Tuesday, August 31, 2021

21ST CENTURY PHYSIOGNOMY

Physiognomy or anthroposcopy is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from his or her outer appearance – especially the face. The practice was well accepted by the ancient Greek philosophers. It is a pseudoscience to many, an opinion which I largely share. But when it comes to American politicians, I think this pseudoscience does hold water.

 

During the run-up to last year’s presidential election in the US, many of us were banking our hope on Joe Biden. He did seem “lost” many a time during public appearances and engagements, but Donald Trump was so obnoxious to us then. When Biden was finally declared the winner, I am sure most of us breathed a sigh of relief!

 

I for one was for him, thinking he should have the courage and wisdom to correct the wrongs of Trump. The first couple of weeks of his presidency was reassuring. Alas, my respect for him soon took a sharp turn south.

 

Then I remember Barrack Obama’s 2020 book A PROMISED LAND. Biden was hardly credited for any decision Obama made during his presidency. If at all, Obama appeared dismissive of his vice presidency’s counsel on most issues.


Left: Obama’s A PROMISED LAND


And I dug deeper. This is what I unearthed: A Politico report said well before the nomination of the Democratic Party’s candidates for the 2020 presidential election “Barrack Obama has privately voiced doubts about the ability of Joe Biden … to beat President Donald Trump … Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f… things up… said to be concerned privately that Biden does not have an intimate connection with the electorate.”

Even with the benefit of the hindsight, we wouldn’t have done otherwise, would we? It was a Hobson’s choice to armchair observers like me.


Left: Shit, what have I done? Right: “Oh, God, forgive me!”


The left picture of Biden was taken when Taliban entered the Kabul’s presidential palace without firing a single shot. Afghanistan was conquered by Taliban in a matter of weeks. The picture on the right was taken immediately after 13 American soldiers, together with many desperate Afghans, were killed by suicide bombers during an attack at the Kabul airport. What do these pictures tell us?

For the picture on the left, I can only surmise Biden’s thought as: Shit, what have I done; and for the right picture, “Oh, God, forgive me!”

I am not here to argue whether his decision to quit Afghanistan was sound. But most would agree that his execution was outright stupid! Obviously, it must have been conducted without the advice of any military, logistics or even administrative professionals. Judging from Antony Blinken’s clueless performances so far and his relationship with Biden, he must also be the cheerleader behind Biden’s “go” decision. Clueless is as Clueless does. Period.

I was watching Blinken’s live address on CNN this morning (7am, 31st August 2021 Malaysian time). This man obviously was trying to salvage his reputation. From the very outset, he was crowing about America’s feat in being able to evacuate some 6,000 Americans and 120,000 others from the Kabul airport before the deadline. He talked about America’s commitment to help those Afghans who want to build new life outside their very own country. This chap is a real nut. Some 100-200 Americans are still in Afghanistan, yet he threatens sanctions. If America has the wellbeing of Afghans at heart, they should encourage Afghans to stay behind to help rebuild the country. That’s where American help will be greatly welcomed. The billions of dollars of military helicopters and vehicles and weaponry left behind may also potentially end up elsewhere. If I were China and they are offered to me, my answer is Why Not? Stupid is What Stupid does again! 

The clueless cheerleader…

What have all this got to do with physiognomy or anthroposcopy? I believe a person’s mental and moral characteristics, if persist, will in no time transform his or her facial features physically to reflect those characteristics. We tend to stereotype when we come across these features – evil or sadistic looking, dishonest, treacherous, advantage-taking, etc, amongst them. Of course, we can also be fooled by such prejudices.

Biden strikes me as “sor-cai”, a Cantonese term which I often used in junior school to poke fun at some of my mates who could not solve simple problems. It means “stupid fellow”. Or one who doesn’t use his or her brain. He could have used his presidency to leave a legacy, after all, who could go down as the most useless president in American history. Now it looks as though he and Trump might be fighting for the same title.

Blinken’s face reflects cluelessness, charlatanism, timidity guised as intellectuality and all the pretensions you can think of. Feel free to disagree!

Coming back to Trump’s physiognomy or anthroposcopy, those of us who have done some graduate studies in business or management would have already known Trump was largely a conman even as far back as the 1980s. I remember there were plenty of stories on him in Fortune or Forbes those days about his unscrupulousness and failures in business dealings. So, when his niece Mary Trump published her volume in 2020 TOO MUCH, NEVER ENOUGH, I said to my wife, “Didn’t I tell you all along that this man is a conman?”

His unscrupulousness is written all over his face and carried in his gestures. Below is a picture of the conman receiving the president of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić. How would you feel if you were Vučić? This conman has absolutely no concept of decency, let alone the understanding of international diplomatic protocol.



Now let me touch on some of the lesser mortals. First, Kamala Harris.

Her face mask hides her total lack of knowledge in anything outside California. I read from Wikipedia that before she assumed vice presidency she had only been to Jamaica and India for family visits and not much beyond these two places. Given her career background, I suppose before her embarked on her recent Singapore and Vietnam trip, she also did not know much about Southeast and East Asia. The way she blasted China in Singapore and Hanoi underscored the fact that the lines were written by someone else. (And it is simply bad manners or poor upbringing to scold you host’s neighbour when you do not know the true feelings of your host.) It is an open secret that her office is a dysfunctional one. But her physiognomy has still not fully developed yet. Give her a couple of years, her shallowness will be written all over her face if she keeps believing in her own misplaced logic.








An Irony: Enemies from Own Kind
I always argue that the greatest enemies of China are some Chinese – foreign-born or migrant – all over the world. I would just name three below.

The most notorious of whom is none other than China-born Miles Yu Maochun, who was advising Mike Pompeo on how to humiliate China. 

The other is Vicky Xu Xiuzhong who is now an “analyst” with ASPI Australia. Her expertise is listed as in “China’s overseas influence campaigns, Chinese nationalism, Xinjiang and Uyghur issues, and Chinese diaspora communities”, amongst others. With her tall tales on China’s genocide and forced labour in Xinjiang, she became an instant darling of the West’s pseudo-scholars and politicians. Privately, it is said she leads a very decadent life in Australia.  

Vicky Xu Xiuzhong


A new star is emerging at CNN. She is Nectar Gan. Before joining CNN in 2020, Nectar was a China reporter at the South China Morning Post. She has covered a wide range of topics from diplomacy to the environment, and written extensively on politics and religion, according to CNN’s website. She is said to be based in Hong Kong since 2010. 

                                                               Nectar Gan

I was trying to google to find out where she hails from. I had no luck; there was close to zero information on her background. Nonetheless, I saw a PhD candidate at the London School Economics listed her work in his bibliography. She must be quite smart to be cited at that level. However, from her surname Gan, I have a hunch that she must have hailed either from Malaysia or Singapore. Or she might be an ABC (American or Australian Born Chinese).

The following are two recent articles which have listed Nectar Gan as the first author. I leave it to readers to judge her sanity or her going all out to gain brownie points with her new bosses at CNN.

What Do All these Qin Hui [] have in common in physiognomy?

Qin Hui is generally regarded as the greatest traitor in Chinese history. In a museum in Zhejiang, one can go and “spit” at him and his wife, although he died about a thousand years ago. Qin was a chancellor of the Song dynasty and was the man behind the persecution and execution of Yue Fei, a general who fought against the Jin army.

                                                          Kneeling Statues of Qin Hui and wife

Miles Yu, Vicky Xu, and Nectar Gan are modern-day Qin Hui!

And what do they have in common in facial features? My answer: Shades of greed, and ever readiness to ingratiate to the modern-day Jins, aka Western Masters.

Of course, I am just joking about the discernability of these features in their faces. Theirs are just as normal as yours or mine. But their actions are certainly those of Qin Hui and they truly deserve our contempt.

There are many modern-day Qin Hui out there. Watch out for them!

I love America. They have great universities and thought leaders. Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs is one of my favourites. But I have very low opinion of their politicians.

End  


Acknowledgement

As usual, my good friend Lilian Low and Chew Hai Hong helped me to make this into a readable article. Thank you Lilian and Hai Hong!








Thursday, August 26, 2021

Neo-Sun-tze’s Crystal Ball

Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan was speaking to CNA during the US Vice President’s visit to Singapore on 23rd August.

He cautions Chinese not too be too carried away with the belief that the US’s decline is inevitable, and China would soon be the No 1 power of the world. He says because of its ability to attract migrants, the US has had a much bigger talent base than China’s.

That might be the case in the past, but does it hold true in the future?

I reckon as much as 20% of the US talent pool comprises Chinese from China and Chinese from many other parts of the world, particularly Southeast Asia. In the wake of the perceived hostility towards China and Chinese, I suspect this flow will run its course soon. Russia may also account for 5% of this talent pool. I doubt this flow will sustain either. And when support for the great universities and think tanks in the US becomes thinner, will their rejuvenation of great minds be as prolific as now?

And I do not mean to be racist – with the constant influx of economic refugees, the average IQ will certainly be impacted, at least during their first generation’s struggle to find their livelihood bearings. I also argue that there is a kind of Wisdom DNA that is unique to East Asian culture. If there is such a thing as Wisdom Quotient (WQ) score, then America’s in this score will likely also trend down. The latter represents cultural progress and is something that is not easy to reverse. It is a generational effort which, in a society like America’s (huge diversity in race and race, great disparity in income, etc), is close to impossible.

My son is a professor in Neurology; he publishes quite widely, often in world-class journals. Before the pandemic, he travelled several times a year to speak in international and regional conferences. Unfortunately, he does not write or speak Chinese, save for some Hokkien (South Fujianese dialect). I recently sent him some of the articles I have blogged. It carried a subtle message that maybe it is time for him to know China and our Chineseness. This is what he responded to me:

In our professional circles, there is often unease about our colleagues from Mainland China. They publish tons of papers, often of very poor quality. They tell you that they have 100K neurologists, but struggle to get in <2K participants to a major international neuro conference (after roping in scores of their students). There is often a lack of sincerity, which I can give you examples of in private. (BTW, I do not think this has much to do with my inability to communicate in Mandarin).”


I can fully understand his contempt for his counterparts from China. My son’s scholarship is strictly Western’s, that is, at the highest level of research, ideas must be original, and plagiarism is strictly NO-NO.

Until it was exposed to the West, China had no real concept of Master’s or PhDs. If one was admitted to the Hanlin Academy after he had scored well in the imperial examinations, he would continue to do lifelong “research” and rise in hierarchical grades and enjoy lifelong emoluments and trappings of office. Much of this research was to correct bad learnings and build new knowledge and attitudes. There is therefore a very fundamental philosophical difference between Western research and Chinese scholarship.

Imperial scholarship was still practised during the Qing era. However, when the Chinese republic was born in 1912, there was already a sizeable pool of students returning from Japan, Europe and America who were equipped with modern concepts of higher education. Unfortunately, between the 1912 and 1990, when Deng’s reform started to take roots, scholarship in China was in a very fluid state. The last thirty years marked a period of extreme anxiousness to catch up. Those who understood the importance of “degrees” began to clamour for higher recognition. Hence all the plagiarism in China.

Fundamental research is still not widespread in China. Instead, the mindset is largely a “build-on” one – you have an idea, good, I will use it to bring out a product or service from it. Many do not believe in “wasting” time on fundamental research efforts.

But I believe the Chinese government is already aware of this Chinese innateness. From the Intellectual Property Protection laws to anti-trust measures, you can see its determination to bring China to a different plane.

Changing cultural traits is usually a generational effort. Fortunately, the present line-up of Chinese leadership has the benefit of civilizational wisdom to take early cognizance of this need. This will make the change process shorter. This inculcation is already reflected in the corporate culture of Huawei. And the wrong trend that is being exhibited by the likes of Jack Ma has been nipped in the bud before it becomes a source of cancer. One thing good about Chineseness, Jack Ma and his likes have now “understood” the overall mission of the Chinese leaders and are happy to rein in their “law-unto-themselves” ambitions to help China progress.


Hua Chunying is the modern-day Hua Mulan of China. Her greatness is not in battles but in the press room of the ministry. Her remark about democracy is so commonsensical, yet few of the politicians in the West understand or want to understand. She says, “Yes, Coca-Cola tastes the same everywhere, But democracy is not Coca-Cola; it has to be specific for each country.” This is what I call a perfect score in WQ.

Can’t the West learn some WQ stuff from the East?

Saturday, August 21, 2021

Wisdom Versus Might: Time to Try out the Dragon

The channels and papers are full of news about the fall of Kabul these days. I don’t propose to bore readers with more. I just want to draw out the ironies that are rolling out of Afghnistan in the wake of Biden’s deicison to withraw the American forces – after 20 years, 4 presidents, US$2.3 trillion, and 2,300 American lives, not to mention the tens of thousands of Afghan lives.

Aiyoh, what have I done?
First, look at the following picture. It was President Joe Biden meeting the press soon after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Look, how lost he is!




      Aiyoh!


This man represents the most powerful country in the world. Yet he can look so helpless! Shameful indeed. Where can Americans hide their faces, with all their “might” threats to the world? This is a man who is 78 years old and has spent his entire career in politics. But his wisdom is close to zero. No wonder! I have always said this, a defensive man will never learn. This is exactly happening to him. In the aftermath, he blames everyone except himself. This man never had to take accountability all his life. When it is time to do that, he doesn’t.

And where are the NATO commanders? And do the leaders of the Five Eyes/QUAD feel? And Tsai Ing-wen still wants to count on this man! Very sad indeed.

A piece of Cake!
 Spare us the Long March

You don’t need a military genius to tell you what would happen to Afghanistan once American forces capitulate under the circumstance and manner Biden had ordered. His genius (or should I say commonsense) in this case is incredible to fathom.

He reminds me of Ming general Wu Sangui [吳三桂] who opened the Shanhai Gate (山海关) to the Manchus 1644.

Within weeks, the Taliban literally swept the whole country and entered Kabul with a ragtag army. Now they have an air force and ultra-modern military gears.


 Left: Desperation at Kabul Airport; Right: What can I do?   Below: Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s Wu Sangui?

 
     One for the album… Thank you, America! Certainly more comfortable than the caves!

Crisis [, Wéijī] – Risk and Opportunity!
Afghanistan is a patchwork tribal country, let alone a nation – Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazara Shiites, and Pashtuns. Despite this, America’s latest humiliation reinforces this fact: No power can hope to subdue it.

It is a land-locked country. To the north, it has several Central Asian ex-Soviet Union satellite countries as neighbours. To the east and southeast, it is Pakistan and to the west, Iran. China is a neighbour too; they are separated by a 91-km border. Nonetheless, it is a country that is said to be rich in minerals, many of which are of strategic importance. But being land-locked, it is as good as without.

Afghanistan has been a hotbed of support for Uighur’s East Turkestan Independence Movement. The movement has largely been neutralized by China’s development efforts in Xinjiang. However, as we all know America and its allies remain steadfast in destabilizing the situation with the usual rubbish – genocide and forced labour allegations. This makes China’s relationship with these Muslim neighbours a very delicate affair.  

 




The geopolitics...

 

Time to Count on the Dragon
When the US’s Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was anxiously fidgeting in her plane for news if she could meet China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the Taliban representatives were already on the way to Tianjin.  They were accorded due diplomatic status for their 18th July meet. The setting of the venue that Wang Yi received Sherman was probably meant for the Taliban VIP; I suspect Sherman was just a “by-the-way” guest.

 

Left: 26th July: "Thank you thank you for seeing me on such a short notice. If I don't get to see you, my boss would not allow me to go home!"
Right: 28th July: The intended guest visits! 
Notice the way Wang Yi sits. He fully understands Islamic etiquette. Not crossed-legs!

The Taliban began their assault on 1
st May and by 15th August, they literally drove into Kabul to occupy the presidential palace. As late as early August, Joe Biden and his key advisors and generals still thought the Afghan 300,000-strong army would be able to put up a good fight. They vaporized! How competent their intelligence people are!

Many cynical of China is now coming with a new line: Afghanistan is going to be China’s new graveyard.

How shallow these people can be!

I just watched a video clip on Hua Chunyin’s reaction to a question about an accusation about the lack of democracy in China. I thoroughly enjoyed her rebuttal: Coco-Cola tastes the same everywhere, but Democracy is not Coca-Cola! The formula must be country specific. Readers interested in the full reply can access to enjoy Hua’s wittiness via this link: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcReeNh2rdE9os8fXRCt01I27i1v-CsxOLut-Q&usqp=CAU

China knows the destructive nature of warlordism; it has experienced it many times over its entire history. Suppression and sanctions will surely fail. America’s first instinct is to sanction the country, if it fails to kowtow to its wishes, just like what they have done to Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran and even Russia at one time. People suffer and they would hate America more. The US forgets that they still have tens of thousands of Americans, and many thousands of other friends in Afghanistan, not to mention that many many thousands of Afghans who have been working for them. They are potential hostages if America tries to be difficult.

Tribal parochialism is best managed with firm and benevolent economic reforms. Respect their religion and culture but more importantly give them the opportunity to earn a decent living and they will lay down their arms. This is what China has been doing for all its minorities.

The vacuum left by America gives China an incredible opportunity to showcase this possibility or even wisdom. China is friendly with all the countries surrounding Afghanistan. Now is the time to help to bring the tribal forces together and work with them to introduce the Road & Belt linkages in Afghanistan. In no time every country in the region will have access to the Indian Ocean and the Chinese market. A right co-prosperity zone is then born!

And to the cynics, keep your spanner! Or learn to throw it at the leaders of America!


End

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Chinese Diasporas: In the wake of the Dragon’s Beckon

First, allow me to do some confession...
This was sometime in December 1974

“Jab-pun?” A fellow guest in a hotel lift in Kathmandu broke the silence while we were going up the floors.

“No, Malaysian Chinese.” I answered.

He took another good look at me. Sounding a little incredulous, he asked again, “China?”

And when I shook my head, he followed up with, “where is Malaysia?”

“A country in Southeast Asia, north of Singapore.”

Everyone in the world already knew Japan. It was the emerging economic power. To a Nepalese then, every well-attired East Asian-looking man had to be Japanese, I supposed, since only Japanese could travel and stay in style then.

I was sent to attend a week-long foundry technology workshop under a UNIDO sponsorship in Calcutta. I took the opportunity to swing to Nepal for sight-seeing, since it was “just next door”. Naturally, I was in my best – a new suit, complete with necktie.

Chinese in China were blue ants then!

Nonetheless, I continued to take pride in my Confucian Chineseness – its pre-Qing (  ) history, especially in the periods of Han (), Tang () and Sung (), the writing of Kung-tze (), Men-tze (), Lao-tze (), Sun-tze () and many others, classics such as the Annals of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义), Water Margin (水浒传), Romance of The Red Chamber (红楼梦), Journey to the West (西游记), Canonization of Deities (封神榜), etc, and the more modern writings from scholars like Lu Shun (鲁迅). His “Ah Q’s Biography (阿Q正传)” has had a profound impact on the way I conduct myself in life. I was also fascinated by Jin Yong’s (金庸) martial arts series, even though we all knew they were outlandish tales. (I loved his mastery in connecting the protagonists in his stories to the historical facts of the time!)

Even when I had to go to China often on Genting Group’s errands in the early 1990s, I would always attract some curiosity, probably because of the way I spoke and dressed. To those foreign visitors and locals who cared to ask whether I was Chinese or where I came from, I would always make it a point to assert, “Malaysian Chinese.” As if I was one class higher!

How silly I could be then! 

********

Earlier Waves
The Mighty Ming’s Armada
Chinese began to settle down in Southeast Asia as early as the 1400s, when Admiral Zheng He, who was a Muslim, of the Ming court made epic voyages down south and several in his entourages remained behind to transform the political landscapes in the Malay Archipelago. (Lynn Pan in her book Sons of Yellow Emperor (1990) has chronicled this very extensively; however, Arab records did say that Chinese were already migrating and settling down afar in the 7th to 8th and the 10th centuries. Professor Wang Gungwu, the doyen of academic authorities on China history and culture, says Chinese have lived in the Indonesian Archipelago since at least the 13th century.)

One of the historical facts that many Indonesians today are still not aware of is the ethnic origin of a national hero of theirs: Trenggana. He was the son of the founder of Demak Dynasty in East Java, a Muslim Chinese named Cek Kok Po who adopted the name Raden Patah. It was Trenggana who in 1521 started to expand his reign westwards. Java turned green after that. (Paul Michel Munoz, Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula (2006)) (President Abdurrahman Wahid, popularly known as Gus Dur (1940-2009), could also trace his lineage to a Chinese Muslim missionary in Fujian.) There are also claims that the Malacca sultanate’s Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat were also Chinese; however, I am in no position to verify.

 


The Demak expansion, thanks to Admiral Zheng He

 





Borobudur, a 7th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Central Java

 



I dare argue that it was Admiral Zheng He that helped Islamized the whole Malay Archipelago, which together with the great Khmer Empire (9th -15th century) was hitherto Hindu/Buddhist.

Abject Poverty: The Driving Force
But the big wave came only when abject poverty began to overwhelm China in the dying days of the Qing dynasty, especially in the southern provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and the island of Hainan. Hunger forced them to seek new lives in South Sea (南洋), which was not too far a destination down the coast. The more adventuresome ones braved the oceans and sailed further.

1840s saw thousands braved the journey to the gold mountains in America, Australia and even New Zealand in search of gold, despite the treacherous waters. Apparently, in 1861, almost 40,000 or 3.3% of the Australian population had been born in China! From 1863 to 1869, roughly 15,000 workers went to America to help build the transcontinental railroad there. And in World War 1, some 14,000 labourers signed up to serve the British and French forces.

Left: Chinese gold diggers in California; Right: Building cross-continental railroad in the US

                    

   Left: Modern day gold penners (the author’s grandchildren!) in Ballarat, Australia; Below: a largely forgotten Chinese temple north of Queensland. Apparently Chinese introduced groundnuts to the region.




 


Author in Arrow Town, one of the first Chinese settlements in New Zealand

 

Many made good, especially in South Sea (南洋) – the then Malaya, sub-continental Southeast Asia, Dutch Indonesia, even Portuguese East Timur. And they continued to look to the Qing court for recognition. They remained “Chinese” in every aspect of their social life.

The Adaptation to Local Realities
After a generation or two, some became totally assimilated in their adopted land, especially those who settled down in the Philippines and Siam (Thailand then). Filipino national hero José Rizal’s (1861-1896) ancestry could be traced to Fujian. King Rama I (1737-1809) was partly Chinese, so was his predecessor, King Taksin (1734-1782) whose Chinese father hailed from Chaozhou.

Indonesian Chinese went through a more tumultuous time, often at the mercy of the Dutch colonial government. Chinese in the then Malaya (which included Singapore) felt more welcomed, albeit simmering discontent about their hold of the economy. Singapore has become a country that is predominantly Chinese, but thick with western observances.

But in South Sea, Chineseness stays strong…
However, after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in China, many threw their lot for Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙/孫中山/孫文). When the then Malaya was invaded by Japan, many local Chinese, after seeing the ineptitude of the Chiang Kai-shek regime in China, became resistance fighters and converted to Communist causes. When the British returned, they tried unsuccessfully to bring them into the fold, and this resulted in the declaration of Emergency (1948-1960) which forced them to go underground. Many young men and women packed up to return to China. However, the bulk remained, since China was no longer a motherland.

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, this phenomenon was only visible in Indonesia when many chose to return in the wake of Suharto’s purge. But today, save for some pockets where there are still underlying lurking hostilities towards ethnic Chinese, Indonesian Chinese are generally happy where they are. They are proud to be Indonesian and in their Independence Day celebrations, even those who have since migrated to Australia and elsewhere would make it a point to gather at their respective embassies or consulates to pledge loyalty to the nation.

In the Western World, the Inevitability of Anglicization
Not so in the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Here is a different phenomenon altogether.

Early Chinese settlers were largely marginalized or suppressed by the Whites, not only socially but in an institutionalized manner, in these countries. In the US, you have the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, in Canada, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, in Australia, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1902 (more commonly known as the White Australia Policy), and in New Zealand, the Chinese Immigrants Act of 1881.

Few could grow roots under these institutionalized situations, many therefore packed their bags and returned to China. Those who remained slowly became anglicized. In Australia, I often ran into people with Chinese surnames and upon inquiry they confirmed their great or great-great grandfather was Chinese. But few had anything more to offer other than this fact.


No New Waves, But Dribs and Drabs to the West
Taiwan from the 1960s…
After China came under Communist rule, Taiwan actually became a favourite choice for those Chinese-educated Southeast Asian Chinese who wanted to further their studies. (Going to China was not an option; few Chinese dared to openly associate themselves with the “motherland” in the wake of anti-Communist stances taken by countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.) However, many Taiwanese themselves were also looking out to migrate to America, especially those who followed Chiang Kai-Shek to the island, and those who wanted to do post graduate degrees.

From Southeast Asia after the 1960s
Suharto’s New Order after he came to power in Indonesia in 1966 did prompt some ethnic Chinese there to return to China. However, most remained and became assimilated. However, they did retain their culture albeit on a low-key basis until Gus Dur became the president, when he was happy for Chinese to practise their traditions.

Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese population could roughly be divided into the English-educated and the Chinese-educated. Siblings in the same family would end up in different medium schools. Some like the author had the benefit of both – primary education in Chinese and secondary and beyond, English.

From young, we already understood the need to live harmoniously with our schoolmates. Then came the racial riot in May 1969. We became acutely conscious of our racial origin. The affirmative policy that followed was hurting. We realized we were about to become second-class citizens.

We lay low and kept to our books. Fortunately, the economy picked up, thanks to Japan’s industrialization. American and European money was also pouring in.

Nonetheless, many had already begun to contemplate migration, the favourite destinations being Australia and New Zealand. Others just drove across the Causeway. Jobs were plentiful in Singapore and Malaysians were very welcomed. But going to destinations like Australia was not a piece of cake. A coffin maker, or a nurse, or a hairdresser stood a better chance of getting admitted than a trained engineer!

A Story About a Friend…
This was in 1974. I remember I had a colleague who was hell-bent to migrate to Australia then. He had a first-class honours degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of New South Wales. Even though he had been officially offered a place to do his post-graduate in his alma mater, the High Commission in Kuala Lumpur would not issue him the necessary visa. Out of desperation, he camped out at the High Commissioner’s official residence. At the first instance when he saw the High Commissioner’s wife emerging, he rushed to approach her. He was literally on his knees. He finally got his visa!

Moving forward, this friend of mine, who had long settled down in Sydney, did not live up to his dreams. Much of his life was spent as a junior engineer in one of the state’s utility authorities. He has since retired and has to count on pension to sustain his very modest lifestyle. He has two children, both of whom are totally ignorant of things Chinese. I do not believe he is happy with his circumstances.

Elsewhere…
In Melbourne I often met Malaysian Chinese who had “jumped” ship and stayed illegally to earn a living. They knew the score. Upon their exit, their passports would be stamped “No Entry Allowed for X Years.” Those unlucky ones who got caught faced swift deportation.

Ditto many who went to the US, Canada, and Europe, especially the UK, under similar circumstances. They are living under the radar but what if McCarthyism 2.0 intensifies? (A distant relative and his wife jumped ship more than 40 years ago. They are now living in a predominantly Chinese quarter of San Francisco. They possess no green card but strangely, their children were able to attend Yale. Another friend disappeared suddenly but only to write to tell me months later that he had landed himself a job in London’s Chinatown. I am sure many readers do have comparable stories to share.)

The bulk of immigrants are of course legal. They had done their tertiary education in these countries and were happy to return to settle there. There is also a group who were disillusioned with their existing environment and were looking for greener pastures.

This propensity to take chances to change status quo leads to something I have always wanted to say about we Chinese in general.

In most societies, people who are plagued by poverty or calamities would usually be resigned to their fate and continue to stay put. Not Chinese. They would uproot and move on.

I was intrigue by what Silvana Condemi wrote in her A Pocket History of Human Evolution (2019). She says scientific consensus is that Homo sapiens left Africa about 60,000 years ago. However, the latest research shows that earlier migrations took place, one reaching China more than 100,000 years ago. Homo sapiens only entered preglacial Europe, Siberia, and northeaster Asia around 45,000 years ago.

People moved to look for food those days. Were these 100,000-year-old Homo sapiens the forebears of Chinese today? If so, does it say something about our DNA? The branch that was heading to China obviously did not wait to be “pitied” or “saved” or for food to run out.


Hua-jiao (华侨)and Hua-ee (华裔)- Need to Split Hair?
Professor Wang makes it a point to distinguish between Hua-jiao and Hua-ee. I began to appreciate his philosophy in making this distinction. I should not call myself a Hua-jiao anymore, since the term would imply that my motherland was still China. Being a Malaysian, my future was with this country. I should instead call myself a Hua-ee – someone whose heritage is Chinese but living in an adopted country.

Except for the diehards, most Hua-ees did not hold any great affinity for the China then. The China of the 1960s was turned upside down by the Cultural Revolution. News flowing back from relatives in China gave a very pathetic account of lives there.

Achievements by its ping-pong team, however, remained a source of immense pride to us. The “Ping-Pong” diplomacy was played out, which paved the way for Richard Nixon to visit China in 1972. Even then, everything about China was largely doctrinaire and Maoist There was not much to be proud of really, until Deng Xiaoping got rehabilitated. The rest is history.

It was not until the late 2010s that I began to realise the China I used to frown upon had changed. It had become a nation that the world would henceforth hold in awe. Then I began to turn to the writings of Professor Wang Gungwu, to understand the background leading to the reemergence of China.


The West’s Demonization of China – A New Awakening
Millions of Hong Kongers are said to qualify for BN(O) and there is also Biden’s offer of “safe haven” to Hong Kong residents in the US. These were dished out by the UK and the US for only one purpose: To spite China. It has nothing to do with their “care” or “love,” or “concern” for Hong Kongers. These were political decisions of Boris Johnson and Joe Biden, not something that is popularly supported because there was a real calamity coming out of that island. Simply put, these are lip-services devoid of any “heart-felt” touch.

How many Hong Kongers will take up these offers? My guess is that only the hardcore Yellow Bananas will.

Once the fundamental issues of Hong Kongers’ unhappiness are addressed, namely, (a) poor housing availability and affordability for wage earners and (b) the lack of pride in Chineseness amongst the young (as a result of years of indoctrination in the education system), Hong Kongers will surely come around to accept they are in fact Chinese.

With the type of Sinophobia that is playing out in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia, which were the traditional destinations for those who want to seek a new life, migration has now come to a crawl.


Putting up a Brave Front out of Status Quo
To the author, the waves of the Chinese immigration over the last two hundred years are an aberration in Chinese anthropology. Be that as it may, there are already at least 50 million ethnic Chinese outside China.

The Chinese in Southeast Asia are already in their third, fourth or even fifth generation. They are generally loyal to their country but are proud of their Chinese roots. Perhaps 70% of the top 20 richest men in Malaysia and Singapore are Chinese, so are many tycoons in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. And many are extremely philanthropic – greats like Malaysia’s Robert Kuok and Jeffrey Cheah, Thailand’s Dhanin Chearavanont (Chia Kok Min), Tahir (Ang Tjoen Ming), the Philippines’ Henry Sy Sr, and Singapore’s Lawrence Lien and Lee Seng Tee, and many others. The societies’ professional class are thick with Chinese doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, IT experts, etc. Many of them are world-class. Most of the successful small and medium enterprises are owned by them too.

With the reemergence of China, these diasporas have generally adopted a new worldview about China. They can be more openly proud of China, even though they may not be entirely comfortable with the political system there. They no longer have to worry about natives’ perceptions of Chinese, from to be spat-upon coolies on one extreme to exploiters of their land on the other.

However, I cannot say this for those first-generation immigrants in the western world, though.


The New Chinese Sin-kehs[1] in the West
They have crossed the Rubicon and there was no way they could turn history back. Many have become reasonably comfortable in their adopted country – decent job, decent house, decent car, and decent-what-have-you. Some have made great fortunes, like David Teoh and wife of the TPG Telecom fame in Australia. Many have achieved national or international recognition professionally. But their numbers are few and far between. By and large, there is always a glass ceiling, in politics and in corporate offices.

With the way the Western politicians are demonizing the China now, impact on local Chinese is definitely going to be profound, even though these politicians insist they are not targeting China or Chinese. They are just being hypocritical in declaring this.

This is likely going to create a sense of identity loss and even inferiority complex amongst their Next Gens.

And this worries me.

Most of them were born or brought up young in their parents’ new adopted country. Few get to know much about China or Chinese during their formative years. Learning Chinese in a foreign land where few speak the language is a dreadful effort to many. Many parents are therefore content to leave them to their own circle of friends or devices. And some grow up to become quite ashamed of their heritage in the process.

Besides these Next Gens, there is also another shamed-to-be-Chinese source. These are mainly young students heading to America to do their advanced degrees. They are usually state-sponsored scholars and have come from very humble backgrounds. Theirs would be their first-time out to a new new world. They are like Grandma Liu (刘老老) visiting the grand mansion (大观园) in the novel Romance of the Red Chamber (红楼梦), or Convent girls going to Hollywood, or Alice getting lost in the Wonderland, or Cinderella meeting a prince.

Thus, many would succumb to the so-called Patricia Hearst[2]’s syndrome. Generally, they have no compunction in buying into views which are anti-Mainland China and even their own very heritage.

They write venomously about China for New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, they supply fake research reports to western think tanks, or be anchored men or ladies for Aljazeera. So on and so forth.


A New Trend in the Making?
Chinese in the western world, even if there is no anti-Asian racism, will slowly get fully melted into the big multi-cultural pot. They may marry an Asian, but who knows when it comes to the next generation, and the following?

Even in majority-Chinese Singapore, HSBC Bank is now running an advertisement featuring a Chinese woman getting married to a South Asian and the news was well received by her parents in China. They represent the sophisticated elites of the two societies.




The HSBC way: Born in China and India, married in London, settling down in Singapore? And producing Olympiad champions in Mathematics and other Sciences?

 


To me, this is perfectly fine. As long as there is no racism. Genetic strengthening through DNA exchanges is always good for the future of humanity, isn’t it?


Chinese Vs Chinese: Christianity the Seed of It? Or Just Not the Right Understanding?
Let us reflect a little…

It is the intolerance of Chineseness amongst our Next Gens that I find in many about which I am most concerned. I like to put forward a thesis that many may find uncomfortable about.

Old China had traditionally been a Daoist society. On philosophy and wisdom, they could count on sages like Kung-tze (), Men-tze (), Lao-tze (), Sun-tze () and many others. Buddhism got a big boost under the Tang () emperors and became the state religion after that. Despite this, Islam and even Judaism were tolerated.

 

However, Christianity was made illegal during the Ming () dynasty. The religion was thought utterly strange and incomprehensible to the Chinese. During the dying days of the Qing dynasty, Jesuits was able to establish an enclave in Macau. They introduced western science, astronomy, and cartography but as we all know, their primary mission was to bring Catholicism to China; They were able to convert several who were close to the imperial court. Soon the protestants followed. By 1840s China became their major destination. They set up schools and hospitals but achieved few mass conversions. It was not until the Taiping (太平)Rebellion (1850-1864) when Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全), who called himself the younger brother of Jesus Christ, established the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (天国)with the capital at Nanjing that Christianity became widely followed. At its height, it ruled over about 30 million people. It was eventually put down by the Qing army with a death toll of between 20 and 30 million.


It is said that Yung Wing (容闳 Róng Hóng, 1828-1912) was the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, the Yale College. After finishing his studies, Yung returned to China and worked with western missionaries as an interpreter. He first gravitated to the Taiping rebels, but in 1863 turned around and was dispatched by the all-powerful Zeng Guofan (曾国) to the United States to buy machinery necessary for opening an arsenal in China. He persuaded the Qing court to send young Chinese to America to study Western science and engineering. With the government's eventual approval, he organized what came to be known as the Chinese Educational Mission, which saw 120 young Chinese students sent to study in the US beginning in 1872. The Educational Mission was disbanded in 1881, but many of the students later returned to China and made significant contributions to China's civil services, engineering, and the sciences. Yung and most of these students were amongst the first to become intellectual Christians, which is just natural, given the decadence and the feudalism they personally had to endure at that time.

But soon foreign missionaries became a prime target of attack and murder by Boxers in 1900.

The fortune of Christianity in China took a great turn when many early leaders of the Chinese Republic converted, the most prominent of whom is none other than Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙/孫中山/孫文). In 1915 Sun married Soong Ching-ling (宋庆龄) whose father was the American-educated Methodist minister Charlie Soong (宋嘉澍), who made a fortune in banking and in printing bibles. He was followed by Chiang Kai-Shek (蔣介/蔣中正) who took the hand of a younger Soong sister. Christianity in China never looked back since then.

The earlier Chinese hostility to the missionary was based on the fact that Western Christianity was utterly strange and incomprehensible to the Chinese. The Boxer Uprising was in large part a reaction against the spread of the religion in China.

Why have I deviated to talk about Christianity?

Following the decline of China, the elites in China began to consider the Confucian or Ru () school of thoughts as archaic. Practices in Daoism (道教) and Buddhism (佛教)were deemed superstitious. Only Christianity could save China.

Today, maybe as many as 20% of the Chinese diasporas are Christians, the rest practise a blend of Daoism and Buddhism and the Confucian or Ru traditions as their guiding faith in life. But maybe 70% or more of the Next Gens in the west, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, are Christian or pro-Christian.

While many amongst Chinese Christians have understood the distinction between religion and culture, some literally treat them as inseparable. To be a Christian, you have to cleanse yourself of anything deemed “traditional Chineseness,” aka superstitions, in the conduct of your life. And anything about Mainland China is no-no Communism. This mindset is now deeply etched, particularly the younger ones, in the west, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Have we wondered why overseas Japanese are so proud of their heritage? Some may be Christians, but they still pay respects to their Zen temples. And how many Chinese Christians will pick up joss sticks to honour their departed loves ones?

To rebuild the civilizational pride in them is a tall order, but without which, China will always face “subtle sabotages” from their own kind in the western world, or in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. They are convinced of the evil of China and are more than happy to help destroy “Communist” China.


Need for Realignment and How Can China Help?

With the national security law in place, Hong Kong has finally nipped the “not proud to be Chinese” cancer (of its detractors and saboteurs) in the bud. With the right leadership, a new sense of belonging will surely grow. (The pro-west organisations are quick to realise their folly and have started to disband themselves.)

However, the pro-Independence leaders in Taiwan are still blind to the inevitability of history. As long as they are in power, they remain the cancer in the Chinese souls. With the ignominious exit of the US forces in Afghanistan, let us hope a lesson can be learned by these leaders in Taiwan.

China can serve its Hua-ee by projecting a Strong but Gentle image. I am extremely impressed with its performance in Tokyo Olympics 2020. Besides the medals its athletics won in their traditional turfs of table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, and diving, they have made headway into fencing (Sun Yi Wen) and track and field (Su Bingtian). Such feats exude a great deal of freshness in the minds of the Hua-ee young.

   
       Sun Yin Wen


Need for a Deep Reflection…
I call on all Chinese to make an effort to understand their roots. I am not asking them to be disloyal to the country of their adoption. I just want to say that spirituality is NOT incompatible with our culture. The fact that China can remain distinctively Chinese is because of the sustenance of its 3,000 years (or more) of cultural practices. No other civilization has come close to this. Be proud even if you cannot help to sustain, but do not sabotage, consciously or unconsciously.

Parents amongst diasporas have had a key role to play in this. Do not just leave the things to the devices of your children.

Communication is challenging when most of Chinese diasporas in the western world have already lost proficiency in Chinese language. China, please take note: The means to win the hearts and minds of Hua-ees is through English, English, English!

English is the only language most Hua-ees know. The uniqueness of China’s history, and the philosophies expounded by its sages, and the contributions it made in science, art, and literature should be conveyed in good English. Illustrations should be done with great taste. Those moral stories that have been handed down generation after generation are often poorly depicted. They may suit traditional taste buds, but they can look very infantile or ridiculous to those who are brought up in the western or pseudo-western worlds. (The late Lim Goh Tong erected a temple in honour of a hometown deity in Genting Highlands. He commissioned artisans in Fujian to specifically carved out a series of granite tablets to exemplify filial piety. One of the tables depicted a son offering his arm to mosquitoes so that they would not bite his mother. How silly?)

The translations in museums and cultural sites all over China are also another case in point. They should be totally redone.

The New Good Warriors

Good stories will prompt them to trace their roots. And discover Confucianism. Few Next Gens outside China watch CGTN channels or read China Daily. Apps like TikTok is the way to go to rein them back.



Lai Yue Qian (赖岳谦)

 



I love to tune in to listen to this Taiwanese scholar-thinker, Lai Yue Qian(赖岳谦). Lai specializes on cross-strait issues between China and Taiwan. He is a regular guest commentator at CGTN. He also podcasts his analyses on world affairs via Facebook's "Watch" video links. His thoughts are incisive. He strongly believes in the unification of Taiwan. I wish all he says can be translated for the western-educated Chinese. Any Chinese would certainly be proud of him.

End

  

Acknowledgement

This is a truncated version of a composition penned by the author – to spare readers of the details which they may find too self-centric.

The author would like to thank his da-jie (Big sister) Ms Lau Chee Eng, good friend Ms Lilian Low, school and university mate Mr Chew Hai Hong and university mate Major (Rtd) Ng Chun Ho for taking the trouble to read through the manuscript and helped correct many typos and grammatical mistakes. They have also made many suggestions and they have largely been incorporated.

The views expressed by the author above are strictly his. Some may find them objectionable. Please feel free to disagree. Facts are all from secondary sources. He stands corrected.



[1] A South Fujianese term for new arrivals (新客).

[2] An American heiress; kidnapped in 1974 but turned a sympathizer of the abductors