'Non Chinese' Chinese Singaporeans aka Orang Cina Bukan Cina

 Recent days this little group of 'ocbc' is getting louder, first with a comment by a Danson Cheong proudly shouting, "Sorry but we're Chinese Singaporeans- not your compatriots " ST.  His post came through as if he was unhappy that the China Chinese endeared to him as a person from the same ancestry. Or was he making an apologetic statement to justify to the West that he is NOT a Chinese but a Singaporean, and has no race and no ancestry like the Chinese in China? Maybe to him Singaporean is a race. And he being looking like another Chinese in every aspect except what is inside his brain makes him a NON Chinese or not a Chinese. A Singaporean Chinese is NOT a Chinese?

Another 'ocbc', Allen Tan Han Loong, commented proudly in the ST column that is a Peranakan, not a Chinese. He is partially right in this sense if one of his parents is not Chinese, or his upstream bloodline may have a non Chinese, meaning his lineage is mixed, not wholly Chinese.

What this Allen Tan said is in a way alarming. He said "It is very dangerous for others to demand Singaporeans' affinity or loyalty based on race." Is he that important a person that others would demand for his affinity or loyalty? The people that called Danson Cheong a compatriot were likely to be the same level of people like him, the common folks on the streets that he met. It is ordinary or normal for people who look alike to feel some forms of affinity for the likeness. Nothing to be offended about. If one can be offended by such a friendly gesture, then he needs to see a shrink.  Or he thinks a Singapore Chinese is more superior to a China Chinese, and he is sikit atas and did not want to be associated to being a Chinese? Is that a need to cry out loud over this friendly gesture?

The Singaporean Chinese over the years have developed a new variant of subculture from the original stock, like the Malaysian Chinese or Indonesian Chinese. Like viruses, the core nucleus is the same. Oops, this may offend some 'ocbc' that have no ancestors to talk about, or think they have a new set of nucleus, not the same as Chinese.

A Singaporean identity is that of a nationality, not a different race. One can easily swap nationality but not race, unless one wants to be another Michael Jackson. Even then, after the bleaching, his race is still the same, his nucleus is still the same other than the superficial changes.

The 'ocbc' is just like duckweed, with little or very short roots. When a storm blew, it would be scattered and lost in the ocean. It is like rootless people without an ancestry anchor to give them a sound ballast.

The Peranakan culture, if it is fit to be called a culture, is at most a subculture of mixed Chinese and Malay origins. The early Peranakan Chinese were the peasants that left China to eke out a living in a foreign land, mostly illiterate. Generally they married the local women, not the Malay aristocracy, likely to be illiterate as well. And they blended whatever little they knew at their peasant levels, into a kind of rojak culture of their own. This subculture did not have the finesse of the Chinese and Malay aristocracy or literati. 

The Peranakan subculture is just a transient phase in Singapore and maybe Malaysia, but would be forgotten, a thing of the past, remain only in the museum or in the memory of some living seniors. The main Chinese and Malay culture will continue to thrive to eternity.