from green to black

delusional

today i shall talk about how delusional chinese
singaporeans are. i guess i could point out that
they are misinformed instead, but because i have
to deal with their stubborn mentality i shall assume
that they are totally well informed so as not to
hurt their pride.

a little bit of background, i'm yellow skinned
with black hair and a chinese name. to people in
our lovely little island, that means i must be
chinese and proud of it. i agree.

the problem comes when they try to quantify and
place my "chineseness". speaks mandarin or any
chinese dialect fluently? fail. versed in chinese
traditions and "practices"? fail. hardworker,
conformist and defers to traditional authority?
FAIL! so basically i am a failed chinese and
scorned by the rest. so pardon the biased entry.

i mean people are people and there are all types
right, even among the chinese diaspora. and there
are really those i've met that i have admired
greatly. but what cheeses me off is when some
exhibit the traditionalistic chinese stereotype.

dont get me wrong, theres a difference between
traditional and traditionalistic. its pretty ok
to be traditional, conventional but i hate the
latter kind. we follow traditions because they
have worked before, and conformity offers stability
which are good things. however due to our stubborn
chinese mindset, we turn to traditionalism way
too easily. we dont question, we dont understand
yet we follow because thats the way it has always
been done. oh oh, and dont give these people any
advice on doing things better, chinese pride means
that doing so is offensive. it aint broken, dont
fix it. lets do the safe thing, how do you know
your way is right? hmmm i wonder.

historically, the chinese had a fantastic golden
age and where the most advanced civilisation in
that time. so they grew proud, insulated themselves
and refused to expose themselves to new and different
ideas. they became very structured with increasing
bureaucracy to mold one school of thought. well,
we know the conclusion. the west took their ideas
like gunpowder, (they are open what, learn from
others, copy their best practices, innovate) did
some tinkering, made a revolution(industrial) and
kicked our yellow chinky ass. think about that
with reference to our dear sport. ;p

so back to the topic, since my main points are all
with reference to how we keep running away from
reality. fact no.1, you are not the traditional
chinese like you think you are. look at you ic.
it says singaporean. check your roots, how many of
your relatives that you know still reside in china.
look at the china scholars, how many do you honestly
feel a strong sense of kinship with? wake up!
you can say you are chinese, but this time the idea
you really want to represent is not a matter of
where you came from (china because you are pretty
far of from a mainland chinese so stop deluding
yourself) but rather a group of people that you
choose to identify with (chinese race since it helps
you identify between the us and the them in singapore).
the idea is of course turned on its head when
you realize that we are all singaporean and the
them may actually be china the world giant ( at
least we compete economically if we agree that
there is no chance for communism to take hold here.lol)

so that leads to the point that, you dweebs should
stop the chinese hubris thing, to ask, challenge
and think. We do not need total conformity to
work together.

Secondly, thinking. Chinese thinking is stubborn,
I would say strong willed or self assured to put
it in a positive light. so yes i am being negative
here.I was really cheesed off with some protesting
comments by someone I trained with in the gym
recently. If its wrong, and we agreed its wrong,
lets say its wrong lah, Why must we still try to
defend what we did previously? Does it make the
wrong any less wrong? Call a spade a spade. Its like
Chinese are pretty arrogant so they have this
false humility kind of thing, it comes off as
patronizing but it seems that the Chinese love it.
what i mean is dont say you're right, you're
right when you dont mean it with your actions.
i dont feel good knowing that i am right, i feel
good when i've helped you to be a better person
because i have taught you something that is right.

The problem with Stereotypical Chinese thinking
in this sense is that an admission of wrong or
an apology is never forthcoming. Think of a
certain team we love, and then we see why
moving on is rather difficult.

I prefer not to go into matters of religion in
normal conversations, but since this is my blog
You have the liberty to stop reading here.

Ok so we know that I have a certain bias if
examined from my viewpoint. So lets talk about
it from the observer standpoint, hence I will
not contrast it with my views, but rather be a
little more impartial. Afterall, I’m not saying
something is right or wrong or if things should
be this way or that. I will make an observation
and if I’m wrong you can correct me in the comments.
WAIT! Shouldn’t you have not read so far?

Firstly, there is no god in Confucianism
nor Buddhism, both talk about ways to live life.

Buddhism did not originate from china, sorry all
you guys who said you wanted to be Buddhist
because it is a Chinese religion. Its not.
Siddhārtha Gautama was a man and he was an indian.
But please don’t believe me, since you
really believe he is chinese anyway.

I shant touch Taoism because I haven’t met any
one who has talked to me about it so I ought to
find out more before having an opinion.

Then of course there is ancestral worship. Respect
and veneration is good, but I always believe that
there is a different level of honour that I will
give to god (since I believe in one) and the honour
that I would give to man. Again, I’ll let you decide
right and wrong here. Because if there was hierarchy
then the utmost veneration should be given to the most
ancient of your ancestors, however I think many
of us will struggle to know the names of those who
are our elders by a mere 4 generations. So really,
aren’t you unfilial if you just stop at your granddad?

Then of course reincarnation, I guess then some
new spirits need to be created all the time because
population keeps increasing. And it doesn’t change
the argument if you say some of them were ants or
cockroaches before that because the insect population
increases way faster than the human ones.

This is not to poke fun at others but so that you
realize the significance of your claims and thinking
before you speak. It all boils down to the fact
that our paradigm is carried down into the way we train.
Pride, false humility, stubbornness and ignorance which
may be long inbuilt in your subconscious affect the way
you train. I don’t wish to belittle anyone but I just
hope that you question, more, maybe everything. We may
learn a little bit more about ourselves doing a Descartes.
But what is best would be a greater level of intellectual
ferment and discussion. Of which I hope to be a part of.

posted by green unseen @ 10:36 AM