Hokkian(Fukien)

elle · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 334 Location: Nottingham, UK

Good post Scot, but what is a peranakaan doing in Beijing and posting about Chinese immigration pre-WW I? Nice to have you on board!

scottsytong · Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 12 Location: beijing

thanks, elle.

i'm not a peranakan. i belong to the second category of malaysian chinese i.e. my grandparents left fujian in the 1920s and 30s.

i work for an investment firm in beijing and have been based out here for slightly more than a year.

elle · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 334 Location: Nottingham, UK

That means you are second generation Malaysian with Chinese ethnicity. I would like to know one thing from you. Now that you are in Beijing, surrounded by millions of people looking just like you, do you really feel you belong in that society, or will your heart yearn to return to good old KL when your tour of duty is over?

scottsytong · Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 12 Location: beijing

negative. i dont yearn for a return to kl. in fact i havent been back to kl for almost 6 years until recently - a couple of weeks ago, i went back for a visit for 10 days - and i'm quite comfortable living in beijing at the moment.

while i dont feel like i belong to the mainstream society here, i'm not complaining either. i'm used to being a minority. in malaysia, in the uk, and now in china. i dont expect myself to stay here for good though. will probably move elsewhere after the olympics. hopefully to america.

elle · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 334 Location: Nottingham, UK

Scot I wish you a happy stay there. There is much to see and learn in a country like China. The Olympics will be a real treat to attend. You are so lucky. Today's China is a different China from what most of us imagined, I bet. We would be most interested for you to tell us of your experiences there. Can we hope for some stories?

scottsytong · Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 12 Location: beijing

http://herman.finickyfeline.net/

my "stories".

elle · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 334 Location: Nottingham, UK

Thank you herman, I spent a few minutes there and will go back to it later. At least now I know that you a female and single, and that you studied in england and your home is in KL.

With that information, I would have thought that a single woman in a large Chinese city like beijing could be very lonely. If you had had you boy husband and family there you would at least have their company. I am sure that unless you can speak Beijing Hua like a local, you will always be an outsider? That's a question! I found that this was so in HK. anyway let be browse you blog more nbefore I post again. Nice blog.

scottsytong · Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 12 Location: beijing

errr, i'm not female sorry to disappoint.

elle · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 334 Location: Nottingham, UK

Sorry but this led me astray,
"My parents were cool about the natural brunette so that’s a relief." and
"interesting discussion on mid-life depression " NS
" I wasn’t keen on chatting about sex with a female colleague and rubbished her second opinion as the second most ridiculous thing I’ve heard for the past week "

Perhaps I should have read more of the blog but the quotes led me to jump the the wqrong conclusions. Sorry!

taichi · Joined: 03 Sep 2006 Posts: 59 Location: australia

Is a peranakan not half Chinese and Malay? Or is it a nyonya like my mother's real parents(she is adopted by a European family)

scottsytong · Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 12 Location: beijing

taichi: yes, they're usually of mixed blood during the olden days (i'm referring to 100+ years back) but have since stopped inter-marrying with malays due to various reasons. most notably is because after malaya's independence, islam was made the official religion and anyone marrying a malay must convert into islam which not everyone finds appealing.

also, in the olden days, children of mixed parentage are often looked down upon as half-breeds (if you're not from wealthy background but if you're minted then thats ok) and to avoid social stigma and all that BS, some parents chose to give away the kids which might explain why your mother was adopted by europeans? dont take what i say on face value though, i'm hypothesising as i type along. but its not wild guesswork...more like an informed guestimate? :)

taichi · Joined: 03 Sep 2006 Posts: 59 Location: australia

Sorry to disappoint you. Interesting information about peranakan and yes, I have heard similar stories about peranakan following Chinese rather than Malay. Over all I found the Malaysian's attitude about ethnicity quite annoying. For me a Malaysian is a Malaysian and what does it matter whether you are Chinese or Malay or Timbuctuan? Sometimes they are so simple-minded, agressive and emotional, they can't understand that people are mixed and most people are mixed anyway.

As an example my friend who is half Malay half Chinese and practicing Muslim, his Chinese wife converted to Muslim, his children raised as Muslim and Malay but look Chinese were always classified as "Chinese" and they don't feel much like Chinese.

About my mother's parents, they are quite well minted. Just my grandmother was young, European high school student and not married. She gave away my mother to a well minted Dutch/British family because she thought they could offer her more. Later she married another peranakan who was say well treated by life. My European foster grandparents got too attached and vice versa, so both parties decided to leave it like it was. The legal side of adoption also refrains from all parentage rights.

www.taichistories.blogspot.com
www.chenhealth.iforumer.com
www.flyingdagger.wordpress.com

My blog and forum deals with my job and attitude and less with my ethnic life(Did I ever have any except of my looks?)

BTW, could you recommend a Chinese online course which is free? Of course it will be basic for tourists and after this I will change to a reputable language college

scottsytong · Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 12 Location: beijing

taichi: to be frank, i dont know any "free" language courses online. my only suggestion is to mingle with chinese speaking people consistently.

with regard to your half-malay, half-chinese friend...is he a malaysian citizen? if he is, then there is no way, legally, for him to be classified as "chinese". believe me, it annoys me and i dare say a whole lot of other malaysians that ethnicity is still an issue. to understand the dynamics surrounding this cultural trait, one needs to familiarise oneself with the geo-political background of south east asia and it is impossible to sum it up in a paragraph.

the minorities i.e. chinese and indians are keen to "protect" their ethnic identity because a lot of them do not want to me "islamised". in malaysia, if you marry a malay, you have to convert into islam. and in many ways, islamic beliefs tend to conflict with cultural beliefs for many and most chinese and indians do not want to lose this cultural identity.

even the malays themselves are suffering from this issue. some malays are questioning whether or not as a practising malay muslim, they should blindly follow whatever the holy quran says or whatever the norms are in the arab peninsula to the extent that they have to sacrifice their own malay identity and culture. kelantan, the only state in malaysia governed by an opposition party is ruled by an islamic party that have banned a number of traditional malay cultural arts/performances because it deemed them to be un-islamic? is that necessary? i am not malay but i feel that it's a shame to abandon these traditional arts developed by the malay civilisation over a religion that originated from half a world away. moderation is the key and if they just hold on to the moral/philosophical values that islam preaches, thats good enough.

and also because of some of these so-called "islamic" beliefs, some muslim malays treat non-malays (usually non-muslim as well) as infidels which hardly contributes to a nation-building initiative. another possibility why malaysians tend to differentiate each other based on ethnicity is because the govt wants to keep it that way. the malays enjoy special rights and privileges which is denied to a non-malay malaysian. when singapore was still part of the malayan federation, it wanted a malaysian malaysia but the idea was rejected by the malays themselves out of fear that the non-malays will overtake "their" country as they were lagging behind the non-malays in almost every aspect e.g. economic, education, distribution of wealth etc. while i think it is a good idea to help the malays advance but not to the extent that equal opportunities for the non-malays are sacrificed.

the malay national party always play the race card (to the point where a party leader brandished a malay dagger that sort of symbolise malay nationalism, again, is that necessary?) when election poll is near to hype up the malays into chest-beating frenzy so that they always remain in power. democratic constitutional monarchy my foot. there is only one voice in the malaysian political scene and that belongs to the national "coalition".

if you would just do a simple search on google/wikipedia on the number of non-malay malaysian emigrating to a western country, it is quite astounding. the country's leaders (pre-dominantly malays) pleaded for them to return to serve the country, stop the brain drain etc but for what? to be exploited and then in return doesnt receive any credit? if the pursuit of wealth and happiness is the basis for human rights/freedom of choice, then a western country is always appealing to these people eventhough they might be discriminated in their adopted countries. lets be frank, most asians in any country in the western dominion can attest to being discriminated in one way or another by the majority populace but on the other hand, they are protected by law vs the situation in malaysia.

*yawns*

sorry to end this abruptly but i do need to sleep now. tara.

luke · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:43 pm Post subject: Re: peranakan

Very interesting discussion here, which unfortunately i don't know enough about to contribute to. However:

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