Malaysia Journal 4 - Chinese off the Southern Seas

Southern Seas, or Nan Yang (南洋), is a Chinese term for South-East Asian countries. One or two hundred years ago when wars and difficult times were occuring in China, migrates from this country, especially from her coastal provinces, began to embark on journeys across the South China Sea to seek opportunities in the under-populated lands.

After WWII, the immigration flow stopped due to the independence of these countries and the rise of nationalism. However, the Chinese culture has still been retained and Chinese people can easily be identified. In Malaysia, Chinese account for some 23% of the total population, though it has been decreasing since the emigration of Chinese to North America and Australia, and the lower birth rates of Chinese compared to Malay and Indians.

Though having heard of the size of Chinese population in Malaysia before the trip, I was still amazed at the popularity of Mandarin and other Chinese dialects I had overheard on streets in Malaysia. There are Chinese signs everywhere. Menus are written in Chinese sometimes even in an Indian restaurant. Chinese newspapers can be found at major newsagents. People talk to you in Chinese if you look Chinese enough. To be honest I was quite annoyed when asked about where I came from in China because I　KNEW they had never heard of my city, not even my province. Why bother asking? Anyway I had to explain to them where exactly my province is.

-Is it near Shanghai or Beijing? 

-Beijing. 

-So is it north or south? 

-It's in Northern China but south of Beijing. About three hours drive. 

-Oh yes I went to China in 2005 and I've been to.. blah blah blah

Well I don't mind sharing my hometown with fellow Chinese people. But it's just TIRING!

So anyway, I think most of the Malaysian Chinese were originated southern coastal Chinese provinces such as Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan, etc. Their mother tongues were Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka and other non-Mandarin Chinese dialects. Thanks to the wisdom of local Chinese community leaders, they began to adopt Mandarin as a lingua franca among local Chinese communities. They have been teaching Mandarin and simplified Chinese characters in school for a while, maybe since 1990s. The uniformity of Chinese dialects in Malaysia is perhaps less than in Singapore, where any Chinese dialects other than Mandarin are prohibited in public broadcasting, but of course better than in Indonesia. In Suharto-era Indonesia, under the 'New Order' scheme, no Chinese was allowed to be taught at school. Even Chinese books were not allowed. This strict policy made most Indonesian Chinese unable to speak Mandarin nor write Chinese. I recently interviewed a local Indonesian Chinese student about how she learnt Mandarin. She said her family hired a tutor to teach her, while the lingua franca of local Chinese community is Hokkien.

Malaysian Chinese cuisine is as wonderful as it is famous for. Hainan Chicken Rice is probably one of the best-known dish from strait-settled Chinese. It was brought by immigrants from Hainan Island. (It is a remote island of China. Think about Tasmania to Australia.) The story was when Hainan people arrived in Malaysia and Singapore they found the jobs were taken by pioneers from Guangdong and Fujian. So they had nothing to do except be a cook. The dish is a combination of tender chicken and oily flavourful rice.

Malaysian Chinese contribute a lot to the formation of Chinese communities in Australian and other Western countries . Especially Australia which is a geographical neighbour of Malaysia. During my visit, a lot of people I talked with had some connection with Australia. They have either friends or family members living in Australia.