I REGRET USING THE WORD CHINESE I am Chinese, I am proud and pleased to be Chinese, but I regret the use of the word Chinese in terms such as Straits Chinese and Peranakan Chinese. The reason is, the term Chinese is too general, and does not begin to describe our diversity. Instead of Straits Chinese, I prefer the term to be further broken down to Straits Hokkien, Straits Hakka and so on. There is so much diversity in being Chinese that can be appreciated, but the use of this blanket term has blurred it all and at times, created distortions. Imagine for a moment if the words Portuguese, Dutch, English and British are all replaced with European. How will our history sound like? In 1641, the European was in decline. They were eventually defeated by the European after a long siege, which ended European rule and began European rule. Thats madness. Unfortunately we are living this madness when we accept the use of the word Chinese to describe us. By right, instead of saying, In the 16th century, Chinese seafarers arrived in Malacca, we should say, In the 16th century, Hokkien seafarers arrived in Malacca. In so doing, we begin to appreciate where exactly our ancestors come from. Otherwise, they could possibly have come from Hainan, or Shanghai or Xian. Yet they left clues for us that positively pinpoint their source. If its possible, we should be even more precise, saying Zhangzhou Hokkien seafarers arrived in X, Quanzhou Hokkien seafarers arrived in Y. Recently, I was listening to a professor who was describing the Peranakan house. He was using terms from Mandarin, showing the homophone relationship of a word to another, in Mandarin. However, when the Peranakan houses were built, the use of Mandarin isnt widespread. So, the use of Mandarin homophones, in my opinion, is out of context. Its like looking are two words that sound the same in English in the Bible, when the Bible was not originally written in English. I realised then that the culprit is the word Chinese, which has been applied so liberally that it blurs the diversity between Mandarin and Hokkien, and other Chinese languages. For that reason, as much as possible, whenever it helps to improve understanding of our heritage and culture, I will be more precise, using words like Hokkien, Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka, etc. instead, of simply saying Chinese. I will use Chinese only when it is intended to mean all Chinese in general.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 01:50:19 +0000
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