Saturday, and asking, Are we not all Asians?
Are we not all Asians?
“The distinction between the sovereign states of Asia, are so wide-ranging, that no one truly understands what is the underlying similarities between Asian states, apart from the word, Asia.” I told that to an acquaintance once, and he responded with a rather apparent astonishment, that led me to realise how little we Asians understand of Asia. These distinction, is no longer trivial, because these differences are what differentiated our believes and conceptual understanding of cultures within Asia, that we, modern Asians, considered “foreign”.
The Singaporean society have long been known to posses the intriguing characteristic of being able to be further differentiated into 4 major communities: Chinese, Malay, Pan-Indian and Eurasian, yet a Singaporean should well understand that the true Singaporean society is most likely one that is cosmopolitan, which warrants further differentiation of the society into other communal groupings. The truth is, even within these major communities, there are further differentiation, so trivial that to a non-Asian, it seemed rather redundant.
I am myself, attributed for such confusion, because most of the time, I am perplexed by my ancestry. Not due to any sense of ancestral repulsion, but rather the origins of my parents are of no distinctive communal groupings. In so realising, while we have always maintained our dialect group being Teochew, there is still degree of underlying cultural secrecy, that are not perceptible to our eyes.
I attended government secondary school, and in them you are assured to be given the opportunity to meet students from multiple communal groupings. Views can at times be disparate, but nonetheless, in the midst of dissimilarity, these students often find themselves entwined in friendly relationships, that is unheard of in other cosmopolitan society. Yes, racialism do exist, but at such ridiculous scant quantities, that it all seemed insignificant.
So once in 2003, as usual, I assign myself to be complicated into a nonsensical discussion of which intellectual level was awfully lacking. There was a negligible sense of social discourse, intriguingly, as though there is a spatter of political correctness in that particular discussion. I was asked, “So you Teochew right? They speak very funny one leh.” Well, there is cultural parochialism even within a community that is so closely knitted. Such intolerance surprises me; to differentiate the identity of a Teochew and a Hokkien, is comparable to identify the difference between oxygen and nitrogen by the sense of smell.
I have since moved on, and becoming more devoted to my Teochew heritage, to an extent of chauvinism. By 2004 though, I have became quite disillusioned over the learning of the Chinese language, and for the sake of my fledging handling of the English language, I forgo the former. By 2006, I have attained the status of being an ultimate “banana”, an overly utilised term that have the effect to ridicule an Asian person, who rejected one’s culture for the Westerners. I watch BBC World everyday on cable; communicate only in English when in school and on the Internet; I even owned an iPod that contains no lesser than 2000 tunes that are either English, German, French or Russian, and none in Asian languages that is intelligible to me.
Surely, I am pleased with my “development”. However, one thing that truly bothers me was, why my acquaintance, even my best friends, cannot abandon for a while the Asian languages and music. March 2006, I struck an epiphany. I realised that not only I betrayed my true heritage, I chose to be disloyal to a community that contributed so much for the development of the Singaporean society, and invest upon one that have done little for the advancement of Singapore. I realised the importance to embrace one’s culture, because one without such true calling, is nothing but a chameleon that hopes desperately to blend into surrounding.
Surprisingly, a chameleon survives. One that harps upon the cultural difference, and worked to amplifies such differences, will not survive. It is such revelation, like the one that I experienced, move Asians further away from globalisation. Kuwait is an Asian country, but I bet you that a Singaporean will only recognise the fact that they are human beings, as the only similarity both state shares (not considering that the Singaporean you ask may be a Muslim).
It is the heterogeneous nature of the Asian cultures, that forced us into the path of protectionism, becoming less tolerant of cultures we perceive as “foreign”. Why make such distinctions, while we are supposed to work towards a greater Asian continent? It is also this disparate nature of our cultures, that gave communities outside of Asia to exploit such circumstances. The situation is not unusual, inasmuch as the Asian continent being so unpredictable.
Internal quibbles, distrust and denying culture assimilation, made us Asians, the most favourable target of exploitation, because to the eyes of foreign communities, it is the prime period to seize whatever they desire, while we crumble in our own quarrels. For instance, the Iraqi war was fought by my Asians against Asians! And in Afghanistan, had not the Korean hostage crisis unravel the fact that Asians will no longer respect Asians?
Ironically, one can always reason that Asians have never respected Asians. In 1997, while our dear neighbour Indonesia was in the midst of total economic collapse, had not racial intolerant killed many non-native Indonesians? In the Second World War, had not the Japanese betrayed all Asians, in its expansionist attempt to swallow Asia, and killing an astronomical amount of Chinese?
So call the Asian community an idealism, it still nonetheless, is a topic that remind us, how different we are making ourselves, and not how different we have always used to be. A Chinese and an Iraqi are never too similar - the language we speak, the culture we live in, and the beliefs we had. Yet, the fact that we all live in a continent, spells the fact that we ought to find a solution that will contain all the difference, and capitalise upon such an advantage we shared: The oil abundance in Southwestern Asia, the unexploited reserves of labour in Southeast Asia, and the soaring economies of East Asia. All these can attribute to the rise of Asia.
This century should not be solely that of China, but of Asia. Because for once, we are equipped with the ability to speak amiably to another, the reach to technologies that enable us to understand the cultural differences, and the means to make assimilation possible. A cosmopolitan Asia that is less protectionist, will capacitate the consolidated rise of Asia, and only then, will China truly rise, because a powerful East Asia and a weak Southwestern Asia, still reflects quite badly of Asia as a whole.
I hope you find this read worthy.
“The distinction between the sovereign states of Asia, are so wide-ranging, that no one truly understands what is the underlying similarities between Asian states, apart from the word, Asia.” I told that to an acquaintance once, and he responded with a rather apparent astonishment, that led me to realise how little we Asians understand of Asia. These distinction, is no longer trivial, because these differences are what differentiated our believes and conceptual understanding of cultures within Asia, that we, modern Asians, considered “foreign”.
The Singaporean society have long been known to posses the intriguing characteristic of being able to be further differentiated into 4 major communities: Chinese, Malay, Pan-Indian and Eurasian, yet a Singaporean should well understand that the true Singaporean society is most likely one that is cosmopolitan, which warrants further differentiation of the society into other communal groupings. The truth is, even within these major communities, there are further differentiation, so trivial that to a non-Asian, it seemed rather redundant.
I am myself, attributed for such confusion, because most of the time, I am perplexed by my ancestry. Not due to any sense of ancestral repulsion, but rather the origins of my parents are of no distinctive communal groupings. In so realising, while we have always maintained our dialect group being Teochew, there is still degree of underlying cultural secrecy, that are not perceptible to our eyes.
I attended government secondary school, and in them you are assured to be given the opportunity to meet students from multiple communal groupings. Views can at times be disparate, but nonetheless, in the midst of dissimilarity, these students often find themselves entwined in friendly relationships, that is unheard of in other cosmopolitan society. Yes, racialism do exist, but at such ridiculous scant quantities, that it all seemed insignificant.
So once in 2003, as usual, I assign myself to be complicated into a nonsensical discussion of which intellectual level was awfully lacking. There was a negligible sense of social discourse, intriguingly, as though there is a spatter of political correctness in that particular discussion. I was asked, “So you Teochew right? They speak very funny one leh.” Well, there is cultural parochialism even within a community that is so closely knitted. Such intolerance surprises me; to differentiate the identity of a Teochew and a Hokkien, is comparable to identify the difference between oxygen and nitrogen by the sense of smell.
I have since moved on, and becoming more devoted to my Teochew heritage, to an extent of chauvinism. By 2004 though, I have became quite disillusioned over the learning of the Chinese language, and for the sake of my fledging handling of the English language, I forgo the former. By 2006, I have attained the status of being an ultimate “banana”, an overly utilised term that have the effect to ridicule an Asian person, who rejected one’s culture for the Westerners. I watch BBC World everyday on cable; communicate only in English when in school and on the Internet; I even owned an iPod that contains no lesser than 2000 tunes that are either English, German, French or Russian, and none in Asian languages that is intelligible to me.
Surely, I am pleased with my “development”. However, one thing that truly bothers me was, why my acquaintance, even my best friends, cannot abandon for a while the Asian languages and music. March 2006, I struck an epiphany. I realised that not only I betrayed my true heritage, I chose to be disloyal to a community that contributed so much for the development of the Singaporean society, and invest upon one that have done little for the advancement of Singapore. I realised the importance to embrace one’s culture, because one without such true calling, is nothing but a chameleon that hopes desperately to blend into surrounding.
Surprisingly, a chameleon survives. One that harps upon the cultural difference, and worked to amplifies such differences, will not survive. It is such revelation, like the one that I experienced, move Asians further away from globalisation. Kuwait is an Asian country, but I bet you that a Singaporean will only recognise the fact that they are human beings, as the only similarity both state shares (not considering that the Singaporean you ask may be a Muslim).
It is the heterogeneous nature of the Asian cultures, that forced us into the path of protectionism, becoming less tolerant of cultures we perceive as “foreign”. Why make such distinctions, while we are supposed to work towards a greater Asian continent? It is also this disparate nature of our cultures, that gave communities outside of Asia to exploit such circumstances. The situation is not unusual, inasmuch as the Asian continent being so unpredictable.
Internal quibbles, distrust and denying culture assimilation, made us Asians, the most favourable target of exploitation, because to the eyes of foreign communities, it is the prime period to seize whatever they desire, while we crumble in our own quarrels. For instance, the Iraqi war was fought by my Asians against Asians! And in Afghanistan, had not the Korean hostage crisis unravel the fact that Asians will no longer respect Asians?
Ironically, one can always reason that Asians have never respected Asians. In 1997, while our dear neighbour Indonesia was in the midst of total economic collapse, had not racial intolerant killed many non-native Indonesians? In the Second World War, had not the Japanese betrayed all Asians, in its expansionist attempt to swallow Asia, and killing an astronomical amount of Chinese?
So call the Asian community an idealism, it still nonetheless, is a topic that remind us, how different we are making ourselves, and not how different we have always used to be. A Chinese and an Iraqi are never too similar - the language we speak, the culture we live in, and the beliefs we had. Yet, the fact that we all live in a continent, spells the fact that we ought to find a solution that will contain all the difference, and capitalise upon such an advantage we shared: The oil abundance in Southwestern Asia, the unexploited reserves of labour in Southeast Asia, and the soaring economies of East Asia. All these can attribute to the rise of Asia.
This century should not be solely that of China, but of Asia. Because for once, we are equipped with the ability to speak amiably to another, the reach to technologies that enable us to understand the cultural differences, and the means to make assimilation possible. A cosmopolitan Asia that is less protectionist, will capacitate the consolidated rise of Asia, and only then, will China truly rise, because a powerful East Asia and a weak Southwestern Asia, still reflects quite badly of Asia as a whole.
I hope you find this read worthy.
