The Melting Pot of Chinese Rú-Fú-Dào Culture

For the last two thousand years, Chinese culture has largely been shaped by a cocktail of儒佛道 Rú-Fú-Dào philosophies and teachings. There might still be some purists amongst those who are deeply into these three philosophies/religions, but I do not know if there are pure-Rú or pure-Fú or pure-Dào followers amongst Chinese men-in-the-street now. There is much 我中有你，你中有我 (Wǒ zhōng yǒu nǐ, Nǐ zhōng yǒu wǒ) – which can loosely be defined as “there is me in you, and there is also you in me” – in them. In short, what we are seeing in what is being believed and practised amongst Chinese at folks level is something in a melting pot of these three great teachings.

Rú is Confucianism, which is a philosophy. Fú stands for Buddhism, which many regard as a religion; and Dào or Daoism takes two very distinct forms – philosophy and metaphysics.

I would not go into the esoteric part of these three philosophies and/or teachings, save to talk about my personal takes of what I have seen in the region.

My late father was a typical Rú-Fú-Dào follower. But in mindset, he was very much a practitioner of mystical or superstitious Daoism, not the Lao-zi 老子or 道德經 (Dào Dé-jīng) variety. He was the acknowledged village authority on the rituals of marriage and death. Tong-shu (通書), which is a Chinese divination almanac that is released before the beginning of a lunar year, was his manual on these ceremonies. His calligraphy was good, and villagers would ask him to oblige them with 对联 (duì lián, a couplet in poetry that rhymes about good wishes to owner’s fortune or health or career advancement). They will adorn their main doors to welcome a new year. Father’s deep belief in mystic Daoism was always a source of conflict between him and me. I thought it was all superstitions and being the youngest son, I got away with brushing him off often. When I moved into a new house in Taman Tun Dr Ismail in Kuala Lumpur, we had the “luxury” of being served by two broad roads. But the geography was no-no to him. 

Oh, your front gate is facing a perpendicular road. This allows bad qi (气) to pierce through uninterrupted. You need to place a pakua (八卦, a small wooden frame with Daoist symbol carved on it) on your main door to ward off this bad qi! He urged. 

Things like this were rubbish to me at that time.

Years after his passing, I began to reflect on some of the predictions he had made on me based on what he had deciphered from the Tong-shu. I must admit that several of his predictions did appear to happen. They might be coincidences, but I had begun to convince myself that mystic Daoism should not be brushed off as totally superstitious. Maybe there is more to it that meets the eye.

I also remember vividly this incident: On our family altar there was a very fine wooden figurine to which we worshipped as Lord Zhu. I was then too young to know who Lord Zhu was, but I later learned that the figure was supposed to be that of the founder of the Ming dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋). The wood work was apparently given to my grandpa after a friend converted to Christianity. To the village folks, punting in 4-digits was a way to become rich overnight. Many would go out of the way to seek divine help. It was an illegal form of gambling, nonetheless, this was “So What?” to most people. One day several friends approached my father to seek our Lord Zhu’s help. An amateur medium was duly recruited and recited to “invite” Lord Zhu to manifest in him. Soon he was in trance and some blood-flowing grotesque acts followed. His state of existence – as if it was from a different world – left my young mind totally awed. Lord Zhu favoured the devotees with a number. The reverse of the number came up first prize. For every one Ringgit, the payout was two thousand. Several friends made a considerable fortune from it. Lord Zhu was for real, so everybody was convinced. (A footnote on this episode: The lucky devotees sponsored the figurine to be sent to China to be “redecorated.” The one that was finally returned – after many reminders – was certainly not the original; someone had made a switch!)

I recently got reconnected with a high school classmate who used to run a temple in Singapore. He has become a devout born-again Christian. I believe he has also earned a living as a temple medium before. I asked him about the phenomenon. Oh, we are surrounded by stray spirits; these are the stray spirits! And they pretended to be the deity you were seeking to summon. Nothing unusual. He explained.

Buy that?

A great number of Chinese believe in fēngshuǐ (风水). I had the opportunity to speak with the fēngshuǐ master of the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong. He told me that he was skeptical of the practice at the beginning, but as he researched and practised more, he began to appreciate the 奥妙(àomiào – inexplicable) nature of this form of metaphysics. Undoubtedly, there is some science in it; but they are pretty rudimentary or commonsensical to sceptics like me. Regardless, I am still far from convinced that fēngshuǐ is for real. The practice of fēngshuǐ is to help future generations achieve great fortunes or statuses. In Malaysia we live in a multicultural world. Many of the practices of the other cultures seem to go against our fēngshuǐ rituals. Have they disadvantaged their offspring? Great fortunes appear to fall on their laps!

Back to Rú-Fú-Dào: The melting pot is exemplified in Chinese temples. A case in point is the 1,500-year-old Shao-lin Monastery at Song-shan, Henan. It is supposed to be a Buddhist monastic institution, but there are many traces of Daoist practices in it. Several years ago I attended a 10-day meditation cum Taichi course conducted by a senior monk (who is said to be the younger brethren of the chief monk of the Shao-lin monastery) and I thought the Taichi that was taught to us was very much a Daoist form of kungfu.

Our everyday Rú is much about the way we conduct ourselves, especially in the aspects of filial piety or xiào shùn (孝顺, meaning "respect and obedience") to our parents. An unfilial son runs the risk of not being blessed with offspring, so the teaching cautions. Rú is also supposed to help harmonize the relationships between rulers and his subjects, between parents, and children, and amongst relatives and friends. And much of this is also anchored on Dao beliefs and practices, which have preceded Confucianism for generations.

And much about Chinese Buddhism is premised on compassion, and again, the deity that is often associated with is actually Goddess of Mercy Guān Yīn 觀音. To many Chinese, Buddha is worshipped as Rúlái 如来 – the forever happy, pot-bellied, Chinese-looking deity. So much for our knowledge in respect of the founder of Buddhism Siddhartha Gautama! (I heard somewhere recently why the monks were largely confined to monasteries – apparently, to avoid them getting involved in politics!)

In short, much of Chinese Rú-Fú-Dào Culture revolves around relationships, filial piety, spiritual merits, and retributions (因果 yīn guǒ or karma cause and effect) and continuous reincarnations. Fear and superstitions are just a natural part of this culture. And all these are evident in practices throughout the East and Southeast Asia regions. Many have gone to great lengths to stage elaborate ceremonies and rituals to demonstrate their devotion. And surprisingly, much of the practice of this melting pot culture is now absent in China! How the world has changed.

Deities out of Classics…

There were some great authors the protagonists in whose works have been worshipped as deities. The most famous of which is perhaps the money god Sun WuKong (孙悟空) in Wu Cheng'en’s (吴承恩, Ming Dynasty) Journey to the West (西游记). The classic fictionalized Tang Dynasty monk Xuan-zang’s (玄奘; 602–664) journey to India to source authentic Buddhist scriptures. Today, you still can find temples in Southeast Asia dedicated to this “saint” 齐天大圣(Qí-tiān Dà-sheng, loosely: a saint whose prestige is equal to that of the Heaven).
 
Ditto, thanks to Luō Guàn-zhōng’s (罗贯中) The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義), General Guān Yǔ (关羽) has also been turned god-like.
 
Another classic, written by Xu Zhonglin 许仲琳in the 16^th century, 封神榜 (Fēngshén Bang , The Investiture of the Gods) combines elements of history, folklore, mythology, legends and fantasy set in the era of the decline of the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC) and the rise of the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) and helped created deities and immortals and spirits, like 哪吒 Nǎ zhā.

 

And unlike Christianity and Islam, not much of the Rú-Fú-Dào belief is faith-based. It is basically a quid pro quo expectation between oneself and divinity.

 

Time for Chinese to rise above superstitions and emphasize on the philosophical aspects of Rú-Fú-Dào teachings?

Storm in a Teacup?

China's COVID-19 “mayhem” that has been widely reported by the usual China-sceptic media – BBC, CNN, CNA, SCMP, ST, etc - during the last couple of days has prompted me to write this article.

Indeed, China is experiencing an embarrassing time now. Its hitherto unassailable medical experts must be finding themselves very naked now. To me, the situation is a result of a perfect storm, but will soon I believe it will soon blow over, not like what these China-sceptic media would want it to end – million deaths, etc. These people simply do not understand China or Chinese, or in the case of White Bananas, whom some of them are, they hope their rabble rousing will help them score points with Uncle Sam or Rishi Sunak.

How did the perfect storm happen? I am no expert in medical matters. But I argue the knowledge is all commonsense if you care to put on your thinking cap.

China has been containing the virus very well over the last three years. Unfortunately, its top-down inertia did not allow it to prepare for the winding down, even though it was clear that the new strains like Omicron, though very infectious, are not deadly. If you look at the situations all over the world, few did what China have been doing. Most allowed nature to take its own course, though vaccinations were administered. Singapore perhaps is the only country that had come up with a planned wind-down.

The world has to live with the virus. Sure, some will die after being infected. The same goes for every illness and disease. An unattended sore may cause a leg to be amputated. To achieve zero-COVID is an impossibility.

And that is China’s problem. Or a typical Chinese problem.

The top-down decision-making culture paralyses initiatives. Experts like Zhong Nan-shan are world class, but they have to abide by political decisions. The Chinese leaders are a very competent lot, but the West’s bashing has made them very defensive. They want to show the world that their zero-COVID approach is the envy of everyone. Alas, people are restless, and they want to go back to a normal life after three long years of restrictions here and there. Cases naturally exploded.

But that is nothing. Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan are experiencing that right now.

Lifespan in China today is pretty long. There are many old people. But why the medical services have become so helpless all of a sudden?

It is Chinese obsession to pre-empt that is a leading cause. Let me explain a little.

When vaccines were finally brought into Malaysia, all of us were anxious; we wanted to get ourselves inoculated at the earliest possible opportunity. We were prepared to resort to all sorts of means to get in front of the queue. That 超车(chāochē, overtaking) mindset is real in most of us. China’s Lian Hua capsules were touted as a cure for the disease. We lost no time in ordering quantities on-line and hoarded them just in case.

Now this is happening in China. The spike led everyone to rush to the pharmacies, hence the empty shelves!

They also jam their ambulance service with calls and rush their loved ones to hospitals once the slightest fever is detected. 90% of these “patients” should have stayed home to recover. Naturally, hospitals were overwhelmed, scenes of which the China-sceptic media love to broadcast to the world. Because of the man-made bottlenecks, many old sufferers died. (A headline article in the SCMP several days ago said exactly the same thing – the journalist reported that his friend’s father had to wait for hours to be admitted to ICU and only to expire minutes later there. Sure, it is a sad story, but the reporter was blaming China’s unpreparedness for the spike, which I thought was penned with some agenda.)

These journalists went on to say that Chinese vaccines were not as effective as the West’s, and they cited experts’ prediction that 1 million (some even say 1.5 million) people in China might die of the disease in this outbreak. These people are idiots. And the experts must be pseudo experts! Like Gordon Chang. 

The first strain was certainly deadly. If you got infected, you stood a high chance of going to Nirvana regardless of your status and age. Most countries suffered dearly, but not China. They wanted you to live and contribute to nation building. Yes, the efficacy of their vaccines, which are the inactivated type, are lower than those of the West’s mRNA varieties, but they would help prevent severity even if you got infected. On top of that the Chinese medical authority also introduced herbal concoctions to supplement. mRNA does not fully prevent infection too. It will also lessen severity if one gets infected. (I had four jabs of Pfizer but duly got infected a week or so after my fourth jab!) Western pharmaceutical giants love to boast about the superiority of mRNA. I am not sure if its claims are quite valid. But this very herd of journalists I mentioned above will swallow their sales line, hook, and sinker. Ditto the pseudo-experts.

Why do I say these journalists are creating a storm in the teacup?

When it comes to organizing things, CPC has no peers. They are able to mobilize resources across the country, despite China’s size, with a snap of fingers. Remember how they built a hospital dedicated for this purpose in 10 days? Yes, they might be caught with their pants down in the first couple of days, but ten new pants will be on their way. Chinese by nature is very kneah-su (Fujianese lingo, meaning “afraid to lose.”)

And all these silly 1 or 1.5 million fatality projections! Omicron is not as deadly as the earlier strains. Even if China follows Trump’s or Biden’s way of handling the pandemic, i.e., doing little, it will never add up to these projections! What more is you have a society that is so determined to place people’s lives first.

Nonetheless, Chinese must learn not to be too anxious. Do not rush to hospitals or pharmacies just because your throat becomes a little scratchy. Give way to those who genuinely need medical attention – especially old people with preconditions. And you will help to prove these idiots wrong!

These media people just want China to look bad. And they are looking at every opportunity. Period.

Two Chinese Sayings on the Conduct of America’s Geopolitics

Today I would share my application of two Chinese sayings: 临时抱佛脚 (Lín shí bào fó jiǎo) and 恶人先告状 (È rén xiān gào zhuàng) on the desperate attempts by America to hold back China. The former is often used to describe an ill-prepared student who just before an examination resort to hugging Buddha’s foot to seek divine help. The latter says that a villain will always try to pre-empt things by accusing the victim first. 

America is going around demonizing China, hence the latter; and its attempt to court souls hitherto considered unworthy and thus the former. 

Of course, it is not just the US that is trying to contain China. The entire Western world, Japan and even India are hoping America will succeed. But I would like to concentrate on the ringleader, i.e., Old Joe.

Old Joe pretending to play victim

I even suspect it is not Old Joe himself that is calling the shots. I just cannot imagine an American president would want to lose his credibility with anybody days after he had made a commitment. But that is exactly what he has been doing to Xi Jinping all this while. Not only that, but Old Joe is also doing that to his hoodlums in Europe, Japan, and Korea. I suspect he is quite demented to remember much of what he had said moments earlier. Old people tend to do that anyway. There must be a Deep State to choreograph his actions. Old Joe is just a very good tool for the Deep State to use to confuse China.

Each time I saw Joe Biden on TV, a phobia of loathsomeness immediately gripped me. I really hate to see that man! He is such a “snake,” a metaphor which we used to describe some of our lecturers in the University of Malaya’s Engineering Faculty. They were pretty sadistic; they love to fail students by setting examination questions that would catch students off guard or unprepared. Some very good students had to repeat a year or two and this has left a life-long scar in their psyche. In geopolitics, Biden is such a snake. He would undertake to Xi one thing, but only for China to see his officials staging a 180-degree turn after they parted, especially on high-tech sanctions against China and military movements in South and East China Seas. My wife always wonders why Xi bothers to meet this half-demented old heck.

(Old Joe is not the only one I loathe seeing; there are a few more – State Secretary Antony Blinken, Defence Secretary Llyod Austin, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Chief Trade Negotiator Katherine Tai and Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns. I also hate to see NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg, EU’s Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, and Japan’s Fumio Kishida, UK’s Rishi Sunak. They are part and parcel of the Deep State that is determined to retard China. Once you assume any of these positions, you get sucked in.)

What has China done to them?
None of them can answer that question, except to make the same silly accusations about genocides and forced labour in Xinjiang, suppressions of democracy in Hong Kong, China’s tyranny in South China Sea and the intimidation of Taiwan. There are many more: Debt traps for those who signed up on Road & Belt Initiatives, and about to come – human rights against Tibetans, not to mention the theft of Western technology, industrial espionage, and the danger China’s high-tech firms like Huawei pose to their national security. (With Huawei’s equipment, you cannot spy on others anymore!)

Blinken is fond of saying that China is not playing its part in a rules-based order world. What is that? He never explained. What we know is that America will challenge any WTO rulings that are against it. Both America and China are not state parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. So, is not this a case of the pot calling the kettle black? It also withdrew from WTO and the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, albeit they were done during Donald Trump’s presidency. In short Blinken continues to hold America has the birthright to stay preeminent in the world.

The inconvenient truth is simply this: China through its own hard slog is about to overtake the West. And this must be stopped.

To Biden and those in this Deep State, if you do not hold back China’s progress now, it will be too late. China’s Ru-Fuo-Dao 儒佛道 culture/philosophy are incompatible to Liberal Democracy and Liberal Capitalism. The West’s progress and wealth were built on conquests and colonization, China’s “co-existence and -prosperity” geopolitical model is alien to them. If China becomes No 1, they fear many new standards will be set by China and they will be at the mercy of China. This must not be allowed to happen.

But can China be stopped?
The West admired China, then known as Cathay to them, greatly in when the world entered the 2^nd millennium. Venetian merchant Marco Polo is said to travel to Yuan’s China in the later part of the 13^th century and was totally fascinated by what he saw. (I personally do not think he made the journey, but it does not matter.) Then came the British – George Macartney’s mission to Beijing in 1793. Despite the rebuff by Emperor Qianlong, he made the West understand that China was easy as cake for the West’s plundering, the rest is history.

But Xi’s China is no longer a pushover. Its infrastructure – highways, bridges, tunnels, metros, intercity highspeed rails, airports, power generation, clean water supply, telecommunications facilities – is the envy of the developed world. It is ahead of the West in 5G and AI. Militarily, its missiles technology has surpassed America’s.

In electric vehicle manufacturing, oil and gas exploration and extraction, chip designs, and shipbuilding, China has already overwhelmed every competitor. Sooner, its nuclear technology will also awe Americans.

There is still a gap to close in fighter jets, space exploration and precision engineering. China is now being strangled by the US in advanced chip production. Without the foundry equipment, like ASML’s EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography systems, it is unable to produce 7nm and below chips. This albatross around its neck has slowed down much of its progress to help usher the world into the 4^th Industrial Revolution. But in the longer run, China will have a way to circumvent it.

Few countries can do as well as China in food security, poverty alleviation, basic healthcare provision.

China’s unstoppability is based on one thing: Chineseness, which is epitomized in its emphasis on education, regardless of whether one is rich or poor. China is producing four times the number of PhDs the US is doing, and most of them are in the fields of engineering and technology. (Nonetheless, Chinese culture is also not without weaknesses. These two lines of doctrine 礼义廉耻 公明正大 (lĭ yì lián chĭ. gōng ming zhèng dà; though some say the latter should read 光明正大 guāng míng zhèng dà) encapsulate the Chinese Ru-Fuo-Dao 儒佛道 philosophy, which I have written before (Japanese: Asia’s Honorary Whites, 7 December 2022). However, I seem to see that the teaching is lacking in the aspects of cleanliness, orderliness, and personal hygiene. Might this be the reason provincial Chinese are generally causal about these needs in exercising social etiquette?)

It has a well-coordinated effort to manage the country’s commodity needs – oil from Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Venezuela and even America, and minerals from South America and Africa.

Despite what China has shown to the Western world how it has successfully managed the COVID-19 pandemic, Western journalists are still pouring oil into the bush fire China is now working on to extinguish following the lifting of quarantine restrictions there the last couple of days. The caption in a CNN article yesterday reads “China could see nearly a million deaths as it exits zero-Covid, study says.” CNA’s Olivia Siong quoted an even higher figure – 1.5million and insinuated that the fatality figures released by China’s official channels were high suspect. She is based in Beijing, yet she was happy to quote a Western report. Do they think officials in China like Zhong Nan-shan is stupid? Friends, the world is facing the Omicron and not Alpha strains now! Omicron is more infectious but less lethal. Like people everywhere, the first few days of opening are always a time of trepidation and people will flock to hospitals even on the account of a mild cough.

The Yellow Bananas
Three weeks ago, I went with a Singapore friend to see some people in Jakarta. To my dismay, he made this wild claim on the Covid situation in China: China’s vaccines are useless, and China’s hospitals are useless. I believe he was trying to ingratiate himself to this people by ridiculing China. I quietly said to him that President Jokowi was inoculated with Sinovac. My friend is an Ah Q through and through; I suppose he was trying to differentiate himself as a higher-end Chinese, not China’s Chinese. 

I no longer think the vaccines, be they Western or Chinese, are that relevant to most of us anymore. I had had four jabs of Pfizer, yet I contracted Covid two weeks or so after my fourth jab. The symptoms were mild and discomfort little. But the coughing did persist for a while after I tested negative.

If you listened to people like Elizabeth Neo and Olivia Siong without putting on your thinking cap, then you would think China would collapse tomorrow, like what the pseudo scholar Gordon Chang said in his “best seller” (The Coming Collapse of China) many years ago.

Western journalists and others like Elizabeth Neo and many Yellow Bananas love to belittle China. They are still stuck in the “West is superior” model and simply do not believe Xi is someone who is going to change the destiny of China. When seeing the Chinese authorities clamping down on their crazy developers, they think China’s property market is finished. When the financial authorities stopped the Ant group from trying to turn China into a debtors’ nation, they empathized with Jack Ma. Public good, which Xi is trying to ensure that his officials uphold, is not alien to their minds. They seem to have more confidence in crooks like crypto currency exchange FTX’s Sam Bankfried.

Of course, Chinese by nature are enterprising and entrepreneurial. These traits also helped create many crooks. They will hatch all sorts of outlandish financial and love scams to cheat people. Many have been caught in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Malaysia. They deserve firing squads.

Hugging Buddha’s leg…

Just a couple of days ago, Old Joe said he planned to commit USD55 billion to Africa over the next three years when he hosted a two=day meeting with Africa leaders. And he declared, “Improving Africa's infrastructure is essential to our vision of building a stronger global economy that can better withstand the kinds of shocks that we've seen the past few years.”

 

Do you believe that?

 

Of course, these African leaders had a good time in Washington. Afterall, it was a free holiday. His administration has made similar promises to the leaders of the Americas, ASEAN and even the Pacific islands. I suppose behind Old Joe, everyone would say, “Show me the money, man!”

 

Blinken explicitly announced to the world that these invites were not designed to contain or compete China. Any three-year-old will know that is exactly what America is trying to do. He would be more credible if he said so. They are so fake when they talk about things like climate change, peace, standing up for Taiwan, human rights, etc.

Hegemon America is not capable of learning. It is no longer able to call the shots; yet it wants to act like one. Biden was rebuffed by its own neighbours a year or so ago; he was given cold shoulders by the Arabs just a month or two ago. His teeth must be grinding hard and fist clenching tight when saw how Xi was welcomed in Riyadh.

I am afraid, save for a couple of saints – people like Jeffrey Sachs – virtually the entire Western world, together with the honorary Whites aka Japan, is no longer untrustworthy.

I could not help to add a long observation of many. Many Indians, despite their sad history of years of colonization by Britain, still find it hard to embrace Asian. Soon, India’s population will surpass China’s, which I thought is no good, yet it is being awaited like a great trophy. Oh, our demographic is young, we have overtaken Britain in terms of GDP, no sooner, we will surpass China. There are a lot of syiok sendiri (Malay term, self-gratifying) bravos there. Western press loves to give them hope. To me, unless they have a transformative leader to bring its masses out of the cultural doldrums, their rich and poor gap will be even greater and their religious divide even wider.

I have just chanced upon the following article in Australia’s ABC News. The caption speaks volumes of India’s sense of complex.

More Taiwans and Orange Revolutions, please! But…If the West had not used the Hong Kong protests as an opportunity to try to discredit or destablise China, Xi would have like his predecessors left Hong Kongers very much to their own to run the island. The heavy presence of foreign agent provocateurs was a wake-up call for China, hence the intervention.

Ditto with Taiwan. If not for the riots in Hong Kong and the distorted lenses that were worn by many Taiwanese, Tsai Ing-wen would have failed to get reelected. She does not think China is “motherland” (祖国,Zǔguó, ancestors’ land). The kinship between Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese was hitherto most heartening for Chinese all over the world to see – until Tsai Ing-wen decided to ditch the 1992 Consensus and went all the way to spike China with her “America is my god” policy. 

The proxy war between Russia and NATO in Ukraine has caused horrific tragedies to the people there. It is very draining to the Russian economy and military, which is what NATO wants. Now grounds are rumbling in Mongolia. A possible Orange Revolution there? Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia and China. It is a great place to be embedded to undermine these two countries.

Blinken is also working hard on ASEAN and the Pacific islands. I believe the ASEAN leaders are too wise to take side, even though some are not quite comfortable with China. Seeing the Arabs and China are getting close, Blinken might drive to court Iran to create jealousy there. Oh, there are so many things America is or may be trying to do to kill China.

End

Stop Press 26.12.2022

Below is a perfect example of 恶人先告状 (È rén xiān gào zhuàng)! And the accessory: Nikkei Asia!

Social Media Etiquette

WhatsApp is in my opinion the best social media app of our time. It allows us to communicate freely and expeditiously with friends, personally or severally. Chat groups are particularly useful. We got reconnected with old school or college mates and teachers, and ex-colleagues. WhatsApp also facilitates family members, close relatives, friends and acquaintances to form dedicated groups to keep one another posted of good and bad news, share knowledge or experiences, and pursue hobbies and other interests.

It has become an indispensable tool in our lives. The first thing I do in the morning is to check my phone to see if there are messages in my WhatsApp portal. I believe many are similarly addicted.

However, I have just decided to exit two chat groups. I cited WhatsApp fatigue syndrome as my excuse. I suppose friends in these two groups would say I am being snobbish. Although the members were all ex-school mates, I did not quite know many of them personally. Several would post Good This and Good That virtually on a daily basis. And there were endless birthday and season’s greetings. I suppose many also felt compelled to also follow up with wishes once one had been made. And many are trigger-happy to the extreme. Anything they received would be immediately clicked off to the group! Many are fake news and health advisories. While I would welcome the latter if they were authoritative, many of these were rubbish. One screams: Experts say walking is good. Do you need an expert to tell you that? Others advise you to rub here and rub there to cure illnesses. Of course, kneading joints or tuina is generally helpful to relieve discomfort, but can such treatments make your illness go away - as claimed?

We have a friend who must have developed a form of attention deficit syndrome. He does hashing and taichi-in-the-park every day. He posted pictures and selfies of it so often that prompted some of us to comment privately about his angin-ness. (Angin – wind in Malay, but implies idiosyncrasy.) The kaypor (Hokkien or South Fujianese term – busy body) in me once reacted by asking mischievously if the friend was recycling his old pictures. He took it in good faith and responded to assure me that the pictures were current! I felt bad.

Notwithstanding, I still tend to cite this incident to illustrate the need for one to take cognizance of social etiquette. But my wife often says why do I bother. Just click the delete button if you do not lime it. Not everybody can grasp your subtleties!

I started a chat group for residents in the condominium we live in. At the very outset, another resident helped me to establish these house rules: Only use the platform to inform or alert. No partisan politics, no religious talks, no pornography, no product promotions, no morning or birthday wishes, and the likes. Residents generally follow, but sometimes you also see silly postings.

Apart from WhatsApp, the other medium which takes up a great deal of my time is Facebook. I used to dislike this platform. I can understand if you post a dish that is exceptionally different, but you also often see kuey-teow stuff from friends. It is now a platform for me to watch podcasts on geopolitics from all sorts of sources. I particularly like the depth and wisdom of several scholars and thinkers from Taiwan about cross-straits issues. There are also many political narratives from China, some are pretty good, but there are many the syiok-sendiri (Malay term, self-gratifying) type. Some are outright fake news.

I do not use Twitter, Instagram or the others and am therefore unable to say anything about them.

Make the best use of these social media apps to help inform and alert, and build and strengthen relationships, but do make an effort to observe etiquette.

My message: Think before you post or click off! Not everyone will agree, though.

Anwar Ibrahim’s Premiership - Keep Our Fingers Crossed

Anwar Ibrahim has only been the country’s prime minister for less than a month, but he has already been dealt a hard blow – the result of the Padang Serai poll. PN’s thumping win there is “writing on the wall” for Anwar Ibrahim. The seat was previously held by PH, yet the coalition lost by more than 16,000 votes!

Anwar has been carrying himself with great exuberance since he was sworn in as the 10^th Prime Minister of the country. I thought he should avoid being seen that way at this juncture. Yes, PH has garnered the highest number of seats, but it was not a clearcut winner. Moreover, Anwar’s own party PKR won only 31 seats. If not for the Palace’s urging, which prompted parties in Sarawak and Sabah to realign with him after Muhyiddin turned down the “unity” government suggestion, Anwar would not have made it.

By nature Anwar is a very charismatic person. He fields questions with spontaneity and flamboyance, and often the answers are laced with bombastic words. The press may love that, but I am pretty sure this style is viewed quite negatively by many in the Malay heartlands. 

Everywhere in the world, it is usual to see a new government doing witch-hunting after it has been installed. But this is an unusual time for Malaysia. The country is largely polarized, and Anwar’s mandate is also not founded on solid ground. Reaching out is priority No 1.

Instead, his first salvo was a public disclosure that there was a serious breach of procedure in government spending during the Muhyiddin administration – excessive payments, high markups as well as money going to certain parties. The alleged misappropriation is said to be RM600 billion.

That is an astronomical figure!

But look at it objectively. Is the allegation well grounded? Surely, Anwar cannot be saying that the whole RM600 billion has disappeared. I suspect some billions might have leaked here and there, but in Malaysia, is this a great surprise? If he was talking about procedural breaches per se, then I am afraid he is making a mountain out of a molehill. If either is true, Tengku Zafrul Aziz, the finance minister at that time, must take responsibility. Yet, Tengku Zafrul has been named the new minister of International Trade & Industry. Has he checked with Tengku Zafrul about it?

This allegation of Anwar reminds me of what Lim Guan Eng did when he first assumed office as Finance Minister during the Pakatan Harapan government. He expressed grave concern over the status of the country’s Consolidated Account, implying that some irregularities had taken place. Did we hear anything about it later? Was anyone convicted for it?

A more thoughtful man would certainly want it to be properly substantiated before an allegation of this proportion is hurled. Hope Anwar does not make a fool of himself, like what he has done with his “We have the numbers” claims before. He cannot afford it!

Interestingly, I read that the ministry’s Secretary General has been put on no pay leave. I do not know if there is any connection there. (A video clip showing this top official’s luxury home is now being circulated. A typical show-off by some “Napoleons” who think they can get away with murders!) Anwar’s explanation that the action is normal, blah, blah, blah is also a little disingenuous. It is short on truth.

Similarly, a business-like call by Anwar to Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary has similarly caused a storm. He is being accused by Kedah Menteri Besar Sanusi Nor of deliberating targeting Malay tycoons. There you are: Anwar is following DAP’s orders!

The GE15 results have clearly demonstrated that the Malay heartlands have shifted their support to PAS and despite the sentiments that have been expressed by the palaces, the pace is gaining momentum, as all of us can see from the Padang Serai result.

PN’s latest win is likely to embolden them to call for a confidence vote earlier than expected. And you cannot rule out the possibility that even some UMNO members may decide to jump ship, not to mention the others who have given their SDs to Muhyiddin before the formation of the present government.

Anwar’s political record has not been perfect. Many of us still remember his activism when we were still students at the University of Malaya in the aftermath of May 13. Some may also know this: When Anwar was the minister of Education, Syed Hussein Alatas, who was then the vice chancellor of the University of Malaya, had to vanish his ambition of making the university as well regarded as the University of Singapore. This resulted in several professors having to throw in their towel and move to Singapore or other places to further their academic careers. 

Nonetheless, Anwar has personally gone through a lot. I am sure he has gained much wisdom now. He has the traits to be a good leader for all. He must not allow himself to be tripped by his own debris. Talk less and do more to assure the Malay heartlands not to unnecessarily fear the minority are the way to go – at least in the first six months of his office.

An innocent picture like this can reinforce prejudices!

Japanese – Asia’s Honorary Whites?

Japan is a beautiful country. Japanese folks are some of the nicest people on Earth – obsessively clean and orderly, very meticulous, ritualistic, great manners and a keen sense of shame if they do something not right, art out of mundane stuff, and many, many admirable cultural traits. I love their food; every dish is usually exquisitely prepared, and the taste is often great, not to mention the level of health consciousness that goes into it.

But I just cannot reconcile these perfectionist qualities I see in them with the leaders they now have.

Their political leaders are forever anxious to please Joe Biden and some of the very obnoxious leaders in both sides of America’s political divide. And their NYT equivalent, Nikkei Asia, is in my opinion most unashamedly distortionist when it comes to reporting on China. Everything about China in it is bad, especially Xi Jinping, who often is being portrayed as a monster. Even images of him are doctored to make Xi look “ugly” or menacing.

Xi often a Fu Manchu in the eyes of Nikkei

Of course, Nikkei is not the only press that is trying to influence the world to hate China. 80% of the Western media does that. They have obvious reasons to do so. But coming from Asians, that is disingenuous. Modern Japanese are genetically 70% Han Chinese, but their leaders make them think they are superior to Chinese.

Of course, I do not expect Chinese and Japanese should behave like abang-adeks (siblings). After all, the Russians and Ukrainians are East Slavs, and they are now at each other’s throats. The Whites in continental Europe are more or less of the same stock, but they have never been united as a nation since history began. Tribal interests reign supreme. Even in Singapore, where 70% of the population is Chinese, you also see a bias against China in the way their MSM reports developments there – on issues like COVID numbers, real estate bubbles, and even human rights. Their tone gives the impression that situations are so dire that the country is about to collapse under these weights. I asked a Singaporean friend why their MSMs are behaving that way. He explains: Our economy is still very dependent on America; we know how they behave. They want “friends” to side them, and they consider Singapore as one to them. Micron is big here, and our port houses America’s naval facilities. China will always tolerate us (kai-ki lang mah – own kind!); our subtle poking will NOT prompt them to act like bullies to us!

Point taken.

I always assert that the world has produced only two great transformative leaders during our life time: Lee Kuan Yew and Xi Jinping. It has certainly produced many great leaders in the last century – Winston Churchill of Great Britain, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Konrad Adenauer, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk of Turkey, Mao Zedong of China, and several others. But I dare say that none of them can be said to be transformative greats.

Singapore was in a pathetic state island when it separated from Malaysia in 1965. It was very dependent on the hinterland, namely Peninsular Malaysia, for its wellbeing, including water supply. Lee transformed it into a truly First World nation – all achieved during his watch. He also worked out a succession policy that can ensure sustainability.

As for Xi, he brought millions out of poverty and made China an example that not everything about, or from, the West is great. Of course, this has scared the hell out of America and the imperialist minds in the U.K. and Japan.

These two greats possess three similar denominators: They are ethnically Han Chinese, both are Confucianist, and they are autocratic, but in a benevolent way.

On reading this, some readers will say I am talking like a typical Chinese chauvinist. In fact, I am, but only in this instance. My chauvinism is borne out of my observations of the quality of Western political leaders today. Most of them are intellectually shallow. Lee and Xi’s conducts exemplify the very essence of the Ru 儒philosophy and it is encapsulated in these eight Chinese characters: 礼义廉耻 公明正大 (lĭ yì lián chĭ. gōng ming zhèng dà; some say the latter should read 光明正大 guāng míng zhèng dà).

礼Lĭ is the practice of good manners or diplomacy, extending good courtesy to even enemies; 义yì reciprocity to good deeds received; 廉lián humility even if you are great shakes; and 耻chĭ a self-sense of shame if you do something or disgraceful.

公Gōng means for the benefit of the bigger community; 明ming clean, transparent; 正zhèng the correct stance to take, or thing to do; and 大dà a big heart, picture, or magnanimity.

Their adoption and true practice of these eight “virtues” were the path that led them to great statesmanship.

Lee has passed on, and his legacy is there for all to see. Some may argue that his earlier political days were not that pretty, for he had used pro-Communist leftists to claw his way into political dominance, but only to finish them once he had consolidated his power. A Machiavelli?

Xi has also convinced observers of his formidable mettle with what he had used to transform China. The results are also clear. However, I do harbour a concern – about a tendency in Chinese society to promote emperor-ism. Mao was a case in point. During his reign, the whole society was paralyzed into singing praises for him day-in-and-day-out, regardless of the madness he had plunged the country into. Lately, Xi appeared to have allowed himself to be treated like one – even the standing committee members of the Politburo must walk several steps behind in public appearances. And there is always a mention of Marxist thoughts when he gives speeches. And TV readers are also conditioned into parroting his “imperial” title and the Xi Jinping thoughts now. I observe that the stations are now unable to go beyond scripts they have been prepared for them to read. Ever see any breaking news from CCTV4 or CCTV13 or CGTN lately? Hope Xi does not get carried away, like what Mao did.

In my opinion, Japan under its present breed of leaders poses the greatest danger to China. Thanks to the way they elect their leaders, and the way their leaders bring in sor-cais (empty-headed chaps, Cantonese term) to help them, hegemon America will be a lame duck in no time. Yet, instead of working with China and Korea to complement one another, Japan is following Western nincompoops like shadows.  

Japanese leaders and its military have always been students of Sun-zi 孙子. Shintoism is also steep in Buddhism and Confucianism. But in treating their neighbours, they appeared to be adopting Sun-zi’s bing fǎ (兵法, the art of war) wholesale! And that is deception, deception, deception. What should be needed is more Kung-zi, or Confucianism where 公Gōng is the key.

These Japanese leaders do not want to face up to true history. They are persuading their young to think that invading China and Southeast Asia during World War II was the country’s sacred duty to help fellow Asians. They have also been conditioned to think that they are genetically superior, like the Whites. (Years ago, in South Africa during the Apartheid days, Japanese were treated as honorary Whites!)

During World War II, their military caused atrocities of the worst kind on Chinese and overseas Chinese. Colonel Shoji who was the chief operational strategist behind the invasion of Malay wrote a handbook for the soldiers to carry along. It explicitly spelled out how their soldiers should treat the conquered people: Be benevolent to the natives, and be very harsh with the local Chinese. (Many of the Japanese soldiers were actually Taiwanese. They had been Nipponized to look down on their own kind. (Japan ruled Taiwan for half a century! No wonder Taiwan today has a China hater in the name of Tsai Ing-wen!)

Japanese solders also inflicted great miseries on British, Australian, and Indian soldiers. But people like Scott Morison and Rishi Sunak have obviously not read history. I do not know Narendra Modi’s stance on this matter. His will always be unique.

If the Japanese leaders can come to their senses to realize that they are not White, then West Pacific will certainly emerge to the best example of how a future world should evolve.

End