It has been a while since I blogged. No excuses, just lazy....so much to catch up on.
One of the many things I find that the human race is obsessed with is race. Which ethnicity they are from, who, they can marry and whom they can be friend with. I guess in Western civilization, it is not as apparent. If you go to Europe or the US, they assimilate pretty well. You can't really tell where they are from...I mean you can make an educated guess but it is of no real significance.
In Asia and Africa, we place so much importance to the ethnicity of fellow humans to the point of murder. If you marry out of your race, most parents will disown you as will the families ir even maim you. I have cousins and uncles who inter-marry and go through hell. Heck I witnessed it first hand. My mom went through some major mental torture when she first got married but her experience enabled our family to be more open to other races.
Having said that, I am not saying that we shouldn't care where we originated from. We should be proud of our race and help spread the understanding of our own culture and inner ticking of our race to others. I am extremely proud to be both Indian and Chinese. I am a product of the 2 oldest civilizations, culture and largest population today. How can I not be proud.
But I am a racist as I would prefer my children not to marry people who are too obsessed with their race. Indian, Punjabi and Malays are extremely against inter culture marriages. For Malays, the in-laws have to convert for fear of diluting the Islam religion. Which by the way is the fastest growing religion. If you have faith, why the insecurity of your religion being diluted?? I don't get that part. Chinese folks just think they are better than everyone. Indians and Punjabi are afraid that there won't be enough of their race in the country.
Sigh......
In short, I have been made a racist by society because they want to be their own so much, it doesn't leave a place for us multi culture folks. What a bunch of multi culture bullshit. However, you can't keep a good idea down as I see many inter marriage kids these days and there will be more to come. I think you should be a racist and shouldn't marry out of your race....which is the human race.
Showing posts with label Indian culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indian culture. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Stereotyping - Is that typing on a stereo? How do you do that???
The last few articles were focused on some family stuff and also to share with you the kinda food a Chindian would go for. I tried looking out for new and funny stuff to write so that I don't lose my sense of humour. I was talking to a few friends last night and it struck me how much stereotyping we put on our fellow men/women. It could be stereotyping by race, gender or religion.
And we Chindians get most of it because we have 2 cultures, which means twice the stereotyping. But you gotta admit, some of those statements are pretty eerily true! Let's start on race-based stereotyping us Indians.
An example, Indians are drunkards and will beat up our wives and/or set them on fire. That is just so the typically ignorant and misinformed statement that puts our whole social fabric at breaking point (to ask later, how does social wear fabric??).
We don't beat our wives, we sometimes beat our neighbour's or brother's wives! Come on, you gotta be fair. Have you seen Bollywood movies? They will sing at a pitch where hunting dogs will start howling and gnawing at their own tails just to stop the noise. Wouldn't you do something just to stop the torture??!?! Furthermore, just as you are about to kiss her, she starts singing like a banshee that is constipating!! How many times can a man take it?? And all that excessive dancing and clothes!! You'd not only go broke, you would go nuts just trying to undress her!
We are not drunkards! We do drink quite a fair bit and is able to hold our liquor better but we don't get drunk and rowdy! We just get "HAPPY" and want everyone to share in our joy. Sure sometimes we take off our shirts and jump around on tables shouting "Whose your DADDY?!?!?!" and puking on our wives' bosses brand new RM1,500 Hugo Boss shoes. It could happen to a Chinese or Malay guy!
For the record, I wanna say that I have never gotten drunk before...except for that one time where I did and puked in my friends toilet for hours. Funny thing was, I then cleaned up her whole toilet. I never did remember that! Her mother was so grateful, she kept inviting me for LOTS of drinks after that.
Also we do not set our wives on fire. Who came up with that one?? Do you know how much petrol cost these days???? So much easier to just push her off the cliff and claim its an accident. With our police force so incredibly inept and decadent, they will believe anything.
Also Indians are not cheap and like gaudy colours! These are related. You may as well know that we are colour blind! I think when God made us, he also accidentally spilled extra paint in the world so that we only saw dark orange, turquoise, shitty blue (you know the shade of blue that Indians love. You know what I mean!!!) and a shade of green that is never used even by a blind painter. So we don't shop very well and hence don't spend a lot of money. Ok, we are cheap....I have no defense here.
We like eating on banana leaves and our hands not because we are too cheap to buy utensils. Just that Indians were at the beginning of civilization at the Indus River where Mohenjodarro and Harappa were one of the earliest civilizations (this is actually true). Back then, earth were baked into bricks and were used to build buildings and not much was left for utensils, so we used leaves and our hands. As we were inventing utensils, the bloody Macedonian called Alexander the Great came and stole it together with the blue prints from our archives ala Tom Cruise MI style! So until the British came, leaves were all that we had. (Just in case you don't know history, this part is a joke)
Also most people think that all Indians are Tamils and speak Tamil. Tamil is a language and also an ethnic group, just like Cantonese or Hokkien or Hainanese. When the British shipped labourers to Malaysia, only the South Indians were interested to come since the North Indians were too busy trying to look pretty, sharpening their noses and bridges. So we get a majority of Tamils here.
Not all Indians celebrate Deepavali as well. While there is no law against that, Deepavali is more of a religious holiday unlike Chinese New Year which is more of a cultural holiday. Christian Indians don't celebrate Deepavali (yes Indians can be Christians) in its true sense like going to the temple and performing prayers but you can chill out at our house. Just bring some beer.
Many say we Indians stink and have these coconut oil smell that will make a bison buy a eau de toilette (which is French for going to the toilet and saying "EWWWWWW!"). That unfortunately is true. It's not about our diet for goodness sake. You don't see curry streaming down our armpits do you??!?!? It's just that we expire a lot faster than others. You see, we are dark, black, beige or whatever you wanna call us but we are also in one of the hottest places in the world. So we attract heat unlike those silky white hairless Chinese boiled chicken type of people. Not stereotyping, just saying.
So if you are looking to buy a present for an Indian guy, do get him some deodorant or hair mousse (so we don't use the damn coconut oil), really expensive utensils like China, deodorant, latest fashion magazines or clothes from the normal part of the world where real colours are used, lingerie that doesn't involve sari and we men can just RIP it out, deodorant, Chinese cookbooks so that we know what other Chinese food looks like so that we can order other dishes instead of egg fu yong and fried rice ALL the BLOODY time and did I mention deodorant?
And we Chindians get most of it because we have 2 cultures, which means twice the stereotyping. But you gotta admit, some of those statements are pretty eerily true! Let's start on race-based stereotyping us Indians.
An example, Indians are drunkards and will beat up our wives and/or set them on fire. That is just so the typically ignorant and misinformed statement that puts our whole social fabric at breaking point (to ask later, how does social wear fabric??).
We don't beat our wives, we sometimes beat our neighbour's or brother's wives! Come on, you gotta be fair. Have you seen Bollywood movies? They will sing at a pitch where hunting dogs will start howling and gnawing at their own tails just to stop the noise. Wouldn't you do something just to stop the torture??!?! Furthermore, just as you are about to kiss her, she starts singing like a banshee that is constipating!! How many times can a man take it?? And all that excessive dancing and clothes!! You'd not only go broke, you would go nuts just trying to undress her!
We are not drunkards! We do drink quite a fair bit and is able to hold our liquor better but we don't get drunk and rowdy! We just get "HAPPY" and want everyone to share in our joy. Sure sometimes we take off our shirts and jump around on tables shouting "Whose your DADDY?!?!?!" and puking on our wives' bosses brand new RM1,500 Hugo Boss shoes. It could happen to a Chinese or Malay guy!
For the record, I wanna say that I have never gotten drunk before...except for that one time where I did and puked in my friends toilet for hours. Funny thing was, I then cleaned up her whole toilet. I never did remember that! Her mother was so grateful, she kept inviting me for LOTS of drinks after that.
Also we do not set our wives on fire. Who came up with that one?? Do you know how much petrol cost these days???? So much easier to just push her off the cliff and claim its an accident. With our police force so incredibly inept and decadent, they will believe anything.
Also Indians are not cheap and like gaudy colours! These are related. You may as well know that we are colour blind! I think when God made us, he also accidentally spilled extra paint in the world so that we only saw dark orange, turquoise, shitty blue (you know the shade of blue that Indians love. You know what I mean!!!) and a shade of green that is never used even by a blind painter. So we don't shop very well and hence don't spend a lot of money. Ok, we are cheap....I have no defense here.
We like eating on banana leaves and our hands not because we are too cheap to buy utensils. Just that Indians were at the beginning of civilization at the Indus River where Mohenjodarro and Harappa were one of the earliest civilizations (this is actually true). Back then, earth were baked into bricks and were used to build buildings and not much was left for utensils, so we used leaves and our hands. As we were inventing utensils, the bloody Macedonian called Alexander the Great came and stole it together with the blue prints from our archives ala Tom Cruise MI style! So until the British came, leaves were all that we had. (Just in case you don't know history, this part is a joke)
Also most people think that all Indians are Tamils and speak Tamil. Tamil is a language and also an ethnic group, just like Cantonese or Hokkien or Hainanese. When the British shipped labourers to Malaysia, only the South Indians were interested to come since the North Indians were too busy trying to look pretty, sharpening their noses and bridges. So we get a majority of Tamils here.
Not all Indians celebrate Deepavali as well. While there is no law against that, Deepavali is more of a religious holiday unlike Chinese New Year which is more of a cultural holiday. Christian Indians don't celebrate Deepavali (yes Indians can be Christians) in its true sense like going to the temple and performing prayers but you can chill out at our house. Just bring some beer.
Many say we Indians stink and have these coconut oil smell that will make a bison buy a eau de toilette (which is French for going to the toilet and saying "EWWWWWW!"). That unfortunately is true. It's not about our diet for goodness sake. You don't see curry streaming down our armpits do you??!?!? It's just that we expire a lot faster than others. You see, we are dark, black, beige or whatever you wanna call us but we are also in one of the hottest places in the world. So we attract heat unlike those silky white hairless Chinese boiled chicken type of people. Not stereotyping, just saying.
So if you are looking to buy a present for an Indian guy, do get him some deodorant or hair mousse (so we don't use the damn coconut oil), really expensive utensils like China, deodorant, latest fashion magazines or clothes from the normal part of the world where real colours are used, lingerie that doesn't involve sari and we men can just RIP it out, deodorant, Chinese cookbooks so that we know what other Chinese food looks like so that we can order other dishes instead of egg fu yong and fried rice ALL the BLOODY time and did I mention deodorant?
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Cultural enigma of a Chindian - Part 1
I get this question a lot as a Chindian and I am sure that all my mixed parentage brethren get the same. The question is what culture do I belong to? Chinese, Indian, Malay, Malaysian? What is Malaysian anyway? This social question is very prevalent in a melting pot type of country. The region as a whole is assimilating. We have Malays who have actually originated from Sulawesi and archipelago of Indonesia and of course Chinese, Indians, Armenians (in Penang), Arabs and some Portugese being the more popular immigrants.
But what about a Chindian? What culture do we follow?
That's the best part of being a Chindian. We have the best of both worlds. Both my cultures are one of the oldest surviving and more successful cultures. Between the Indians and the Chinese, we literally invented the world. We invented ways to progress a language and alphabet or character. We invented the modern foundation of warfare, gun powder and guns. We invited navigation with the stars and the compasses and other stuff that I will not go into great details.
I have the option to look at both cultures and pick the best (or what I think its the best). For example, I love eating with my fingers and if I follow the Chinese culture I probably won't be too good in that and just know how to use chopsticks. I can use both chopsticks and my fingers in a culinary experience which includes curry and herbal soup!
But there are certain aspects of my cultures that I don't understand. For example, in the Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh and Pakistan), you see grown men walking around holding hands!!! What is the #&@*$ is going on??!?!?! That is a great example of what NOT to follow from my Indian culture. To me, I cannot think of any instance where it is ok to hold another man's hand!
You only do that if you are shaking his hand in greeting or if both of you are gay. Even if you are holding your son's hand, you have to constantly look at people and say "This is my son, just hanging out with my your son. I am in no way a pervert or gay.". If you are straight and just chilling out with your friends, a guy DOES NOT EVER, EVER, EVER hold another man's hand!
There are times, these Indians (I call of them Indians even though they may be from Pakistan or Sri Langka or Bangladesh. They are all Indians, who the heck they are trying to kid! The difference is in the ethnicity, race or language) men will be hooking pinkies and walking around! No wonder arrange marriage is such a integral component of the Indian culture. Which self respecting girl will get turned on by a guy holding another guy's hand?!?!?!
Despite all that, we are still the second largest population in the world! Go figure!
As for the Chinese culture, well, there is too much emphasis on money and material things. Most Chinese guys would always want to save enough money to buy a house and a car before they decide to marry. I think that is all positively bull-crap. To me its just excuses to delay the marriage. Most men have intimacy issues and I will write about it later.
Just look at Chinese New Year. We welcome the Money God who is like Santa Claus and he arrives on CNY eve. We don't sweep on the first day, as we may accidentally sweep away fortune that the Money God left us. Every CNY day, the Money God's fortune seems to have a lot of spiders making their homes in it and looks suspiciously like dirt. However, I subscribe to this tradition as it means I didn't have to sweep the house that morning.
Then there is the ang-pow or red packet, given by the married to the not-married. Not surprisingly I liked this when I was a kid and hate it now that I have kids on my own. So, I have my likes and dislikes. When my elders don't like something that I do, I just say it is my "other" culture.
There are more stories and interesting traditions that I can share and I will share with you in my other parts. If you don't like it, it's just my culture!
But what about a Chindian? What culture do we follow?
That's the best part of being a Chindian. We have the best of both worlds. Both my cultures are one of the oldest surviving and more successful cultures. Between the Indians and the Chinese, we literally invented the world. We invented ways to progress a language and alphabet or character. We invented the modern foundation of warfare, gun powder and guns. We invited navigation with the stars and the compasses and other stuff that I will not go into great details.
I have the option to look at both cultures and pick the best (or what I think its the best). For example, I love eating with my fingers and if I follow the Chinese culture I probably won't be too good in that and just know how to use chopsticks. I can use both chopsticks and my fingers in a culinary experience which includes curry and herbal soup!
But there are certain aspects of my cultures that I don't understand. For example, in the Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh and Pakistan), you see grown men walking around holding hands!!! What is the #&@*$ is going on??!?!?! That is a great example of what NOT to follow from my Indian culture. To me, I cannot think of any instance where it is ok to hold another man's hand!
You only do that if you are shaking his hand in greeting or if both of you are gay. Even if you are holding your son's hand, you have to constantly look at people and say "This is my son, just hanging out with my your son. I am in no way a pervert or gay.". If you are straight and just chilling out with your friends, a guy DOES NOT EVER, EVER, EVER hold another man's hand!
There are times, these Indians (I call of them Indians even though they may be from Pakistan or Sri Langka or Bangladesh. They are all Indians, who the heck they are trying to kid! The difference is in the ethnicity, race or language) men will be hooking pinkies and walking around! No wonder arrange marriage is such a integral component of the Indian culture. Which self respecting girl will get turned on by a guy holding another guy's hand?!?!?!
Despite all that, we are still the second largest population in the world! Go figure!
As for the Chinese culture, well, there is too much emphasis on money and material things. Most Chinese guys would always want to save enough money to buy a house and a car before they decide to marry. I think that is all positively bull-crap. To me its just excuses to delay the marriage. Most men have intimacy issues and I will write about it later.
Just look at Chinese New Year. We welcome the Money God who is like Santa Claus and he arrives on CNY eve. We don't sweep on the first day, as we may accidentally sweep away fortune that the Money God left us. Every CNY day, the Money God's fortune seems to have a lot of spiders making their homes in it and looks suspiciously like dirt. However, I subscribe to this tradition as it means I didn't have to sweep the house that morning.
Then there is the ang-pow or red packet, given by the married to the not-married. Not surprisingly I liked this when I was a kid and hate it now that I have kids on my own. So, I have my likes and dislikes. When my elders don't like something that I do, I just say it is my "other" culture.
There are more stories and interesting traditions that I can share and I will share with you in my other parts. If you don't like it, it's just my culture!
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