Being Chinese in Singapore

Michael Wee wrote ("English isn't the Enemy" Today, Nov 6) that English-speaking Singaporeans (particularly Anglophone Chinese) are labelled as "acting ang mo", and that it is "almost a crime" for a Chinese not to claim Mandarin as the first language or mother-tongue.

Wong Hoong Hooi replied ("A culture of Superiority" Today, Nov 8) that English-Speaking Chinese Singaporeans (ESCS) prefer being ang mo based on this observation: "There are very few Chinese Singaporeans who speak, act and think like the Chinese in China, while there are many ESCS who speak, act and think like they are ang mohs from the US, UK, of 'Oz'."

I think it is great that the Chinese Speaking, Chinese Singaporeans don't act like the Chinese in China. They don't spit (as much), talk as loud, take off their shirts in public (at least not on Orchard Road), take off their shoes and sleep in the aisles of planes, jump queues, etc.

In fact, the Chinese Speaking Chinese Singaporeans act a little more like "ang mohs". But the ESCS are more so?

The point is that there is high culture and there is low culture. The low culture of the Chinese includes all those "ugly Chinese" traits that the typical (or is that stereotyping?) Chinese engage in, and which the Chinese government is trying to eradicate.

But Wong was probably thinking of high culture... but how to define this high culture?

At a sufficiently high level, most if not all higher principles transcends culture. Appreciation of beauty and aesthetics? Pursuit of Wisdom? Altruistic values? Magnamity? All these are in all cultures. What is different is perhaps the expressions of such values or principles.

Thus the cultured Chinese may find the water colour paintings of mountain, and rivers aesthetically pleasing. And the western oriented gentleman may find Rubenesque portraits as pleasing. Is one better than the other?

The cheap trick of demogogic bigots is to compare the high culture of one (Tang dynasty poetry) with the low culture of another (B movies from Hollywood?) and proclaim superiority.

That is unfair. Just as unfair as using the "ugly Chinese" as sole representation of Chinese culture.

The simple matter is that Michael Wee is right. A Sino-phile will never consider it the duty of a Malay to learn Chinese language and culture. But this expectation is a given if one is Chinese. Why?

Because one is Chinese? That's circular logic, and it doesn't answer the question.

If one MUST learn Chinese language and culture simple because one is Chinese, then does it not also follow that one must practice ancestor worship, which is fundamental to Chinese values, if not confucionism? Must not one also be a Taoist, or more precisely the unique blend of Taoism and Buddhism that is so quintessentially Chinese?

How are these values separate from Chinese culture?

If you find a Chinese Singaporean with blond hair, is he more likely to be a) primarily English speaking, or b) Chinese/Dialect speaking?

So who's trying to be ang mo?