>It has been well documented that I have had some disagreement in opinions with Mr Wang from MrWangSaysSo on topics pertaining to homosexuality previously. However, in this particular case, I strongly agree with Mr Wang. Below is a link to his reply to one of his posters on a current hot topic – McD’s pulling out the piggy:
I, like Mr Wang, shudder to think that some of our fellow Chinese Singaporeans are only too happy to bash fellow Malay/Muslim Singaporeans at the drop of a hat.
Not that the Malay/Muslim community are directly involved in this. It was after all McD’s unilateral decision that did not even involve them!
From MrWangSaySo, this is Mr Wang’s reply to the poster:
January 15, 2010 7:45 AM
“It is like trying to tell the Chinese that their culture can simply be altered for the slightest fear of offending another religion. It may only be McD this time, but what if more and more companies start doing it? The Chinese culture would then be blasted to bits very soon”
I have explained this before, and I will explain it again.
McDonalds already “altered the culture” of the Chinese people, by:
(1) transforming 11 Zodiac animals into Doraemons;
(2) adding Cupid into the collection.
But no Chinese is protesting about the irony of the Zodiac rat being transformed into a half-cat.
No Chinese is arguing that the magnificent dragon, so symbolic in Chinese culture, should not be demeaned by combining it with a rolly-polly manga character from Japan.
No Chinese is protesting about Cupid, the Roman god of romantic love, being included into the Chinese zodiac.
The Chinese do not give a hoot about that. They do not care about it at all.
So the issue has nothing to do with any Chinese being scared that the Chinese culture will soon be “blasted to bits” soon, as you so colorfully put it.
To put it quite bluntly, the underlying thinking seems to run along the following lines:
“Oh, Doraemon is a non-issue, because we don’t mind the Japanese.
Oh, Cupid is a non-issue, because we don’t mind the Europeans.
BUT the missing pig IS a big issue, because we have a problem with the Muslims.”
In other words, the driver is not a desire to protect Chinese culture in itself,
there is no such desire at all –
instead the driver is a desire to protect Chinese culture against the Muslims
(anybody else, please feel free to affect Chinese culture in whatever way you like)
and the driver is so strong that even when the Muslims say or do nothing,
even when it is a commercial organisation like MacDonalds that voluntarily makes an unnecessary & unimportant concession to the Muslims,
the Chinese get upset.
And that is disturbing to me. Because it points to the existence of underlying racial/ religious disharmony.
Actually, I have already for a long time suspected that some Chinese, because of our SAP education system, have built walls, instead of bridges beteween themselves and the other races, especially the Malays.
Here is one of my past posts, concerning exactly that.
Racism exists in Singapore – Split Views on 3rd Singapore Idol’s Win proves it
