Cogito ergo scribo

Read a commentary in the newspaper yesterday about the shabby behaviours of Chinese visitors at Hong Kong Disneyland. The commentator compared the Hong Kong Disneyland with other countries' and highlighted that such behaviours could hardly be seen in Japan, France, or the US. The news that prompted this commentary can be found at the China Daily.

This news reminded me of a book "The Ugly Chinaman" ("丑陋的中国人"）written by a renown and prolific Taiwanese author Bo Yang (柏扬), even though i think "The Ugly Chinese" would have been a more appropriate translation. Anyone who had read this book before, or at least read the transcript of a speech given by him at Iowa University in 1984, would see the sad irony: two decades had passed since the first publication of the book, and it seems like we are not any further from where we were back then.

The Chinese from mainland China are often portrayed as uncultured people in Hong Kong and Singapore TV drama series. I couldn't help but wonder, are all these lowbrowed behaviours unique to the Chinese from mainland China, or certain characteristics are simply in our root that even Chinese in other countries are not any better?

Singapore is the only country other than China (by this, i mean mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan) with Chinese as its major populace. It is considered as one of the "four little dragons of Asia" and a developed country. However, the country may be developed economically, but are the behaviours and mentality of the people as developed? If we strip away all the fines and penalties, would Singapore still be as clean or as refine as it is now?

I think this may be a threadbare topic and i'm not gonna write a long and serious discussion here. It's just that i have some observations with uncanny similarities to what had been reported in that news.

Here's a paragraph quoted from the article in the China Daily:

Indeed, we are embarrassed to see some signs exclusively written in Chinese at airport lobbies in some countries, reminding Chinese not to talk loudly.

Those who have taken a MRT ride in Singapore before might have noticed the bugging reminders broadcasted every few minutes, telling the passengers to "move towards the center of the car", "give way to alighting passengers", "stand behind the yellow lines", bla bla bla. The station and the train are also decorated with pictorial signs, telling the people not to eat or drink in the train, to give up seats for pregnant women and the elderly, etc. Last year, there was also a series of announcements in Phua Chu Kang style, telling the passengers not to talk loudly on the mobile phone, not to lean on the handrail so that others can hold on to it, and many many more. Although i've not experienced all the metro systems in the world, i do wonder if any other countries perform their civil education in the mass transport.

I have a friend who told me before about an incident she encountered with her colleague, a typical Singaporean lady. This lady and her family were going into Malaysia for holiday and the car was jammed at the causeway, on the Singapore side of the bridge. Her son wanted to get rid of a garbage and winded down the window. She immediately stopped her son from doing so by saying, "Hey, don't you throw that out now! Later got fine. Wait till we get to the JB side then you throw." So, is civil-mindedness about the conditioned behaviours within a specific country, or the genuine consideration for others regardless of place and time?

贝 once went to a departmental dinner with his Singaporean colleagues at a restaurant. A few of his female colleagues were talking and laughing so loudly that it actually became a nuisance to other patrons. Another group of customers sitting near them made a complaint to the waiter, and so the waiter came over to ask (politely) 贝's colleagues to tone down a bit. Well, instead of recognizing their own inconsideration, 贝's colleagues actually demanded to see the restaurant manager and berated the manager and his staff.

And i'm not even gonna ask the rhetoric questions of "why does Singapore need to ban chewing gum", "what will happen if Singapore does not fine the people for littering / spitting", and "why the Chinese wedding dinners always start late".

My point here is not to criticize Singaporeans or the country, as a lot of such behaviours exist in Malaysia as well. I'm just using it as an example because its population comprises of mainly Chinese and it's a developed country, whereby general perception is that people of developed country behave in a more civilized manner. Or so we thought.

When we read the news about the shabby behaviours of the Chinese at Hong Kong Disneyland, did we just shake our heads with disgust and scorn, "oh, these uncultured mainland Chinaman", or did we pause for a moment of introspection and mull over the possibility that having the same ancestral origin may in fact render us very much similar than different?  

Labels: opinion