WHAT IF A CHINESE MAN SAYS TO ANOTHER CHINESE MAN IN MALAYSIA – ‘YOU CAN BALIK (RETURN TO) TONGSAN (CHINA)’? – PART II.
…WILL THERE BE NOVELS THAT DEAL WITH SUCH ISSUES SO THAT WE CAN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER BETTER THIS WAY AND THROUGH THE MEANS OF LITERATURE AND NOT IN POLITICS WHERE EVERYTHING IS SEEN THROUGH A NARROW VIEW AND IN SUSPICION?
By Mansor Puteh
WHEN CAN WE SEE NOVELS AND OTHER BOOKS ON CHINESE AND INDIAN IMMIGRATION TO NANYANG AND MALAYA LIKE ‘THE JOY LUCK CLUB’ WHICH WAS WRITTEN BY AN AMERICAN-CHINESE AUTHOR WHICH WENT ON TO BE PRODUCED AS A MAJOR HOLLYDOOD FILM?
THE DIRTH OF SUCH WORKS AND TELEVISION DRAMA SERIALS AS WELL AS FEATURE FILMS HAS CAUSED SOME MALAYSIANS OF CH INESE AND INDIAN ORIGINS TO BE SEEN AS ALIENS.
SO THE CHINESE MAN WAS NOT AN ORDINARY CHINESE OR MALAYSIAN, FOR THAT MATTER ALTHOUGH HE MAY NOT LOOK LIKE ONE. HE LOOKS LIKE THE MANY OTHER CHINESE MAN.
Maybe the Chinese man is not the only Chinese man who is like that; that there can be more of them in the country who may not have the opportunity to express their personal thoughts on racial issues in the same fashion as the Chinese man had done.
The Chinese man somewhat surprised me when he said few times to some of his relatives and close friends if they are not happy to live in the country and amongst the Melayu, then they should ‘Return to Tongsan’ or ‘Pergi balik Tongsan’.
This is a tough statement for anyone to make. If it had been made by any Melayu person, he would have been chastised and charged for being a racist.
But the Chinese man is not racist. He is sincere. He is Chinese, but he is not like the other Chinese. He is Malaysian-Chinese like the many others. Yet, he has found the need to spout such statements.
In fact, it is the first time I had heard of a Chinese person who had said such a statement to another Chinese, although I cannot say if I have also heard any Melayu person saying that to another Chinese person.
But I have heard some third rate politician saying that. The reason being they are third rate, so their statements cannot be counted for very much, unless if those who react to them are also third rate and racists too.
Maybe a respected historian can get away with saying such a statement, since what he is saying is based on facts and not by emotions alone.
I have just seen a Palestinian feature film called ‘Amreeka’ (America) on a Palestinian single-mother, Muna with a son, Fadi who managed to go to Illinois in America to live. His son enrolls into a school in Illinois and some of the American students told him to ‘return to his country’.
This is despite the fact that everybody in America, except for the Natives, had come from other countries. Some of their ancestors had come to America much earlier than Fadi and Muna did.
It is not an issue, where as far as this statement in this film is concerned. And I have not heard of any NGO in America complaining about the film which went on to win some awards in Kaherah and elsewhere.
But if such a statement is made in a Malaysian film, one can bet how many NGOs in the country will lodge police reports against its filmmakers. And they will have a ball giving statements to the press.
But America is not like Malaysia and the Chinese is not like the NGO leaders. They are worlds apart.
In fact, in America, one can even joke about such things. American comedian Bob Hope once cracked a joke in one of his performances of how another American performer, Sammy Davis Jr., who is an African-American Jew with one eye, as he liked to describe himself as, who had more chains on him than his ancestors did.
Sammy who had a lot of chains on him, but they are gold around his neck and wrists which were thick. He laughed his heart out as did the audience comprising of the African and Caucasian Americans.
No NGO leader in the country cried foul. They took it as a joke.
In fact, another Africa-American author Alex Haley wrote the best-selling novel called ‘Roots’ which went on to be produced for television did not feel insecure in dealing with his ancestors who had come from Africa as slaves.
This one book had created a sensation in America and had given the African-Americans in the country a lot of hope. That they knew they could not forget the history of their being there.
But can any Chinese in Malaysia come up with such a novel on the arrival of their ancestors to Malaya or Nanyang or Nusantara Melayu or Southeast Asia in the same fashion as ‘Roots’?
I have not seen such a book being written before. So I decided to come up with one myself. And the novel is called ‘The Sinkek’ The English translation for this novel I have chosen is ‘The New Arrival’ although the exact meaning is not so. Literally it means ‘The New Slob or Stinko’.
It is set in 1873 and fashioned or inspired on the experiences of some of my own ancestors who had come from South China.
I am Melayu now as did my parents and grandparents. But their parents were not. They were Chinese.
So I am immune if I write on such issues, since I am writing from personal experience, if there is a need for me to say this.
In fact, some Chinese-American authors in America had also come up with similar novels on how their ancestors had come to America and they take the journey back to China to get connected to their ancestral village and distant relatives there.
One of the novels had been turned into a feature film called ‘The Joy Luck Club’.
Of course the novels did not say that the ancestors of the authors were slaves or coolies, but what they show is exactly that.
Many Indians and Chinese are proud to support their organization of Indian and Chinese Diasporas and clans, which is an indirect way of admitting how their ancestors had come to Malaya and the other countries without doing so in exact words.
So who will be the Chinese and Indian Alex Haley of Malaysia who dares to come up with novels on the arrival of their ancestors to Malaya?
Will there be more novels that deal with such issues other than The Sinkek written by me?
By Mansor Puteh
WHEN CAN WE SEE NOVELS AND OTHER BOOKS ON CHINESE AND INDIAN IMMIGRATION TO NANYANG AND MALAYA LIKE ‘THE JOY LUCK CLUB’ WHICH WAS WRITTEN BY AN AMERICAN-CHINESE AUTHOR WHICH WENT ON TO BE PRODUCED AS A MAJOR HOLLYDOOD FILM?
THE DIRTH OF SUCH WORKS AND TELEVISION DRAMA SERIALS AS WELL AS FEATURE FILMS HAS CAUSED SOME MALAYSIANS OF CH INESE AND INDIAN ORIGINS TO BE SEEN AS ALIENS.
SO THE CHINESE MAN WAS NOT AN ORDINARY CHINESE OR MALAYSIAN, FOR THAT MATTER ALTHOUGH HE MAY NOT LOOK LIKE ONE. HE LOOKS LIKE THE MANY OTHER CHINESE MAN.
Maybe the Chinese man is not the only Chinese man who is like that; that there can be more of them in the country who may not have the opportunity to express their personal thoughts on racial issues in the same fashion as the Chinese man had done.
The Chinese man somewhat surprised me when he said few times to some of his relatives and close friends if they are not happy to live in the country and amongst the Melayu, then they should ‘Return to Tongsan’ or ‘Pergi balik Tongsan’.
This is a tough statement for anyone to make. If it had been made by any Melayu person, he would have been chastised and charged for being a racist.
But the Chinese man is not racist. He is sincere. He is Chinese, but he is not like the other Chinese. He is Malaysian-Chinese like the many others. Yet, he has found the need to spout such statements.
In fact, it is the first time I had heard of a Chinese person who had said such a statement to another Chinese, although I cannot say if I have also heard any Melayu person saying that to another Chinese person.
But I have heard some third rate politician saying that. The reason being they are third rate, so their statements cannot be counted for very much, unless if those who react to them are also third rate and racists too.
Maybe a respected historian can get away with saying such a statement, since what he is saying is based on facts and not by emotions alone.
I have just seen a Palestinian feature film called ‘Amreeka’ (America) on a Palestinian single-mother, Muna with a son, Fadi who managed to go to Illinois in America to live. His son enrolls into a school in Illinois and some of the American students told him to ‘return to his country’.
This is despite the fact that everybody in America, except for the Natives, had come from other countries. Some of their ancestors had come to America much earlier than Fadi and Muna did.
It is not an issue, where as far as this statement in this film is concerned. And I have not heard of any NGO in America complaining about the film which went on to win some awards in Kaherah and elsewhere.
But if such a statement is made in a Malaysian film, one can bet how many NGOs in the country will lodge police reports against its filmmakers. And they will have a ball giving statements to the press.
But America is not like Malaysia and the Chinese is not like the NGO leaders. They are worlds apart.
In fact, in America, one can even joke about such things. American comedian Bob Hope once cracked a joke in one of his performances of how another American performer, Sammy Davis Jr., who is an African-American Jew with one eye, as he liked to describe himself as, who had more chains on him than his ancestors did.
Sammy who had a lot of chains on him, but they are gold around his neck and wrists which were thick. He laughed his heart out as did the audience comprising of the African and Caucasian Americans.
No NGO leader in the country cried foul. They took it as a joke.
In fact, another Africa-American author Alex Haley wrote the best-selling novel called ‘Roots’ which went on to be produced for television did not feel insecure in dealing with his ancestors who had come from Africa as slaves.
This one book had created a sensation in America and had given the African-Americans in the country a lot of hope. That they knew they could not forget the history of their being there.
But can any Chinese in Malaysia come up with such a novel on the arrival of their ancestors to Malaya or Nanyang or Nusantara Melayu or Southeast Asia in the same fashion as ‘Roots’?
I have not seen such a book being written before. So I decided to come up with one myself. And the novel is called ‘The Sinkek’ The English translation for this novel I have chosen is ‘The New Arrival’ although the exact meaning is not so. Literally it means ‘The New Slob or Stinko’.
It is set in 1873 and fashioned or inspired on the experiences of some of my own ancestors who had come from South China.
I am Melayu now as did my parents and grandparents. But their parents were not. They were Chinese.
So I am immune if I write on such issues, since I am writing from personal experience, if there is a need for me to say this.
In fact, some Chinese-American authors in America had also come up with similar novels on how their ancestors had come to America and they take the journey back to China to get connected to their ancestral village and distant relatives there.
One of the novels had been turned into a feature film called ‘The Joy Luck Club’.
Of course the novels did not say that the ancestors of the authors were slaves or coolies, but what they show is exactly that.
Many Indians and Chinese are proud to support their organization of Indian and Chinese Diasporas and clans, which is an indirect way of admitting how their ancestors had come to Malaya and the other countries without doing so in exact words.
So who will be the Chinese and Indian Alex Haley of Malaysia who dares to come up with novels on the arrival of their ancestors to Malaya?
Will there be more novels that deal with such issues other than The Sinkek written by me?
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