Top 5 Chinese surnames that sound rude

For the record, I count all these names amongst my friends on Facebook.

5. Wang
4. Ho
3. Dong
2. Kok
1. Poon



See also:

The most awesome Thai names
Hong Kong names, part 2
Quiz time: European names
How Muslim names evolve around the world
Weird spammer names
The world's most average name

Chinese person racist against another Chinese person. I dunno what to think.

Sheeeeet. Man, I just don't know what's funny and what's offensive anymore. Context, irony, satire, political correctness... I need to factor in all these things before I decide whether to laugh or not. No wonder fart jokes are so popular and timeless: they are simple and to the point. No such thing as an ironic fart.

Anyway, that's a roundabout way to say that I'm not sure whether this clip is offensive or not. It probably is.


So that's Sam Pang, on Santo, Sam & Ed's Sports Fever last week, impersonating Chinese-American basketball star Jeremy Lin. Pang is a half-white, half-Chinese Australian.

Why is this offensive? Well, it's rehashing a litany of dumb stereotypes. Pang's accent is a ridiculous mish-mash of Chinese and Japanese accents, despite Jeremy Lin being born in California.

On the other hand...

Given that Pang's portrayal of Lin is so ridiculously stupid, is it actually non-offensive in some hipsterish ironic way? If I conclude that Pang is doing some stupid racist ish here, does that just mean that I don't get it? Am I as dumb as all the people who read my blog but get angry simply because they can't tell when I'm being serious and I'm being tongue-in-cheek? (And yes, there are a lot of them.) Is he making fun of Asian stereotypes, rather than rehashing them?

I'll confess: I have a lot of time for Sam Pang and his various endeavors into radio and television. He's a likable character, and I'm inclined to look favorably on him. That said, I didn't think this skit was funny. Well, I did chuckle at the DDR reference, I admit. But aside from that, it was kinda dumb.

But then again... that's the kind of show Sports Fever is. A LOT of its jokes are extremely lame, and the hosts know it. That their joke success rate is so poor is actually one of the appealing things about the show, if you can understand that; Pang and co-hosts Santo Cilauro and Ed Kavallee seem to enjoy looking stupid in the pursuit of jokes that were only half-funny to begin with.

Here's another way to look at it: Pang is sending up not Jeremy Lin and his Asian-ness... but instead the hype that has surrounded the first Asian-American NBA star. Linsanity, fortune-cookie-flavoured "Lin-sanity" ice cream, and the mindless stereotypes that have been floating around since his emergence. So is it those stereotypes that Pang is making fun of?

So perhaps the skit was not so dumb after all... rather, it was so meta that some of you cats just didn't get it.

Or maybe it was just indeed dumb and racist. I'd welcome your thoughts.

A couple more questions for your pondering:

• If we accept that Pang is making fun of stereotypes rather than making fun of Asians... does that mean the audience are laughing at the same thing? It is quite possible that many people watching do not see any layer of irony and just find it funny to laugh at Asian people.
• As someone who is not fully Chinese but Eurasian, does someone like Pang have the credibility to do Asian jokes like this? Would it be different coming from a "full Asian" rather than someone who despite having a Chinese surname, still enjoys a degree of white privilege?

I'll admit one thing - if a white person (eg. Sam Newman) did the exact same skit, I'd probably waste no time in condemning the thing as racist dumbf#ckery. I would not for a second consider that Newman was being "meta". So I'm not sure what that says about me.

My head hurts.

(H/T Yuey)

See also:

Racial humour - is it ever ok?

Every Chinese New Year I'm shufflin'

Some might see this as disrespectful to tradition, but I think it's just harmless fun. I wouldn't want this to replace the traditional CNY lion dance (or is it a tiger dance?) of course, but they've done the traditional thing and are just adding something different and entertaining at the end.

And I understand if some of you never want to hear Party Rock Anthem every again. But it's worth watching if only for the bit at 1 min 43 seconds.

This seems to have been shot in Malaysia by the way, I think in Bukit Bintang although I could well be wrong.

Malaysia’s behaviour lessons for non-Muslims during Ramadan

(Cross-posted at Brown Pundits)

A couple of race- and religion-related controversies in Malaysia this week.

8TV decided to axe a series of public service announcements after claims that they were racist against Chinese-Malaysians. The ad campaign was aimed at teaching non-Muslims how to behave respectfully during Ramadan, and portrays a young Chinese woman speaking in a loud and crass fashion at the market and eating in public. See for yourself:

(8TV is having a lot of these clips deleted from Youtube; try here if you can't see it.)

I wouldn't call this racist, but it is laughably pathetic nonetheless, particularly the bit when a shocked Malay man shields his daughter's eyes from seeing the woman's armpits (blurred for good measure). There are plenty of influential Malay voices in the media, government and religious spheres who love to play the victim card ad infinitum - cultivating the perception that the non-Malay, non-Muslim minorities are somehow trampling all over Malay rights and religious sensitivities.

Also this week on the topic of respectful behaviour:

The Football Association of Malaysia has apologised to Chelsea after the London club complained of anti-Semitic abuse in their tour match against a Malaysian XI recently, directed at Israeli winger Yossi Benayoun. Yet it is an apology that seems disingenuous in the face of the Malaysian State's attitudes towards Israel.

I've watched highlights of this game, and while I couldn't hear anything racial, Benayoun is audibly booed every time he touches the ball, something the other Chelsea players are not subjected to. Benayoun himself is a likeable footballer who is completely uncontroversial aside from being Israeli.)
“The FA of Malaysia would like to strongly register that we do not condone any form of racism in football,” the statement read. “If such an incident did happen we would like to apologise to the player concerned and also to Chelsea FC. From our initial observations, if such an incident took place, it would have involved a small section of spectators at the match. This surely does not reflect the feelings of the majority of fans in this football-loving country.”

Of course, Malaysians should probably reflect on a history of anti-Semitism in the country. Last time Chelsea toured Malaysia in 2008 there was talk that then coach Avram Grant and defender Tal Ben Haim would not be granted visas to enter the country. Former PM Mahathir Mohamad once claimed that the Jews ruled the world by proxy. And it was only a couple of weeks ago that government-backed newspaper Utusan Malaysia made the ludicrous claim that the recent rallies for democracy in KL may have been the work of Jews.

Since the two countries have very little to do with each other in practical terms, and most Malaysians will never actually meet a Jew, this feeling originates solely from the fact that Malays are Muslim and therefore lots of them just assume that disliking Jews is part of their religious duty.

So I finally read "...Tiger Mother"

Given that Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother came out in January, this post is not exactly topical, but I figured it was better late than never. Plus I did have a bit to say about Chua and her book at the time (here, here, here and here), without actually having read it, so perhaps this will complete the circle.

Amy Chua is a woman who has garnered an enormous amount of hatred in the last few months. The problem is this: the vast majority of the people directing the hatred at her have not actually read her book.

Instead, what most people base their Tiger-Mom-expertise on is the Wall Street Journal article which rocketed Chua to fame. Thing is, that article takes bits and pieces of her book out of context, slaps a provocative title on it (Why Chinese Mothers are Superior) and garners both fame, dollars and death threats for Amy Chua. The WSJ piece comes across as simultaneously an assault on the alleged moral laziness of "Western" parenting, and an unabashed glorification of sadistically hardass Asian parenting, the kind that presumably leads to straight-As in math, a place at a prestigious university, and possibly a stress-related burnout and therapy by age 24. But that's not really the entire story of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

Chua complained about being taken out of context, and she's right. And for anyone who actually wants to dig even a centimetre below the surface of this issue, it's not too hard to see why. Firstly, check the front cover, underneath the title. It reads:

This is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it's about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old.

So straight away, it's apparent that there's more to this than "Chinese mothers rule, Western mothers suck."

Secondly, anyone with basic levels of comprehension should be able to discern that there is a cheekily humorous streak that runs through the excerpts in the WSJ article, in passages like this:

Third, Chinese parents believe that they know what is best for their children and therefore override all of their children's own desires and preferences. That's why Chinese daughters can't have boyfriends in high school and why Chinese kids can't go to sleepaway camp. It's also why no Chinese kid would ever dare say to their mother, "I got a part in the school play! I'm Villager Number Six. I'll have to stay after school for rehearsal every day from 3:00 to 7:00, and I'll also need a ride on weekends." God help any Chinese kid who tried that one.

So my assumption from day one was that what to some came across as cruel arrogance in that article was at least partly Chua exaggerating for effect. Which is why I was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt, and defended her on a few other blogs where commenters tore into her for all kinds of things, either real or imagined. (Those things include being married to a white guy, and being born in the Philippines and thus being insufficiently Chinese.) I just figured that it's best not to rush to judge something you haven't actually read yet.

The book itself is very easy to read, while occasionally causing great discomfort at the extremes Chua describes going to in order to bend her rebellious younger daughter to her will. She seems to be often brutally honest about this, and in writing it was almost certainly aware of how horrible it sometimes makes her sound. Indeed, much of it is obviously self-parody. But most of all, understand that this is a warts-and-all story of a journey through parenting, in which Chua gradually comes to the realisation that Chinese parenting (or at least her idea of it) is far from perfect.

That's a key point. This book is not a parenting manual. It is a memoir, which details both ups and downs, and which ends up questioning many of the assumptions that are stated at the beginning of the book.

I certainly didn't finish the book thinking Chua was a great parent, or deciding that this kind of Chinese parenting model would be the right one for me. But it did make me think a lot about what kind of parent I'm going to be in the future, and what kind of discipline and encouragement I will apply to my offspring. Particular for me as a person whose social circle contains a large number of Asian high-achievers, but whose own more relaxed upbringing has led me down a path that is rather less orthodox, yet just as rewarding in different ways.

Any artist or writer needs to be mindful of how their work will be interpreted by the public. And it is true that Amy Chua's work has stirred up a heap of anxieties from Asian-Americans worried about the perpetuation of the model minority stereotypes, and from traumatised survivors of Tiger parenting. As well as a fair share of racists looking to vent their resentments towards Asians and their academic achievements. My main gripe with Chua is that she has made Chinese parenting synonymous with Amy Chua parenting. And while there are many Chinese (and other ethnicity) kids who identify with the hardassed-ness Chua describes, that quality may have manifested itself only in certain ways, to a less extreme extent. In a sense, it may also serve to devalue the intelligence of Chinese youngsters in the public perception, promulgating the view that rather than being smart or creative, they are merely super-efficient products of some kind of parenting sweatshop.

But by the same token, virtually any person whose writings appear in the public domain would agree that you can't control how others take you out of context. And it's not Amy Chua's fault that a lot of people only know how to interpret things in the worst way possible.

I enjoyed reading the book very much, but I'm not in any rush to be a Tiger Parent. And personally, I'm very glad that my own mother was and is nothing like Amy Chua. But those of you who are looking for a villain in this story would be better off pointing fingers at the Wall Street Journal, which presented Chua's story in the most controversial and sensationalist light possible.

Asian kids, Jewish education

Having just spent a couple of weeks doing teaching placement at a Jewish school, I by chance happened to meet the father of one of the students. Nothing unusual there, except that he was Asian - as far as I could tell, an immigrant from China - and as far as I could tell, not one of the Chosen People. His son was one of a couple of students of apparent Chinese background who I had noticed at this school.
I asked this parent, in as tactful a way as possible, about the Jewish connection. There was none, he happily said, but he figured that it was a good school and that was good enough for him. His son, as far as I could tell, is content and accepted as the rare Asian face amongst a student body that is overwhelmingly made up of Ashkenazi Jews. The school is fairly secular, but is nonetheless very proud of its Jewishness and connections to Israel; it's culturally rather than religiously Jewish.

In any case, it's still an unusual choice for a non-Jewish Chinese student. Yet my Hong Kong-born friend Helen did her high schooling at a Jewish school in Melbourne as well. She was the only Asian student there. Like the Chinese parent I met recently, Helen's parents presumably figured that the Jewish emphasis on high academic achievement bode well for their daughter.

I've spent time in a lot of schools, and come across Hindu and Sikh students in Christian schools, which I assume is due to those schools being the best in a particular district.

I guess it's not altogether surprising, really. Certain Asian cultures are obsessed with their children's academic achievements. So some Asian parents have reasoned that having their child immersed in someone else's religion or culture is a small price to pay for a top-class education. Indeed, they may even regard the exposure to a different religious tradition as beneficial to that education.

So there are some shared values between Jews and Asians in regard to the primacy of education. But do they value the same type of education?

Coincidentally, BigWOWO has a good post up about Jewish culture valuing the humanities as a core aspect of education in a way that Asians typically do not. I happen to agree. At the Jewish school I observed a explicit push in the curriculum to teach students to think critically and philosophically from a very early age. I think it's fantastic.

Asian parenting tends to have a different focus though. Amy Chua, who put Chinese-style parenting (or at least a version of it) in the headlines with her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, makes it quite clear in the opening pages what the priorities are in her children's education. Maths is big. Piano and/or violin are essential. Drama and sport, not so much. Other instruments, not so much. Indeed, I had to do a double take the first time I met a young woman of Chinese background who had not learned either piano or violin, but instead was learning to play the djembe. You don't see many Chinese parents clamoring for their kids to learn African drums. Chua ironically has a Jewish husband, and daughters who are raised to see themselves as Jewish, yet her approach to education is thoroughly Chinese.

As someone whose circle of friends is dominated by South and East Asians, it almost goes without saying that virtually everyone I hang with either has a university degree or is studying for it, and got grades in high school that put me to shame.

But particularly among East Asians, I notice plenty of business-brains and math-brains and IT-brains, but very few humanities-brains. Which is fine; it's not hard to see the greater perks of a degree in medicine or pharmacy as opposed to say, a Masters in philosophy. But I fear that Asian culture is so obsessed with churning out children who grow up to have only traditionally-valued careers, that we will lose something in the way of imagination and innovation. Or even just the ability to be interesting in conversation.

As is pointed out in BigWOWO's article, and returning to the theme with which I began this one, there is perhaps something Asians can learn from the Jewish approach to education. In the US, ethnic Indians, Japanese and Jews are amongst the very highest-performing groups in terms of wealth and education, yet notably Jews have achieved their success in a broader range of fields, from hard sciences to the entertainment industry. To my mind, that suggests that their community is maximising the diverse range of talents contained within it, rather than trying to turn everyone into a doctor.


See also:

Gina Yashere - The Pushy Nigerian Mum

Goodness Gracious Me - Typical Asian Parents

The world's most average name

Here's a thought experiment.

Meet Muhammad Chen. He is the world's most average person.

Well, sort of. According to this post over at Abagond's blog, the world's most average person is a 28 year-old male who lives in Shenzhen in China and is a Roman Catholic. His name is a combination of the world's most common surname (Chen) and the world's most common given name (Muhammad).

So why don't you ever meet anyone named Muhammad Chen?

You don't have to be a genius to figure out that despite those being the most common given and surnames in the world, the combination of them is not common at all. Why? Because Muhammad is a name associated with the Muslim world, Chen is a name associated with Han Chinese, and those are two worlds that don't have a great deal of overlap. So the world's most average name is actually a very uncommon one.

Actually I know for a fact that there are a few Muhammad Chens out there somewhere, but my guess is that almost none of them actually live in China. Here’s why:

Muslims do exist in China - there are estimated to be around 20 million of them and perhaps many more according to some estimates. The main Muslim groups in China are the Hui (Chinese Muslims), and various Central Asian people (including Uighurs, Kazakhs, Salar and Dongxiang) from Western China.
Many of the Central Asians tend to have Muslim/Turkic names (including Muhammad, I assume), but because they are not Han Chinese, it is unlikely that they would have a surname like Chen. (An example is the Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer.) By contrast some of these groups, such as the Salar and Dongxiang, have Mongol or Chinese names.

The Hui, who make up around half of all Muslims in China, often claim ancestry dating back to the Arab and Persian traders who arrived in China during Mongol rule. But even though they are officially considered an ethnic minority, the Hui are effectively Han Chinese in virtually all aspects save religion. They look like Han Chinese, speak Chinese, and have Chinese names. The Arabic names of their ancestors have become Chinese over time – so Muhammad might become Ma, or Mu.

So even among the 20-million-plus Muslims in China, you would be hard-pressed to find a Muhammad Chen. The Chinese and Arabic naming traditions are not so conducive to merger; although if there exists a Hong Kong pop singer named Khalil Fong, then anything is possible.

So where to find a Muhammad Chen?

Out of curiosity I ran a Facebook search on Muhammad Chen, and all the results I could find with an identifiable nationality were from Indonesia. This makes sense. Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, has around 10 million ethnic Chinese. Of those, only a minority are Muslim, and while some of them have fully adopted Arabic or Indonesian names, some may have adopted a Muslim name yet kept their surname. Alternatively, the Muhammad Chens could be the product of a mixed Chinese and pribumi (native Indonesian) marriage. Similar result for spelling variations of Muhammad (Mohammad, Muhamad, etc), and I even tried Muhammad Chan for the hell of it. Most seemed to be Indonesian.

So there you have it. I dunno if that interested you, but it did me. Maybe I need to find better hobbies.

1960s Racist Jell-O commercial

Seen this on the tubes? I dunno whether to slap my forehead at the ridiculous racism of this 1960s ad, or just see it as a quaint reminder of how times have changed.

I can't choose between black lasbelly or glape, personally.

Oh, and Chinese have their own spoons, thankyou very much, Mr Great Western Inventor.

Thoughts, anyone?

Li Na

Chinese tennis player Li Na made history this week as the first player from an Asian country to make it to a Grand Slam final. (And no, Michael Chang doesn't count, he's American.) The 28-year-old from Wuhan dominated the early stages of the game against Kim Clijsters, but her opponent's big-match experience was too much in the end as the Belgian took out the championship in 3 sets.

Li won plenty of local fans, not just for her powerful game and fighting qualities (she returned from match-point down to beat world number 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-final) but her quirky sense of humour, on display in post-match interviews. Asked by a reporter why she seemed more expressive and outgoing than the other Chinese players on the tour, Li replied, "My English is better." Fair enough.

Rush Limbaugh mocks Chinese language

I'm sure those of you who are familiar with Rush Limbaugh's work will not need any more reasons to dislike him. But here you go anyway - an excerpt from his immensely popular radio show in which he makes fun of Chinese leader Hu Jintao... ok, no wait, he actually doesn't mock Hu Jintao at all. He mocks the Chinese language, and later (second clip) the Japanese one, claiming that he can't tell them apart. Of course, anyone who has ever listened to the two languages for more than one second would have no difficulty in telling them apart. But I guess since Asians look the same, their languages must be the same as well, right?



F***ing c***rag.

"The wrong Wong"

A Current Affair featured this story this week of a Chinese-Australian man who was exposed as a fugitive welfare cheat on Channel 7... except that 7, and the Department of Social Security, had confused him with another Andrew Wong. With a different middle name. I dunno how many Andrew Wongs there are in Australia, but I imagine there are heaps.



Now I'm glad ACA ran this story to allow Wong to clear his name, but really, did they really need all those Chinese sound effects? Kung Fu Fighting playing in the background? Check the 2 minute 57 second mark for some signature Chinese percussion, as the reporter walks through Chinatown, for reasons that have nothing to do with the story. There are approaching a million people of Chinese background in Australia now; is Chinese-ness really still that exotic?

(Hat tip: Yuey)

The ugly politics of race in Malaysia

Malaysia has just this week celebrated its formation with Hari Merdeka (Independence Day), with its "1 Malaysia, Generating Transformation" theme, which is meant to emphasise national unity. Which is great in concept, of course, but the last few weeks have done much to expose this as mere wishful thinking. "1 Malaysia" is also the name of a campaign instigated by Prime Minister Najib Razak to promote ethnic harmony and unity; but it would be easier to take seriously if members of Najib's ruling coalition (Barisan Nasional) did not have a continual need to make racist statements about the ethnic Chinese and Indians.

Recently there have been comments like this one from Nasir Safar, a special officer to the PM, that "Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese especially the women came to sell their bodies", and "Indians in Malaysia have crossed the line ... Don't force the government. We can anytime revoke the citizenship of the Indians in Malaysia."

Or from Ibrahim Ali (pictured right), an Independent MP in the ruling coalition and head of controversial Malay-rights organisation Perkasa, who recently stated “It is necessary for the government to delay any allocation and approval of projects for the Chinese community,” because the Chinese in Selangor had mostly voted for the opposition.

Perkasa's economic director, Dr Zubir Harun, warned that the Chinese community will use the next general election to take over the country. While Perkasa's Petaling chairperson, Zainal Abidin Ahmad, lodged a complaint with police against a Protestant church in the Muslim-majority suburb of Shah Alam for planning to stage a Christian play during Ramadan, and accused them of attempting to preach Christianity to Muslims. “We want the church and pastor to be investigated for sedition and for insulting the Sultan," he said.

Perkasa is not part of the government per se (indeed, they have accused Najib of favouring non-Malays too much), but they are part of a spectrum of Malay interest groups, including the major party UMNO, pushing a particular racial barrow right now. Another is Utusan Malaysia, the leading Malay-language newspaper, which has been accused of stirring up ethnic tensions.

So why is this rhetoric against non-Malays at such a high level right now?

It is important to realise that race, religion and political affiliation are difficult to untangle from each other in Malaysia. If you are Malay, you are Muslim; there is no other option available. Thus anything deemed anti-Muslim is also anti-Malay, and vice-versa. Malays are primarily represented by UMNO (United Malay National Congress), the party of PM Najib.

So much of socio-political discourse in Malaysia revolves around one key issue; Ketuanan Melayu, or Malay supremacy, the idea that Malaysia primarily belongs to the Malay majority. Malays are granted special rights (educational scholarships, employment in the civil service, housing assistance) not available to the Chinese and Indian minorities, who have generally been living in Malaysia for several generations. These minorities are expected to be grateful for the kindness of the Malay people for allowing them to live on Malay land. Unsurprisingly, most non-Malays would happily do away with these affirmative action policies, which they claim are discriminatory, do not address actual poverty, and lead to inefficiency by promoting race over ability.

In the last few years, UMNO, the major party in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, has faced an unprecedented challenge from Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Rakyat coalition, which promises a move away from ethnic-based economic policies. Pakatan Rakyat's appeal is broad, due to its unlikely coalition partners; the conservative Islamic party PAS, the predominantly Chinese centre-left party DAP, and the centrist PKR. With the government's attempts to discredit Anwar Ibrahim (through corruption and sodomy charges) proving unsuccessful in terms of votes, they seem to have decided that divisive racial politics are the only thing that will save them.

Because non-Malay voters have deserted BN in droves, BN seems to have decided it doesn't really need them. Instead, they are putting their eggs in the basket of Malay supremacy; trying to shore up the Malay vote by stirring up prejudice against non-Malays on one hand, and championing the special rights of Malays on the other. No doubt it hopes that this extreme Malay nationalist sentiment will lead to the "post-racial" Pakatan Rakyat being seen as a threat to Malay interests.

It is against this backdrop that Malaysian discourse about race and racism needs to be understood.

The authorities do take a firm stand on racism - enacting the draconian ISA (Internal Security Act) to detain without charge anyone seen as inciting racial tension - except for one problem. Inflammatory statements by Malays (or at least Malays who support the notion of ketuanan Melayu) are routinely overlooked, while innocuous incidents by anyone on the other side are seized upon as inflammatory and dealt with harshly. Equally, the authorities are fond of taking a "shoot the messenger" approach; ignoring inflammatory statements made by Malay leaders, but regarding those who report or comment on them as being seditious (such as the cases of blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and reporter Tan Hoon Cheng).

A few recent examples:

In Kedah, a school principal was accused of racist treatment of Chinese students. The school canteen had closed for the fasting month, and the minority of Chinese students had to find their own food. But after seeing some of them eating breakfast in a common area, the principal accused them at school assembly of being disrespectful to the Malays who were fasting, and that they should go back to China. Another teacher allegedly subsequently told them to take an AirAsia flight "because the fares are cheap now".

This came not a week after Siti Inshah Mansor, the Malay principal of a middle school in Johor, allegedly said in a speech at her school's Merdeka celebrations: "Chinese students are not needed here and can return to China or Foon Yew schools. For the Indian students, the prayer string tied around their neck and wrist makes them look like dogs because only dogs are tied like that." She also reminded the non-Malay students of their place in the country, by giving the example of owning a car and then letting 'Munusamy' and 'Chong' in as passengers.
"Munusamy and Chong are only passengers," she is alleged to have said, "They cannot claim any right to the car. This is the same as Malaysia in which the non-Malay students are passengers."

Various groups have come out calling for the sacking of Siti Inshah. Interestingly, a Facebook page has sprung up, with several thousand members, supporting the principal, who it labels as a victim of politics. Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa predictably came out in support of her as well.

Controversial Chinese-Malaysian rap artist Namewee released a song on Youtube (since removed) entitled Nah, which attacked Inshah's remarks with some vulgarity and alluded to non-Malays being responsible for Malaysia's wealth. Namewee has since had his home raided and faces possible sedition charges. Siti Inshah has apparently faced no criminal charges.

Recently another furore erupted when opposition MP Teo Nie Ching (pictured left) visited a surau (prayer room) on official business, and was invited in. However because she was not wearing proper headcovering, some Muslim leaders were in uproar, seeing this as disrespectful of her religion. Teo has since apologised, although Islamic Party PAS backed her and encouraged her to visit more mosques. UMNO Vice-President Hishamuddin Hussein slammed PAS for encouraging a "dirty" person such as (Chinese and non-Muslim) Teo to enter a mosque. Hishamuddin has form for this kind of thing, having previously supported the Malays who dragged a cow's head through the streets of Shah Alam in protest at the construction of a Hindu temple (which was seen as disrespectful to Malays since it was a primarily Malay area).



Add to this some other recent rulings by BN that non-Muslims are forbidden from using certain words that are deemed the sole property of Muslims ("Allah" being the most obvious example), and accusations that Muslim sensitivities are not being respected, and you have to wonder. While it is true that the Malays as a whole still lag behind the ethnic Chinese in terms of wealth, their grip on social and political power seems unassailable. So why then do so many Malays feel that they are constantly being somehow downtrodden, victimized and their sensitivities disrespected?

Simple: because their leaders are always telling them that they are. And because it leads to a good political outcome for UMNO. Whether this sort of dirty racial politics leads to a good outcome for Malaysia as a whole is a different question entirely.

You're damned if you do...

Can immigrants ever truly be accepted by all the people of their new country?

Obviously, if a particular group is seen to cause trouble, this might be a barrier to acceptance. So logically, an ethnic group of high achievers who cause little trouble would be accepted easily, right?

Well, you'd think so. But it doesn't necessarily work out that way.


When people from an immigrant group are seen to commit crimes or do something to bring negative attention to themselves, you can hear the usual chorus of criticism.

"They aren't assimilating."
"They don't add any value to this country."
"They are uncivilised and incompatible with our national values."
"They will form ghettos."

Ok, fine. So what about when a migrant group makes a success of itself?

Take for example, the Chinese and Indian communities of Australia. There are almost 700,000 Australians who claim Chinese ancestry, and around 250,000 with Indian ancestry. Now obviously each community is diverse and contains all kinds of people from all walks of life, but both communities would have to be regarded as highly successful immigrant groups, by most measures.

While many Australians would view the stereotypical Indian job as a taxi driver or service station attendant, Indians are strongly over-represented in high-status fields such as medicine. They are much more likely than the rest of the population to have a degree, and to be working in a profession. Likewise, the success of Chinese-Australians in education is well-recognised. Check out last year's top year 12 scores in Victorian schools for specialist mathematics or chemistry, to take two obvious examples, and you'll notice the domination of Chinese surnames.

In both cultures, the strong emphasis on educational achievement, hard work, and the status gained by attaining a "good job", lead to success in many fields; witness the disproportionate success of ethnic Chinese in South East Asia compared to the indigenous populations. In Australia, both communities have a relatively low crime rate as well, when compared to that of the population at large.

This is not to say that the Chinese or Indian way is better than any other way - educational and economic successes are hardly the only measure of anyone's worth to their country. But by many of the criteria that is regularly used to attack some migrant groups (such as those from Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific), Chinese and Indians are therefore the ideal citizens.
So you might deduce then, that the same people who might criticise some communities for struggling to achieve, would heartily welcome migrants like the Indians and Chinese, who are prime examples of what is possible for those willing to go for it.

But no.

For "successful" migrants, the negativity is still there; except this time the complaints are different. This time, they are taking jobs and opportunities away from "real" Australians.

I've often heard the muttered accusation that Asian-Australian school students "cheat" by having tutoring outside school hours, or by eschewing sports or partying in order to study hard. Of course, this approach is not restricted to Asian students; any student wishing to get top marks needs to do this to some extent. It just so happens that Asian students make up a disproportionate amount of those top students. In any case, if this leads them to get the best marks and get accepted into the best courses and jobs, then so be it. Regardless of race, if I'm being treated by a doctor, or having my share portfolio managed by someone, I want it to be a person who is proven to be diligent and hardworking, rather than the one who was a good footy player in high school or who was the life of the party at age 16.

Check this post at the Herald-Sun for an example of how Asian students are viewed as a threat. It concerns one of Melbourne's best-performing schools, with a predominantly Asian student population (many of whose families have moved into the area in order to send their child to a good school). Many of the commenters see this as a threat. One describes it as a kind of genocide of white Aussies, under the guise of multiculturalism. Another wonders, "Where are all the Australian-looking kids?"

I wrote recently about a new selective high school in Mebourne, which accepts only students who pass an entrance exam. It is dominated by Chinese, Indian and Sri Lankan students - which indicates that their families are clearly putting a high priority on education. But over at the Oz Conservative blog, you can witness the paranoia that this signifies a grave threat to WASPS. Some suggest it means Asians need to be kicked out of the country.

So there you go, immigrants and children of immigrants; you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. You are either sponging off "our" country or stealing "our" jobs. If you don't sufficiently assimilate and perform by some arbitrary measure, you are a threat, a bludger, a dead weight. If you succeed, you are also a threat.

I'm not writing this some kind of love letter to Australia's Indian and Chinese communities. And neither am I an "open borders" kind of guy who thinks we should automatically let everyone in who wishes to come here. I'm just trying to point out that whatever basis people claim for not wanting "foreigners" in the country, it very often comes down to one simple reason: they don't like foreigners.