I’m glad that things worked out well for you family. I too have spent some time in Singapore. I loved it. I was a kid back then. Singapore felt almost magical.

Dear Anna-Smile:

It’s good hearing from a gaginang. Although I was born in Hong Kong, my ancestry was Chaozhou/Shantou. I still speak Teochiu/Chaozhouhua at home. And I intend my posterity to speak Teochiu/Chaozhouhua until the end of time.

My family has been “professional patriots” for generations. Most became patriotic writers, guerilla fighters, revolutionaries, progressive thinkers, and even secret agents. If you look up any collected biographies of contemporary Chinese heroes, you’re likely to come across my relatives. Especially since my grandparents’ contributions are more and more recognised. Asiatimes did a tribute to my father’s father once.

Many in my family settled overseas. So we always had Southeast Asian connections. My branch of the family settled mostly in Australia and Canada.

You don’t hear the word Huaqiao a lot anymore. But that’s exactly how I see myself, as an Aiguo Huaqiao. So ever since childhood, I maintained a persistent interest in Huaqiao history. Some of the stories are very moving. Especially the ones about Chinese solidarity. I often feel very emotional just thinking about them.

I feel there’s a lot of guilt involved. For instance, before the Khmer Rouge, there were many Teochiu/Chaozhou villages in Cambodia. Now, of course they are all gone. The thing is, the Chinese embassies did nothing to help these people at the time. They must have known something bad was going on. But they did nothing to help.

I don’t blame Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge did not persecute Chinese people specifically. Instead, it was engaged in a paranoid struggle against class enemies.

But I blame the central government. I blame the central government because it never helped its kin people. Instead, government fixated on ideological purity and class struggle. Therefore, it supported the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge was Maoist.

This is one reason I don’t believe in cosmopolitanism. There are few ideologies so cosmopolitan as Marxist-Leninism. It runs counter to Confucian sensibilities. It opposes the Way of Nature. I much prefer Sun Yat-Sen’s Sanmin Zhuyi. Blood is thicker than water. It’s something concrete. Mencius says, if we treat everyone as our father, then we really neglect our father.

The flip side of cosmopolitanism is individualism. Nowadays everyone is an individual. No one cares about the extended family anymore. People imagine falsely that any relation is the same. That friends can replace family.

But I can tell you that blood relations are something different. Even if you’ve only met your cousin a few times, she is still dearer to you than a co-worker you’ve known for years.

Individualism and cosmopolitanism lead to systematic oppression of the people, because power is centered on the state rather than on the clan. This is why social workers can take children away from family for the most trivial excuses. Or why counsellors can push “realistic” life choices (abortion/adoption) onto pregnant teenagers. (Surprising fact – Chinese people were much freer under the Qing Empire than under either the ROC or the PRC.)

Anyway…

In the old days, Overseas Chinese communities were the most patriotic. The central government misused their loyalty and then discarded them when they no longer proved useful.

For instance, the Burmese Communist Party used to have many Chinese members. Now, the Burmese Communist Party is defunct. Many old fighters are left without houses, families, and money. Some are even begging for food on the streets.

Hardly a hero’s welcome home.

I just wish Chinese nationalist organisations are more aware of these things. Then they can compel the government to remedy past injustices. (Instead being obsessed with Japan.)

One thing I would like to see before the end of my time is new laws on citizenship. We should take the best part of French and German laws. Citizenship should reflect two principles – blood and culture. First, anyone who has Chinese ancestry should be allowed to claim Chinese citizenship. Second, anyone who accepts Chinese cultural ideals should be allowed to claim citizenship.

There are some people talking about this. But there isn’t enough momentum.

Thanks for being so courteous. I knew that when I posted this topic, there was the possibility of just such a debate breaking out. Not a big deal.

My younger brother is very happily married to a Filipina (a real “bumi”, not a Sino-Filipina). Their beautiful and happy little son, aged 2+, is 100% Peranakan Singaporean, 100% Pinoy. Don’t you love the way “family math” operates, so that nobody has to be merely “half-this and half-that”!

Historical conflict between France and Germany may have been deep enough to help fuel the Napoleonic Wars and two World Wars, yet today war between them is improbable because France and Germany are (effectively) married to each other via their membership in the European Union. And today, even Poland is “married” to Germany in this way. More than any weaponry or military might, this kind of “marriage” (based on reconciliation and integration) has finally given the main European players in WWII an enduring peace. Well, that’s just my view…

LD, here’s a nice story from the NYT that describes very well how your country has “moved on”:-

Many thanks to John Pasden, host of Sinosplice, for being gracious and allowing me to go “off-topic” in this way as a guest on his site.

what abstract seems to be advocating is to just accept that force and violence and inequality is a permanent system ofresolving conflict in the world and to make the chinese nation economically,militarily stronger so that ethnic chinese worldwide will not suffer so much.

but abstract youve got some parts wrong. there will always be hatred, even if china can defend her people in the future there will still be ethnic malays/indians in se asia that will discriminate agaisnt ethnic chinese. America invaded iraq and afghanistan- look how many people across the middle east (and other places) hate america now! violent solutions will not work alone,this is why there is ‘ethnic racism’ everywhere inthe world against everyone-not just ethnic chinese.

culture with strength is as important to protect your people. a strong culture can achieve many more things to help the chinese people stand up for their rights.thats why people such as malcom X and Martin luther king, even Gandhi are still revered and admired by the ethnic communities that they were born of- because they stood up for the civil rights of their people.

abstract – you talk about the importance of a ’strong chinese navy’ to protect ethnic chinese people. but these are just physical items, its more important for chinese minds and culture to be strong. it doesnt matter what weapons you have , if you havent got the heart and are just relying on physical size or tech superiority where will that get you?(think vietnam vs america)

you have to ask yourself abstract, why didnt ethnic chinese indonesians protect THEMSELVES during the race riots? they were among the wealthy elite of indonesia, they have connections and they can afford weapons. why didnt they fight back?

because theyre minds were weak, the didnt have the fighter mind. they werent prepared to stand theyreground and fight back, they instead ran away to australia and hk and singapore, china. their ethnic culture , identity and as a result their minds, the way they thought was weak.

strength is not only just what you have(such as a navy) but it is also a way of thinking, regardless of your surroundings.

but abstract, you dont need to worry about protecting china and her people, chinese people make up 1/5 of theworlds ppulation- they are the worlds most populous unitary nation state they shall never be eliminated from the face of earth. if any thing the great grandchildren of all those se asians(and whites) that bullied ethnic chinese will probably be part ethnic chinese in the future.

btw i noticed abstract you said your family originally came from chaozou, same as mine-are they from shantou as well? if they are- Gaginang abstract, Gaginang, will always stand up for themselves. dont worry about what others say or do, just be strong within yourself!

May we be protected together/ May we be nourished together/ May we work together with great vigour/ May our study be enlightening/ May no obstacle arise between us/ Aum shaantih, shaantih, shaantih/

May goodness and mercy follow you always!

Actually, if you want to continue this discussion, just email me instead. (In the post immediately above, if you haven’t read that yet.)

I don’t want to keep arguing with Auntie and Jo anymore. Since we obviously have very different mentalities. Which cannot be gapped.

(I’m not saying cosmopolitanism is an inherently bad thing. But I think Auntie and Jo were very unfair toward me throughout the discussion. In many expatriate forums, Chinese nationalists are stereotyped as having knee-jerk reactions, but I think many people have knee-jerk reactions to pro-China views, or even the mere suggestion that some people love their country.)

I also have a website on Daoism, alchemy, magic, divination, astrology, feng-shui, etc. If anyone is interested, email for the address. I’m not going to post it in public because it’s still under construction.

BTW, Jo, Auntie, let’s just leave this subject at rest. Otherwise, when one person writes his “concluding words,” the other person feels compelled to update his “concluding words.” And then we will never be able to leave this blog.

The souls of humans dwell above the moon/ Above the dotted veil which falls at night/ Above the stars which measure heaven’s height/ Held by eternity’s unspoken tune/

Since I’ve never been to Indonesia, I can only discuss what my relatives and friends tell me, as well as what I read from university research papers.

I would actually be very interested to hear what you feel is incorrect in my above statements. Please email me at Vaibhasika at hotmail dot com. Perhaps we can do a sort of interview where I send you questions over a few sessions, and you can answer them whenever you want. Or post your views here.

But I’m very sure my statistics are correct, and they are very conservative estimates, because I have compared many papers on this.

Perhaps the difference is that your mother is Indonesian? My relatives from Indonesia visit Hong Kong regularly, and they have always considered themselves Chinese, not Indonesian. I remember that they brought swallow’s nest every time they visited. Some of my poorer relatives went back to China during the fifties. So of course they are completely Chinese now.

But how did your father and mother get married? Did your father convert to Islam? Or does your mother practise Hinduism, Christianity, or some other faith?

Have you been to China? Or do you plan on visiting China in the future?