Ok, so I flipped out on #SocialMedia yesterday (meaning, I responded and engaged with someone that said something offensive). I blocked him but should've done that before typing that angry reply.
I think I'm on edge because the #Malaysia state elections is around the corner & feel more anxious than usual. So anti-China posts, which is almost like the anti-Chinese posts on right-wing Twitterjaya really triggered me.
I guess I may be 200+ yrs removed from my...
@liztai
My understanding is that in Malaysia, there has been strong anti-Chinese thinking for quite some time and that folks who are ethnically Malaysian get favoured for employment, etc. In many areas, the Chinese immigrants maintained close ties and supported each other financially to do well in business, only to be viewed with suspicion and envy by other groups. Similar to a lot of anti-semitic sentiment in other areas.
@liztai I learned after five years here that Asian American activism was really kickstarted after racists killed a Chinese American person thinking he was Japanese (they thought Japanese cars were killing detroit’s auto industry). No one can tell the difference, no one cares.
I’ve been attacked several times in California for being Chinese. It’s not as bad as elsewhere. Same in Australia.
@liztai I think it’s possible and important as an ethnic Chinese person to take a stance against the Chinese govt (for me). But that’s different from anti-China hate.
@liztai One of the unadvertised and under rated features of the Fediverse that I'm seeing is the ability for non-anglosphere and minority groups to just build their own social media spaces. We can just defederate from most of them and have more peaceful conversations. I think this is the way forward.
Because discoverability is so bad on the Fediverse it's actually possible to hide entire communities in it.
@ubi Haha yes. That's why I made TootSEA my home feed instead. I just needed some peace from their constant rants either about tech, facists, authoritarian governments omg. Not all are like that of course, but because I do like following tech stuff, it is full of it. What is up with that, seriously. Anyway, if you know of any non-anglo social media spaces lemme know. Kopiti.am is the only one I do now, and following the #TootSEA hashtags :P
@liztai I just discovered that the Thais and the Japanese are creating their own social media spaces, with the added defence of speaking in their own languages. I'm seeing American black and indigenous communities set up their own stuff as well.
There's a Malay language Malaysian Mastodon server, but my instance isn't federated with them so I don't really see what's going on there.
But the SEA community is a kind of metacommunity that is spread all over the Fediverse.
...ancestors in China, but for some reason I do still feel a part of China. This is something I noticed - Chinese from around the world seem to feel the same. Maybe because in Malaysia, the Chinese never really 100% assimilated and held on to their culture and mindsets. So anti-China rhetoric feels like #racist attacks, almost. Just thinking out loud ... I wonder, if you're Chinese but not from #China, do you feel affected by anti-China sentiments?
Or am I weird?
@liztai
My (non social media) partner is Chinese from a Pacific Island - and is exactly this, even though she has never been to China. Still has the attitudes and preferences, view of politics, and still swears at me in the village dialect 😔
@liztai I'm more annoyed by the subtle implication that Chinese people can't think for themselves because they are currently under authoritarian rule. Philosophically Chinese people are very different from the modern Western mainstream. I feel like for all the talk about diversity, the west cannot accept a wider diversity of thought.
It's also why I find the trend of Asian American films annoying. It is like being lectured that we have to accept western values and assimilate.
@ubi Omg if I can hit like 10000 times I would. This was exactly my exasperation. They cannot accept that for 5000 years the Chinese organised their empire quite well and it wasn't a democracy. Whatever. Why try educate them, they don't even want to listen. Grr.
And good point about the Asian American thing ... no wonder I don't really relate to them...
@ubi Hah! I mean, you'd think if they saw how crappy Americans are living now they'd have doubts about that.
The thing is, these Americans don't seem to make that connection at all.
@liztai I get the feeling that it depends on which group of Chinese. Weirdly I find my generation of Chinese-speaking Malaysians to dislike China as compared to English-speaking ones and also older generations, probably because a lot of us grew up with Taiwanese/HK pop culture & our more educated ones are often educated in Taiwan (because of the whole UEC issue & bumi quota thing). Not too sure about Gen Z though as they are a lot more immersed in mainland Chinese pop culture. But
@liztai Like you said, it’s not hard to see & feel that a lot of anti-Chinese sentiments have a racial element to it. You can often tell when criticism are directed at the CCP or whether it’s directed at Chinese people as a whole. And yes, in Malaysian context it’s even worse because anti-Chinese sentiments are very real, as a Malaysian Chinese I do experience instances of micro-racism every day though I just brush it off as they are usually without malicious intentions.
@rakyat it wears you down after a while. I'm especially sensitive (annoyingly!), so that's why I stayed away from Twitterjaya. It's sad, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
@liztai Haha I live in the Bandar Baru Bangi part of Kajang so it’s… I won’t say that the people are not nice but you can tell if you’re not really welcome here. So I look forward to moving to a more mixed area of kajang by next year haha.
@liztai Personally I identify a lot more with “western” values that Chinese ones lol, there was even a time when criticizing the Chinese community (in a Chinese paper) was part of my branding haha. But the reality is, ppl still see us as “chinese” and if we adopt western/Malay culture, ppl see us as tokens that they can use to tell themselves “I’m not racist”, which is even more insulting.
@rakyat haha yes to all of this. I do feel more Western, and you're right - my progressive Chinese (read English educated) friends are quite anti-China, but admit that it's complicated and that Western narratives are simplistic. I'm more like, China doesn't think like the West, so I'm not going to expect to fully understand them, but they have the right to live the way they want. And I admire the advances they've made too.
@liztai Yup. I will never justify the atrocities in Xinjiang but I also found it impossible to see China in simplistic light because of the simple fact that they lifted 800 million out of poverty. Did the US ever do something that benefits humanity on such a scale, ever? Not that this cancels out Xinjiang, neither can Xinjiang cancel out this achievement. Every government has its good and ugly sides, we can just as well criticize the Americans for Vietnam and Cambodia and Iraq.
@liztai (And to blow ppl’s mind even more, I’ve met Muslims from Xinjiang who agree with what the CCP did in their homeland because it makes the place “safer”. That’s when I know that even in Xinjiang, there’s a diversity of opinions)
@rakyat@liztai The Uighurs that I've met were very unhappy with the CCP. It's definitely more complicated on the ground. Everything is always more complicated than it appears in the media.
@rakyat@ubi yea that's what I uncovered too. The problem I have with Westerners that bring up Ughyr issue is that they use their plight for their propaganda. Damn irritating, like how they talk about oppressed brainwashed Chinese 🙃
@rakyat yes exactly. This throwing rocks at other countries when they themselves are tainted is hypocritical, which is why I can't take their rants about authoritarianism seriously. Who asked them to have the Vietnam war? Invade Iraq? I can go on.
@rakyat@liztai Ironically, when I talk with my Malay friends, even the ones educated abroad, they seem to think that Chinese Malaysians are loyal to China and the CCP. Especially the Chinese speaking ones...
@ubi@rakyat hah! Well I cannot speak for all, but most of us are like, "why are China people like dat"
We are as China Chinese as Italian Americans are Italians. 😁
@ubi
Yes and that highlights how little we really know each other! I can get why they think that way because it intuitively fits a certain narrative/stereotype but people and communities are complicated. I actually find English-speaking Chinese to be more impressed at the CCP because of the whole “finding my roots” thing as well as Chinese speakers are exposed more to opinions that criticize China (via Taiwan etc). @liztai
@rakyat@liztai I'd love to see more of the discussion inside of China, but since almost none of it is translated I rarely do. A lot more propaganda gets translated and is in mainstream English language media.
Also there is a lack of communication between the Chinese speaking Chinese and Malay community, it leads to a lot of strange stereotypes amongst the Malays.
I'm HK-born, Canada raised. I'm ethnically Chinese but culturally Canadian.
Anti-China sentiment affects me not because it is a personal attack on me — I don't share values, language, nor lived experience — but rather because I'm afraid of an incorrect presumption being cast my way.
@devnull exactly about the incorrect presumption.
To me, it's alarming how little the West understands China and her culture and how eager they seem to want a war. If only they understand that most Chinese just want to make money haha. War is expensive and does not contribute to prosperity!
@liztai It's not weird. A lot of anti Chinese rhetoric feels like racist attacks. I'm Teochew Chinese (also with South Vietnam tribal family roots), living in Canada.
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