Can you tell my race from this photo? Am I Malay, Thai or ...? This is the question people always ask me. They are always puzzled when they notice my name; Brendan Wong. Chinese? No, he can’t be. But then again, the minute I start to speak to them in Mandarin, everything is laid to rest.
Mandarin! If there is one thing that I am grateful to my parents for, it would be the fact that they insisted I go to a Chinese school.
Mandarin! If there is one thing that I am grateful to my parents for, it would be the fact that they insisted I go to a Chinese school.
Oh! I did not always feel this way! I grew up in an English speaking home. At the age of seven, I was sent to Primary One in a Chinese school. Tawau’s Sin Hwa Primary. Imagine the horror of being thrown into an environment that was totally alien to me.
I would beg my mum to send me to a national school but she insisted that it was for my own good. I really did not see it that way then. I was an idealistic Malaysian who thought that my destiny lay in this country (tanah tumpah darahku). I naively thought that I was a total citizen and that I only needed to know Malay, and maybe a little English to communicate with those who did not know "my" language. This was way before China had been accepted into the global community and way before communal politics of the Peninsular infiltrated ours. I stupidly thought we were all equal!
Fast forward to this day, the leaders of my country have forced me to accept the fact that I am a Chinese who is a "citizen" of Malaysia and I have to accept “ketuanan” (the mastery) of another race. (I shall not go into this here). I am however so glad I got the basics to accept my destiny of being a global Chinese.
I would beg my mum to send me to a national school but she insisted that it was for my own good. I really did not see it that way then. I was an idealistic Malaysian who thought that my destiny lay in this country (tanah tumpah darahku). I naively thought that I was a total citizen and that I only needed to know Malay, and maybe a little English to communicate with those who did not know "my" language. This was way before China had been accepted into the global community and way before communal politics of the Peninsular infiltrated ours. I stupidly thought we were all equal!
Fast forward to this day, the leaders of my country have forced me to accept the fact that I am a Chinese who is a "citizen" of Malaysia and I have to accept “ketuanan” (the mastery) of another race. (I shall not go into this here). I am however so glad I got the basics to accept my destiny of being a global Chinese.
I had six years of Chinese instruction before happily immersing myself into the national secondary school curriculum. If I could turn back time, I would have continued my secondary education in Chinese as well. I’m today re-learning the language of my ancestors. And I am determined to master it. For I am after all, an Overseas Chinese who happens to be Malaysian right now. This is my destiny!
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