy to know that I spoke mandarin and we conversed in mandarin.

This is what the Chinese saying: Same type of rice raises many type of people (一样米养百样人). We as human being regardless of race and culture should learn how to respect others. I just feel it is uncalled for and sad that there are many racist and extremist people in this world. That person Daniel has his own right to choose to be what he thinks he is, e.g. a banana and others should not attack him. On the other hand, Daniel's behavior towards the waiter just reflects himself. It is of course very wrong that Daniel got anger with the waiter speaking mandarin. What is the waiter spoke to him in other language?

I totally agreed that if you are Chinese you will forever be a Chinese, regardless of your nationality and place of birth. That is why USA president Obama is an african in race but his culture and thinking are not but western. LKY is majorly a Chinese (he has little malay blood) but his thinking is never a Chinese but western.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Are Singaporeans really a better specie than the foreigners if we behaved in such a way?

Anonymous said...

Uncle Bean aka Chua Chin Lian.

Daniel is a disgrace to your clan and family,because he is also like you ,a CHUA.He think his leader is a AngMor so he can behave like a angmor.
Getting unhappy over someone speaking a language that he rightfully should be able to understand is absurd.
You should ask Daniel to change his surname.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Hi Anon 9:59. No need to be so harsh. Everyone was young and beautiful at one time. When he got his world view sorted out like Harry, he will find himself again.

Every family, clan or tribes have the good guys and the bad guys. No exceptions.

Anonymous said...

hello redbean
as usual in your usual sarcasm, your main article actually does not approve of this "idiot" singaporean who got offended, and it would have been difficult to detect your true stance if one isn't familiar wiht your style of expressions.

yes i am very passionate about this culture thingie too, i would have been proud to be spoken to in chinese by a PRC chinese. WE singaporeans have so much corrupted the beautiful language of chinese that it's time we take careful measures to lean what we can even from the chinese waiters who speak better chinese that the average ah beng here.
Singapore is the only country in the world where foreigners refine our local speech rather than corrupt it, as far as Chinese ius concerned. Despite my objections for the generous FT policies, i am very sympathetic to Chinese PRC's here. They are doing a favour for singaporeans, and the future generation, really.

zero

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