NATURALLY I AM NOT CHINESE

"... there were many different civilisations in China 3000 years ago. So it
really challenges us to rethink what we know about Chinese history"
- Tan Hui Sm, Deputy Director, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore.

The Chinese ethnic group, known otherwise as the Han Chinese (汉人), Tang-ren (唐人), or Hua-ren (华人), is often propagated as a unified people group that had its origins in the Yellow River basin (or Central Plains) some 5000 years ago. This is a myth. In reality, the term encompasses a wide range of regional tribes, each with their own origins, history, culture, and identity. (In stating this, I am not even including the recognised minority groups in China such as the Miao, Tibetan, Hui etc). To state that all Chinese are the same would be akin to deny all nations within Europe of their own identities apart from being "European".

The common "Chinese" identity has its roots as a political tool to subjugate and assimilate the various groups under a dominant Han tribe that estalished itself into an imperial power in the Central Plains and finally conquered the other regions in modern China. The terms "Chinese" (derived from "Chin" or "Qin" - the first dynasty that "unified China"), "Han" and "Tang" all refer to the height of political and military dominance by this particular ethnic group. Hua-ren (华人) - derived from Zhong-hua (中华 - the literary name for China), is the modern equivalent of this propaganda tool.

It is argued that all Chinese are unified by a common Han language (汉语). In truth, the many people groups share the same written language only because the Qin emperor had forcibly burnt and destroyed all other forms of written text during a reign of terror, thus depriving the other people's of their own literary and historical heritage. This authentic diversity, however, is survived by the existence of spoken languages. Though widely termed as dialects and not languages, these verbals are clearly distinct. For example, the Minnan dialect used around the Fujian province, has only 46.1% mutual intelligibility with Mandarin (source: www.Glossika.com). Mandarin, used now as the standard spoken language for all Chinese, is in reality the dialect of the northern Chinese - where again the seat of political dominance lies in Beijing (literary: northern capital). By instituting Mandarin as the official national language, the other Chinese groups will in the long run gradually forfeit their own distinctiveness in subject to the northern Han tribe.

My ancestry is from southern China. I am Teochew, a people group from Chaozhou (潮州) region, now in east Guangdong province. The culturally and linguistically akin Chaozhou and the nearby Shantou city are together known as Chaoshan(潮汕). Although sometimes similar with the other southern Chinese groups such as the Hokkiens and Cantonese, our customs and manners are markedly different from those of the northern Chinese. Consciousness of this south-north divide is accented by the recent years' mass arrival of northern Chinese in Singapore, where most of the Chinese population's forebears had come from the south.

Interestingly, the separate distinctiveness between the southern Chinese, specifically the Chaoshan people, from the nothern Han has been backed by a recent genetic study. This 2006 report by the Center for Molecular Biology and Forensic Genetics Laboratory, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong states:

"The phylogenic tree analysis based on the HLA-A and -B allele frequencies of
all the 10 Chinese ethnic groups revealed that Chaoshanese, while clustering in
general with the southern China-related Han Chinese, had the highest affinity to
the Mainland Minnanese, but separated distinctively from the northern Han
Chinese."

(See full report "Genetic link between Chaoshan and other Chinese Han populations: Evidence from HLA-A and HLA-B allele frequency distribution" in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=16883565)

No wonder I am a dog lover - naturally, I am not Chinese.

ON BEING CHINESE AND A DOG-LOVER

"I LOVE birds and hate dogs. In this, I am not queer; I am merely Chinese. It just comes natural to me, as to all Chinese."

"I hate dogs exactly because they are so human. I am naturally kind to animals, as is well proved by the fact that I cannot delibrately crush a fly. But I hate any animal that pretends to be your friend, that comes and paws all over you. I like animals that know their place, and keep their place. I prefer donkeys... Be kind to a dog, yes, but why pet him and fondle him and hug him?"
- Lin Yutang in "With Love & Irony"

I cannot disagree more with Lin, even though I have been told since young that I too am a Chinese. I LOVE my dog. The number of Chinese dog owners in Singapore, and even China itself, testifies that it is not queer for Chinese to love dogs.

Yet Lin was not merely expressing a personal opinion on the love-hate relationship with Chinese and dogs. In Chinese expressions and idioms, dog is a term used for the lowest forms of life, such as enemies, traitors and slaves. Never call a Chinese a "dog", for that would be one of the greatest insult to him.

Dogs are truly so human. Dogs are individually survivors. At the same time, they live in close-knit communities. Some display higher levels of intelligence than others. But all of them are by nature sociable and loyal. Aggressive behaviour is only cultivated through prolonged abuse or intense fear. Dogs can be more human than we are.

On the contrary, I hate people exactly because we are so animal-like. I am naturally kind to people, as is well proved by the fact that I cannot delibrately crush another person. But I hate any person who pretends to be my friend, who comes and paws all over me. I like people who know their place, and keep their place. I prefer assess...

My different position from Lin's could be explained that we live in totally different time and space. Or even, the assumption that our common origins as "Chinese", is false altogether.

MY DOG, MY DOG, WHY DID I NOT FORSAKE YOU?

I have a dog of my own. I did not plan, nor wanted to have one even when I was a child. Max just came to our house, and found his home.

It was an evening almost six years ago when my brother-in-law brought the Silky Terrier, which was found wandering alone lost in the rain, to our place. As he already had two dogs of his own, Max was brought over here temporarily until his owner was found. It was almost love at first sight for everyone in the family with the cute little creature with black and golden curls, as we allowed him to explore freely around our residence - a terrible mistake to be learnt only years later!

Despite notices placed in the area where he was picked up, and checks made with SPCA, no one came forward to claim the dog. Now soon, we knew why!

Max had a violent streak. In the coming days, everyone at home were chased and attacked by him, at total random. While adorable during most times, certain unknown factors seemed to trigger him to suddenly turn head and sink his canine deep into our flesh. Even jeans provided little cover. We had a mad dog.

A dog trainer was brought to assess him. Dog's have natural predisposition towards humans. The conclusion was Max was likely to have been abused before, and hence the unexplained fear of people and instinctive reaction to defend himself. We had a victimised dog.

Two choices were to be made: 1. To give Max up by letting him go or putting him to sleep 2. To try to rehabilitate him and risk more harm on ourselves. After much struggle, we chose the latter.

My dog, my dog, why did we not forsake him? I believe that it was because my family valued life and love, more than the money and effort we had to spend on an animal that we did not plan to have in the first place.

I would not label myself as an animal-lover. Besides my pets, the only animals I love are the ones served on my dining table. I do not think that animals, as argued by activists, have inalienable rights as humans do.

What I believe is this: Humans are created by God to be a higher form of being. The value of our lives are higher than those of other forms. (Hence I think animal-testing may be a necessary evil if used in medical science - although this is a different topic altogether.) At the same time, because of our higher status, humans have an ethical responsibility towards all other life - including those of animals.

We have no right to abuse or kill needlessly for vanity or convenience. These should be avoided at all possible costs, even of our own. When a person refuses to bear his ethical responsibilities, even the finest fur-coat or best animal-tested cosmetics would not be able to hide his ugliness.

Max is getting on his years now and he has become much milder and tamed since. A year ago, we even spent a mini-fortune for his eye-cataract operation. In return, he has given us much joy. The intelligent boy even plays "fetch", "tug-of-war" and even "hide-and-seek". Our choice not only gave him a life, but also brought life into our own.

My dog, my dog, I'm glad we did not forsake you!

The Puppy That Finally Found Home

I was told of a man, who exasperated by all the problems in his life and the woes around the world, finally asked God: why did He allow Eve to be tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, which led to the opening of the Pandora's box.


A few days later, the man's neighbour gave him a puppy. However, as the puppy had already stayed with the neighbour for several days, it naturally regarded the neighbour's place as "home".


Hence despite having new owners, in the days that followed the puppy would still instinctively run to "home" next door whenever the gate was open. Each time this happened, the man would
patiently go over to his neighbour's to bring back his new pet.


This happened for several weeks. Until finally one day, the gate was accidentally left open. But much to the pleasant surprise of the man, the puppy did not run out of the house. In was this moment, when the man realised his puppy had found where was home. Although the man had owned his dog for a while already, it was only now that it truly belonged to him.


This was God's real life answer to the man's question. God had intentionally allowed the gates of His house to be open, even though He knew that we'd, like the puppy, run away to another "home" which was not ours. His purpose was not to tempt or harm us, but that we might learn with heartfelt conviction of who our Master is.


That will be when we finally find home.

TIME"S UP

Just as it was 365 days ago, millions around the globe will gather together in masses, in small groups, in pairs, or stand alone, to countdown as the stroke of midnight sweeps rapidly and unstoppably across the imaginary lines that mark the international timezones - hailing the arrival of a new year. 2007 is here!

Like a magician's wand, the hands of the clock will once more wipe away all bad memories of a year that had perhaps lasted too long, and serve a clean sheet for all to begin afresh. Magic.

The countdown ritual in almost all modern cities has existed for as long as we remember. But we forget that our memory is not very long, neither is our modern existence.

2006. 2007. 2008. 2009...

The passing of time has become like a rushing train that we must catch. To "fall behind time" would be a catastrophe. Someone who lives and thinks like he is still in 2006 while in 2007 cannot be taken seriously. We must progress. We must grow. Our rate of growth must exceed the rate of growth from the previous year. This is REAL progress.

What's the hurry anyway? Someone still recalls where the train is heading towards in the first place? Where are we? Why are we on this train? How much is the fare? When did we get onboard? Who is driving the train? Who are we?

No questions asked! We must go. Sofort!

Bzzz... whisper this - There are over 6 billion people in this world and the people who perform the countdown ritual only number in millions at most. Most of us don't believe in this nonsense.

I've been to villages in Pakistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka... and met many people who do not even know their age. Imagine - people who lose count at two digits. Would they be bothered with bigger numerals? 2006, 2007, 2008.... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6...

Yes, there are many oasis left all over the world not yet swept or covered by the sands of Time. In these places, people live day to day, not year to year. People live happily not captive by the tyranny of Time.

Sunrise. Sunset. Day to day. That was how God created eveything anyway.