Saturday, November 22, 2008

大马华人重新评估美国

奥巴马当选为美国第一位少数民族总统,顿时成为马来西亚华人的新偶像。(请看我的旧贴。)与此同时,大马华人对美国的印象,也有所改观。

许多大马华人,都是“亲中派”。中国近年来迅速崛起,挑战美国的霸主地位,双方有许多利益上的冲突。另外,中美在台独、藏独、人权、苏丹种族清洗等课题上,也意见分歧。可以想象,大马华人普遍上对美国印象不佳。

但是,大马华人和非洲裔美国人一样,都是少数民族,都受到不公平的对待。奥巴马当选总统后,大马华裔领袖乘机批评政府歧视少数民族,并呼吁全国人民向美国学习。美国总统选举,点燃了我们的希望之火。

中国人发明了一个新词,叫“软实力”。美国人跨越种族藩篱,选了个黑人当总统,这就是山姆大叔的软实力。


Chinese Malaysians re-evaluate America

Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States and immediately became the new idol of Chinese Malaysians. At the same time, they are to re-evaluating America.

Many Chinese Malaysians are fiercely pro-China. The Middle Kingdom rose rapidly since the days of Deng Xiaoping, and is now challenging the United States. Both nations have had a lot of conflicts. In addition to this, Beijing and Washington differ in their positions in such topics as Taiwan, Tibet, Sudan and human rights. Not surprisingly, Chinese Malaysians generally have not got positive feeling towards America.

However, Chinese Malaysians, like African Americans, are minorities in their own country. They have also been treated unfairly in the society. After Obama was elected the President, leaders of Chinese Malaysians criticize the government for discrimination, and urge all citizens to learn from the Americans. American presidential election has given us hope.

China has coined a new phrase, called soft power. Americans overcome racial bias to vote an ethnic minority to the office in a widely acclaimed outcome. This is the soft power of Uncle Sam.

11 comments:

  1. Well, to even think that we can be like Americans and get a Chinese PM here is already stretching it too far. If a Chinese lady is not even allowed to head PKNS, we have a long, long way to go.

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  2. foongpc
    Basically I am not very optimistic, but this is not my point. All I want to say is that Chinese Malaysians now have a more positive perception toward USA.

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  3. Yes , it is indeed amazing to see that an African American able to run a huge nation like US. It has changed our (the M'sia chinese) perceptions to the country too. but , hopefully M'sian can learn something from them as well, havign the minority running the country!

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  4. in this country racial discrimination has been institutionalized in the name of social contract.

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  5. carrot, Bengbeng
    Seriously, I am more concerned with the discriminatory New Economic Policy than who is the prime minister.

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  6. Lets just sit back and see how Obama deals with this financial crisis of enormous proportion.

    The stress is on the man. Should he fail to impress the nation, white supremists will further justify their own beliefs (never mind that Bush was a white and a supposedly screw-up).

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  7. I find the situation in Malaysia, as an outsider, quite complicated. I' learning though your blog and apparently, Chinese are a minority that get discriminated, right?

    I didn't know Obama was 奥巴马. Makes sense though!;)

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  8. Shingo
    From what I know, interracial marriage is getting more common in the States. This essentially means racism, while still exists, will not be as bad.

    Zhu
    Yes, ethnic Chinese are minority in Malaysia, and there is institutionalized discrimination here.

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  9. Institutionalized discrimination. I feel that the Chinese in the Philippines are not discriminated like that.

    There is in fact a fascination with the Chinese race. A tinge of discrimination maybe.

    Everyone's looking forward to what an Obama administration can do. It's too early to tell anyway. Bush is still in the seat.

    Or maybe we're just hyping everything up?

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  10. 宝茹
    Everybody is talking about Obama. But seriously, the people who made history were the Americans, as a whole.

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  11. Live with HOPE, the goal will be achieved eventually.

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