Global citizen

A friend and I once had a chat about our languages and it inevitably moved towards racist topics that will remain private between the both us. One of the thing she asked me in some degree of surprise was my lack of 'racism'.

"Are you not at least a little bit racist?".

One of the main triggers for this viewpoint is the appearance of a question that is repeated quite often in political alignment questionaires that I like to partake in that goes like this:

'It is foolish to be proud of your nationality as you cannot choose where you're born'.

The answer to that question is suitably one of a range of agree/disagreements between 1 to 5, 1 being th strongly agree and the other end strongly disagree. My answer to that was a 3 - neither agree nor disagree.

I like to apply that question to things such as race as well, which would make it sound like this:

'It is foolish to be proud of your racial ancestry as you cannot choose into what racial family you're born'.

I'm a firm 'Strongly Agree' for this one.

I'm a 3rd generation Malaysian Chinese - great grandfather was from China, his son born here and my dad after him. I was brought up in Chinese values and could speak 4 Chinese dialects including Mandarin.

That is where it ends.

I see no reason to have any kind of affinity to the country of my ancestry, China. I feel no support for China when they have their representatives in international tournaments. I don't feel the need to applaud the Chinese for sending a taikonaut into space and neither do I think they're amazing for being the most populous nation in the world. I have pretty much no reaction to local chinese who kept harping about China becoming the biggest economy on Earth or the military might of its army.

Big deal.

It would be an actual big deal if I were a businessman or the economic policy maker of the country as the market of China is so big, it would be foolish to ignore the potential. In this sense we're already talking business and economics, not race.

Furthermore what benefit is there for me to be proud of 'motherland' China anyway? The CCP have no idea I even exist, I don't receive any kind of perk for being born into a family sharing the same cultural values as those there, neither would it make any difference to my life now if they won the Thomas Cup. Who freaking cares if Vietnamese were descended of the Chinese.

Big deal.

I enjoy Chinese New Year for the chance to go home and meet the family annually. The family matters to me, not the festival itself. The celebrations allow gives everybody the reason to get together for a yearly reunion, an agreed period of holiday so that we can all spend some time catching up with one another. What is Chinese New Year without the family - I learned this the hard way twice away from my hometown - so I make it a point to confirm my tickets early for that eagerly anticipated flight home - to meet the family.

So when it comes to racial discussions - being of chinese ancestry et al - I find it pretty cringeworthy when people start to put down others different from them just because they were 'fortunate' enough to be born in a family that traced its ancestry to the great emperors of the Middle Kingdom.

What if the positions were reversed?
How is he or she going to defend that?

I love the 'what ifs'.

Throughout my association with people from all sorts of background I learn the truth about judging a person - their actions. This is where the playing field is level (or pretty much) - we can choose to do something or don't.

To me Guy A who worked hard to build his life with honest work is always better than the Guy B who bums around.

There is no such thing as a superior or inferior race. There are only individuals and what they do is the thing of which they should be judged upon, not societal stereotypes made up by people who probably don't spend much time knowing others but their own kind anyway. You know, rumours are sexier than truth most of the time and even 'truth' can differ from one person to another.

Besides, there are many ugly things from the perspective of China's history that seems to automatically disappear as if it never happened, some times glossed over as a 'requirement' or 'greater good' in hindsight.

Yea, it's also because history is written by the victors.

I prefer to become a global citizen and enjoy Korean music, read the excerpts of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, joke around with Scousers of Liverpool, debate about the Middle East with a Jew, watch Hanamichi Sakuragi go 'tensai reboundo king!' in the Slam Dunk! anime, leaf through James Clavell's Asian Saga, discuss Subway with an American, eat tandoori chicken from the local mamak etc.

It would be downright boring to be 'just Chinese'.

My choice

The world would be a very boring place if we have to conform to certain 'standards' for things that are by all means subjective, nein?

I mean, wouldn't it be boring if everybody:

• wore the same clothes
• sport the same hairdo
• look the same
  
• talk the same way
• like the same things
• believe in the same things 
• do the same things
  

I don't drink, that much is true. The most I'd do is rice wine in cooking and no more than Anglia Shandy for leisure drinking for many reasons, one being that I have very low alcohol tolerance and most importantly, I didn't like it. It's not I like I've never tried and tested them - bit of Martell, Heineken, Carlsberg, wine, chocolate liquor - none of which I liked at all. Even if I can 'train' myself to take more alcohol, it still wouldn't help that I simply don't like it.

My friends look at me like I just said something in Arabic when they offer me a drink, asking in the most frank of manner of 'why?' I don't drink, as if something is greatly wrong for refusing. I know how nice it is to drink - you feel all warm and fuzzy, feel good and are light headed - I suppose the question is why would I not like something that is so good like this.

I have no problems with others drinking - imbibe all you want baby - but I do have problems if they end up getting alcohol intoxication or drink to the point of swimming in their own vomit. Is it worth paying so much for glasses and glasses of beer only to have it come out of your mouth at the end? I find it criminal waste when it could be put to better use, for example the month's phone bill. And even if one is filthy rich, that's still no reason to do something just because 'everybody does it'.

I have always find no issues to reject or dislike something that appeals to most people -  it's not like I feel great to be different, just that I feel it's better to be true to myself than to become what people expect of in the sense of things as subjective as personal preferences. Respect what I like/dislike and I'll do the same for you.

In short, I don't have to follow what you do. I don't have to.

The same goes for things such as faith - I have no qualms about people professing a different religion - even discuss it with me, I'm open. Just don't force your dogma on me, then we'll have a great time exchanging ideas. Ridicule what I believe when you can't substantiate your own is when I start to get a bit nasty. In fact I even like to engage atheists in their 'there is no God' evangelism (the irony...) as long as it is academic - not an avenue to rubbish me for being on the opposite side of the spectrum.

The next time I say no to a drink, I did so because I didn't want to.

My own choice.