Woke up feeling unwell today. Was down with flu last week and i thought i've recovered from the flu after a well-rested weekend, but then the coughing resumed this morning. Perhaps the flu virus is still in me and i should have rested more. Gosh, i really hope i don't fall sick again as i'll be going for a 3D2N Cameron Highland trip on this Friday. 
I know i've written about the same thing in my yesterday's post and i shouldn't keep harping on the same thing, but i was very much disturbed by a post i read today.
Why do we always talk about the Chinese from mainland China in a condemnatory way? Is it really that, despite having the same ancestral root, we are indeed so much more higher and mightier than them?
There's a post written by a rather widely-known Malaysian Chinese blogger about how "ugly" the mainland Chinese are, followed by many comments endorsing her views with proofs that the mainland Chinese are indeed uncivilized people.
I've not been to China before and perhaps i'm not in the position to say much about this issue. Of course, i've heard and do agree that there are a lot of lowbrowed behaviours that have somehow stigmatized the mainland Chinese and perhaps could hardly be seen with the Chinese from other parts of the world. I do, however, find it hard to swallow when we just disparage them in a holier-than-thou manner without really looking at ourselves in the mirror, and by ourselves i mean as Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore (or Taiwan or Hong Kong or anywhere else).
So when we scoffed at the mainland Chinese, saying that they are smokers, are only interested in money, will resort to cheating to earn money, are dirty, are loud, drive recklessly, like to imitate, and associating them with many many more repugnant behaviors, tell me if you seriously, absolutely, positively think that the Chinese in Malaysia or Singapore are not like that at all, not even a little tiny winny bit?
Yes, i don't spit or litter or urinate or squat at anywhere, nor do i talk loudly in public without consideration for others, but does it mean that i don't do it and thus none of the Chinese in Malaysia or Singapore are doing it too, and some mainland Chinese are doing it and thus they are all uncultured people?
This definitely reminded me of the biased post that a famous Singaporean blogger had written about KL. She also based her opinions on some shabby behaviours she encountered during her trip to KL. So does it mean that her claims were justified and correct too?
Think back to the time when Singapore government hadn't enacted the law for no spitting, no littering, and no chewing gum. What happened then? People just spat and littered everywhere, and stuck the chewing gum to the door of the MRT.
Imagine what will happen if we have those newspaper boxes (is that what we call them?) by the streets like in the US, whereby people just slot in the coins, open the box, and take ONE newspaper out. Do you think our people here will be so honest as not to take more than what they've paid for?
Look at what happened in Singapore when free newspaper are given out in the morning. The publishers used to just put the newspaper there and let the people take one piece for their own reading. Now, they need to hire staff to stand there and distribute the free newspaper because many people just took a whole bulk of them. So is our people any less greedy and selfish?
All these behaviours about being selfish, dirty, loud and whatnot are bad, no doubt about it; but i do see many people behaving in such way in Malaysia as well as in Singapore. We may be not as bad because our society is more developed, and our government imposes many rules and regulations to dictate our behaviours.
Anyone who had studied behavioural psychology before should know that behaviours can be conditioned. If we are used to doing or refrained from doing certain things over an extended period of time, our behaviours can be changed and the conditioned behaviours would actually become part of us that come just so automatically. So we don't do certain things like the mainland Chinese because our societies are different and our governments are different, and more importantly, the countries are so much more different. When you live in a country with one third of the world's population, with a land so vast, and that had practised close-door policy for so long until recent decades, it takes longer time and bigger effort to be a better nation with better people. Again, it goes all the way back to our culture and history, as the writer Bo Yang has mentioned in his book.
My point is just this: perhaps we should not talk about the mainland Chinese in a condescending way as if they are lower beings compared to the Chinese in other countries. Bad behaviours should not be condoned and we should always strive to be better -- regardless of race or nationality.
Labels: opinion
