Malaysian Chinese

Malaysian Chinese

Regions with significant populations
Malaysia
Languages
Malay, Min Nan, Cantonese, Hakka, Mandarin, English
Religion
Predominately Buddhism with Taoism; minority Christianity and small Islam
Related ethnic groups
Singaporean Chinese

Malaysian Chinese
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	馬來西亞華人
Simplified Chinese	马来西亚华人
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Mǎláixīyà Huárén Yue: Cantonese Jyutping maa5 loi4 sai1 aa3 tong4 yan4 Southern Min Hokkien POJ ma2-lai5-si1-a3-tng5-lang5
Malay name
Malay	Orang Cina Malaysia

A Malaysian Chinese is a Malaysian of Chinese origin. Most are descendants of Chinese who arrived between the fifteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries. Within Malaysia, they are usually simply referred to as "Chinese" in all languages. The term Chinese Malaysian is also sometimes used to refer to this community. However there appeared a few Chinese immigrants who are not classified as Malaysian Chinese, such as the case of Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's ancestry where one of his grandparents came to Malaya in the 19th century; he is known as a constitutional Malaysian Malay.

Early Chinese settlers (from the fifteenth century in Malacca; eighteenth century in Penang) form to a sub-group called Peranakan or Straits Chinese, who adopted many Malay customs and to varying extents (limited in Penang, almost complete in Malacca) the Malay language, but retained Chinese religious practices. In contrast, the newer arrivals (nineteenth century and later) who retained Chinese customs were known as sinkheh (新客 - literally "new guests").

The Chinese in Malaysia maintain a distinct communal identity and rarely intermarry with native Muslim Malays for religious and cultural reasons. Most Malaysian Chinese consider their being "Chinese" at once an ethnic, cultural and political identity.

The Malaysian Chinese have traditionally dominated the Malaysian economy, but with the advent of affirmative action policies by the Malaysian government to protect the interests of ethnic Malays, their share has eroded somewhat. On most counts, however, they still make up the majority of the middle and upper income classes. As 2004, they became the richest ethnic in Malaysia with owned 40.9 percent of Malaysia's total equity.

As of 2007, they constitute about a quarter of the Malaysian population.

History

Main article: Chinese migration

File:Malaysia bumiputra chinese.gif

Distribution of ethnic Chinese population in Malaysia

Most Chinese immigrants of Malaya came from southern China, mostly from the province of Fujian and Guangdong. In the nineteenth century, many came as indentured labourers, known as coolies (Chinese: 苦力). Others came freely to work, and were supported by Clan Associations. By 1911, the Chinese population in Malaya had reached 269,854, and around a million circa 1949.

Geographical Disribution

Today the majority of Chinese people are mainly concentrated in cities; and they are the largest ethnic group in cities such as Georgetown, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Petaling Jaya, Klang and Miri.

Dialect groups

Overview

The ethnic Chinese in Malaysia belong to several Chinese dialect groups. There are three major dialect groups: Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese. Other dialects include Teochiu, Hainanese, Hokchiu and Hinghwa. Hokkien, Hainanese, Teochiu, Hinghwa and Hokchiu are part of the Min language group. It is evident that people belonging to certain dialect groups are populated in different parts of communities in Malaysia.

The Hokkien is the largest group in Malaysia. It forms the largest dialect group in Penang, Malacca, Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan, Selangor -- mostly in Klang and coastal region of Selangor and western Johor. The Hokkien dialect is also commonly spoken in Sarawak as the Hokkien are the largest group of Chinese ethnic while there formed smaller groups of them in Sabah.

The Hakka also form the most populous dialect group in East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak), parts of Johor notably Kulai, Selangor-Kuala Lumpur and Pahang. Hakkas are also found in large numbers in Johor Bahru and Perak, of which they possibly constitute the largest dialect group.

Cantonese constitutes the most populous Chinese dialect group in the state of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan and Perak where the Cantonese forms a large percentage of the population. The Cantonese also forms the largest dialect group in eastern Johor and Sandakan, Sabah. Sandakan used to be called "Little Hong Kong" since it was the second homeland for many settlers from Guangdong, where the sceneries resembles Hong Kong in the 1970s and the 1980s. Local Cantonese media is frequently broadcasted by Malaysian television channels, notablyTV3, NTV7, and 8TV.

The Teochews are concentrated in parts of Penang, many islands of Sabah and Southern Johor, principally Johor Bahru and Pontian.

There are, in general, three sub-linguistic groups of Malaysian Chinese with three metropolitan centers. The Penang, Klang and Malacca groups are predominantly Hokkien-speaking and the Kuala Lumpur, Seremban & Ipoh group is predominantly Cantonese and Hakka-speaking. To the south of Peninsular Malaysia, in Johor, Mandarin is predominantly spoken among the Chinese communities there, which is a result of the Mandarin media influence from Singapore, and the use of Mandarin in formal education. This has resulted in many people, especially the younger generation, to discard and neglect the usage of Chinese dialects, especially Teochew and Cantonese. Whereas in East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo), Hakka and Mandarin is widely spoken, except in Sibu, Fuzhou and in Sandakan, Cantonese.

Modern movements to unify and organize Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian Chinese communities introduced Standard Mandarin as the language of diaspora ethnic nationalism.

Population by dialect group

The number of Chinese speakers has increased from 2,667,452 in 1957 to 5,365,846 in year 2000 , comprising 26% of total population in Malaysia. The Chinese community in Malaysia can be divided into the following dialect groups :

Dialect	Population
Hokkien	1,848,211
Hakka	1,679,027
Cantonese	1,355,541
Teochew	974,573
Mandarin	958,467
Hainanese	380,781
Min Bei	373,337
Foochow	249,413

Education

Main article: Education in Malaysia

While public education remains free and accessible to all citizens of Malaysia, there are several types of schools available for Malaysians to choose from to be educated from primary levels up to tertiary levels. There are known to be three types of schools with their language of instructions where education is delivered: Malay, Mandarin (Chinese), and Tamil. Each of these medium of instructions signifies the three major races that exists in Malaysia and peculiar to the Western Malaysian communities. It is common for a Malaysian Chinese to be either Chinese, English or Malay educated.

The Malaysian Chinese communities, therefore, usually have a choice to send their children to either Chinese schools or Malay schools. Whichever schools they went to, the Malay language must be taught as a compulsory subject, if the language of instruction is not already in Malay.

Chinese educated

A large segment of the Chinese population living in Malaysia is predominantly Chinese-speaking, they are commonly known as the "Chinese-educated". Malaysia is also one of two countries outside mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, to have a completely Chinese-medium education system, referring to the privately owned Chinese Independent High School (Chinese:独立中学), and are not funded by the government of Malaysia, thus known as Chinese Independent High School, and according to educationist Goh Kean Seng, they only represent 5% of all Malaysia Chinese. [1]

There are roughly 1,300 national-type SRK Chinese primary schools in Malaysia that are all partially government funded (where the wages of teachers are paid by the government while the up-keeping of school buildings is funded by local communities in forms of donations). The SMK (Chinese) national-type high school received less than 3% of total fundings for all primary schools, Malay is the language of instruction in SMK (Chinese) national-type high school for all subjects except in Chinese language classes and English language classes.

In the 1960s (see Barnes Report), most of the Chinese secondary schools had received government funding and had been converted into national-type high schools (SMK - Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan), known as "National-type Secondary Schools (Chinese)" until today to show that they were once Chinese Schools. Today, there remained 60 Chinese Independent High School throughout the country that are supported financially by the public, where Mandarin is the main language of instruction in all subjects, except Bahasa Malaysia and English classes, but some schools use either Malay or English in selected subjects. (see Chinese independent high school#History)

Chinese School Dropouts

A map showing the education of Malaysian Chinese, according to educationist Goh Kean Seng.

Educationist Goh Kean Seng pointed out that there are about 90 per cent of Chinese children in Malaysia go to Mandarin-medium primary schools, which are run by Malaysian government but less than 5 per cent go on to Mandarin-medium secondary schools (Chinese Independent High School) which are privately-run and fee-paying. Parents prefer to send their children to government schools, where education is free and it caused many drop out because they cannot cope with the change in the medium of instruction. Goh claimed that the situation is worsened by the switch from Mandarin to Malay as the medium of instruction when the pupils go on to secondary school. Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) also pointed out, estimating 25 per cent of Chinese students quit studying before age 18, the estimate puts the annual dropout figure at over 100,000 and that the situation has deteriorated. Also claimed that among the dropouts, some become apprentices in workshops, picking up skills like plumbing or motor-repair. Some dropouts eager to make a quick buck finding themselves involved in illicit trades, such as peddling pirated DVDs or collecting debts for loan sharks. [2]

English educated

A sizeable group of Malaysian Chinese speak English as a first language (something carried over from the British colonial days). They speak English at home, and make it a point to immerse and educate their children in the English language. Like their counterparts in Singapore, they are known as the "English-educated" although the term is something of an anachronism. Most of these "English-educated" Chinese are unable to read and write in Chinese.

Unlike in Singapore, English has not been used as a language of instruction in Malaysia (except in private institutions and urban schools) since it was phased out the 1970s and 1980s in favor of Malay. Although there are English medium schools in Malaysia that provide an education based on a British or US-based curriculum, these cater to expatriate children. However, as of 2002, the Malaysian government has reintroduced English as the language of instruction for Science and Mathematics in national secondary schools and universities.

While "proper" English is generally spoken and understood among Malaysian Chinese, a common form used is a patois called Manglish (Malaysian English). Manglish is very similar to Singlish (Singaporean English). Manglish speakers typically understand 80-90% of Singlish and vice versa. See British and Malaysian English differences. Unless specifically Manglish or Singlish terms are used in a conversation, it can be difficult even for native speakers to differentiate the two as the intonation and most terms (especially the infamous lah) are common. Singaporean television sitcoms such as Phua Chu Kang and Under One Roof that make use of Singlish are popular in Malaysia. The Singapore government has tried to reduce the use of Singlish in these serials, with visible success.

New immigrants and old immigrants

The new immigrants who have not learned the colonial trading language of English were often jealous of the older immigrants who have integrated into an English-speaking colonial system. As such, the majority of Chinese-speaking immigrants often attacked the older immigrants in British Civil Service using derogatory cultural remarks, a typical intra-racial infighting that explained the weak national identifications and identities that gave foreign colonization under British power an upper-hand. The essentially ironic but derogatory term "banana" (Chinese: 香蕉人; pinyin: Xiāng jiāo rén), "white on the inside, yellow on the outside" was invented. The ungrammatical construction of the term reflects its linguistic origin and basis - from various dialects. However, with development of Greater China's economy, this intra-racial infighting has reduced because many of the English-educated families sent their children to learn Chinese language.

Regional community

The Malaysian Chinese community was intricately linked to the Singaporean Chinese community because of a shared history and culture. Singapore was a part of the Federation of Malaysia before it became independent in 1965. Many Singaporean Chinese have relatives in Malaysia and vice-versa. There are also a significant number of Malaysian Chinese residing and working in Singapore. Some families in nearby Johor send their children (around 5,000 of them) to school in Singapore, commuting back and forth between the two countries every day.

On that same note, the Malaysian Chinese are culturally much more distant from the Indonesian Chinese, Filipino Chinese and Thai Chinese. This is attributable to the fact that these countries did not have a shared history with Malaysia like Singapore did.

The entire Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora is characterized by their considerable economic fortunes and their susceptibility to discrimination or political exploitation by politicians. This diaspora is commonly referred to as the Nanyang Chinese, 'Nanyang' (南洋) being the Mandarin term for Southeast Asia.

Religion

Main article: Malaysian Chinese religion

A majority of the Chinese in Malaysia claim to be Buddhist or Taoist, though the lines between them are often blurred and, typically, a syncretic Chinese religion incorporating elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and traditional ancestor-worship is practised, with the fact that each individual follows it in varying degrees. About 9.6% are Christian (Mainstream Protestants, Catholics and other denominations including a fast-growing number of Evangelicals and Charismatics) and a small number (0.7%) profess Islam as their faith.

Food

Main article: Cuisine of Malaysia

Since there are three main ethnic groups in Malaysia, there are also inherently three distinct cuisines unique to only these ethnic groups. Most, if not all, of Malaysian Chinese enjoy all types of food not limiting to their own, which is commonly known as Malaysian Chinese food. There can be, however, some limitations as to what certain Malaysian Chinese can eat owing to their beliefs and/or religion.

Cultural differences

There exist some degrees of differences in the Malaysian Chinese culture compared to that of China. Some traditional festivals celebrated by the Chinese community in Malaysia are no longer celebrated in China after the Chinese Cultural Revolution. This is especially true of regional rites and rituals that are still celebrated by the Malaysian descendants of the peasant migrants from China. Some have attributed the traditional practices of Malaysian Chinese to "a little backwater of Chinese culture as it was in China 80 years ago" .

There are also significant differences in the way the Chinese language is spoken among the Chinese community in Malaysia. One notable example is how the Minnan or Hokkien dialect is spoken in Penang and even in parts of Indonesia like Medan. The variant spoken is influenced by Malay and English vocabulary and forms and is commonly referred to as Penang Hokkien.

1971 National Culture Policy

Malaysian Chinese Culture is limited to the "1971 National Culture Policy" of Malaysia. It defines 3 principles as guidelines for 'national culture':

• The National Culture must be based on the indigenous [Malay] culture
• Suitable elements from the other cultures may be accepted as part of the national culture
• Islam is an important component in the moulding of the National Culture.

Celebration of festivities

See Festivals of Malaysia.

Prominent Malaysian Chinese

Further information: List of Malaysian Chinese

See also

• Peranakan
• Malaysian Chinese religion
• Demographics of Malaysia
• Islam in China
• May 13 Incident
• Zheng He#In Malacca
• New Village