on Aug 22nd, 2008In Defence of Li Jia Wei and our Proud National Heroes
After watching the much talked about clip where 李佳薇 Li Jia Wei tells the world she’s a Chinese, I was literally in tears watching the clip. Ok, I cry when I hear about sob stories. But listening to their life stories and understanding what they have to go through to be where they are today, I really 佩服 “admire” them.
Why don’t we have interviews and talk shows about our sporting heroes? Watching this clip makes me feel for them even more. Before going into the details of the clip, I wish to correct the impression of the people who feels Li Jia Wei proved herself as non-Singapore. This is what Li Jia Wei said in the interview
希望在 2008, 我自己又是一个北京人, 又是个中国人, 我希望能在自己的本土, 自己的地盘, 能够得到一枚奖牌.
I wish that in 2008, I am a person from Beijing, I am a Chinese, I wish I can in my home ground, in my territory, that I can achieve a medal.
Is this sentence really that offensive? Is it not a fact that she was born in Beijing, China?
Have you not heard a similar conversation in your everyday life before?
“Eh, you Chinese?”
“Yah. Wa si hokkien lang eh” (Yah, I am Hokkien)
Would you consider the above sentence as unpatriotic? Would you consider someone stating their place of origin as unpatriotic? One would have to note that the Chinese language does not make a distinction between “ethnicity” and nationality. For example, when we say 我是福建人 – Wo shi fu jian ren – in English, it literally means “I am a Hokkien/ Fu Jian person”, which means both that I was born in Fu Jian or that I was descended from Fu Jian people.
So when Li Jia Wei said “I am a Beijing person, I am a Chinese”, it is no more nor less than someone saying “I am Chinese, I am Hokkien” as 70% of Singaporean are Chinese and majority of them are Hokkien. When people claim that Li Jia Wei is actually saying “I am not a Singaporean” you have to stop and wonder how many Singaporeans you know, go around saying “I am Singaporean! I am Singaporean!” They are putting words into Li Jia Wei’s mouth by omission, by what she didn’t say. In fact, most of these Singaporeans are only trumpeting their “Singaporean-ess” now, in order to contrasts themselves with Li Jia Wei who was not born in Singapore.
In Li Jia Wei’s case, she was making a point that since she hails from Beijing, China, she wishes to make a mark now that she has an opportunity to play in the world stage hosted by the country she was born in, in the city she was born in. Perhaps some of you would feel that I am missing the point. Perhaps some of you hold Li Jia Wei to such “high standards” as to forget her homeland once she becomes a Singaporean. We are Chinese. You shouldn’t 忘本 “forget your roots”.
Singapore consists of four main ethnic groups – Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasians. We expect the people from different backgrounds and different ethnicity to work together to build a better society. What we don’t expect them to do, however, is to throw away their ethnicity and forget their values.
Let’s go into details of the clip.
Li Jia Wei 李佳薇
Her father was a table tennis coach. When Li Jia Wei was a child, he was very strict with her and would scold and hit her. Even when she injured herself while playing, her father did not cut her any slack when it came to training table tennis. As the saying goes, 严师出高徒 “strict teacher produces good disciples”. Li Jia Wei even admitted that she hated her father growing up. But it was when she came Singapore, 离乡背井, that she finally felt her father’s love for her. He told her that if she buey tahan in Singapore, she can come home.
Feng Tian Wei 冯天薇
She was from a humble family in Ha er bin 哈尔滨, it’s somewhere in China which I have no idea where actually. She was training in table tennis when her father suddenly became ill. Her mother only earned RMB100 a month and it was not enough to support the family. Her mother had to change her job, travel to her new job 2 hours away from where they lived, for RMB300 more. To put it in perspective, her family earned approximately SGD$160 a month. That was just 6 years ago. Feng Tian Wei’s coaches told mother to 咬紧牙根 and continue to send her for table tennis training as she is talented. Feng Tian Wei’s mom’s preserverence really touched my heart… 慈母手中线, 游子身上衣.
Now, Mediacorp should show Singaporeans a more human side to Li Jia Wei and Feng Tian Wei.. by showing us their lives, their struggles, their gratitude for Singapore and how different or similar they are to the average Singaporean.
You know..I get what you are trying to say, but what she said is different from saying I am Chinese. There is another way to say I am Chinese and that’s how Singaporeans do it.
But yes, I believe we are being deliberately unreasonably anal.
Anyway, these individuals are really different from us, and whatever I feel about their nationality aside (and the whole Singaporean-ness debate), I think we as (fellow) Singaporeans should admire them and must learn from the hunger and desire that these Chinese have.
Oh well…
And I don’t think anyone is asking them to forget their roots, I mean, to me at least, that’s nonsense to expect, much less demand. China has given them as much as Singapore might have. Although, I think a little mention might have been nice. No? And that omission, is telling in my opinion.
[...] Update: deadpris has written something about the clip here. [...]
Indeed! If you want to say you’re a chinese (race), and not chinese (nationality), you wouldn’t be saying you are a zhong-guo-ren, but hua-ren.
This is real life story that’s touching many hearts. A lot of people migrate in search of better life that maybe their motherland can’t provide. At times they are branded as traitors. But I personally feel, we’ll do the same too if we are them…
but isn’t it true that she IS a zhong guo ren? and its just her way of saying she’s chinese isn’t it? in china, chinese is known as zhong guo ren and not hua ren just like in singapore we call ourselves hua ren and not zhong guo ren..its not whether you feel for which country more..its just her way of speaking..
“Indeed! If you want to say you’re a chinese (race), and not chinese (nationality), you wouldn’t be saying you are a zhong-guo-ren, but hua-ren.”
In Singapore, it is customary to say that you are “hua ren” when you mean that your ethnicity is Chinese. However, if you’ve met enough ethnic Chinese people who did not learn their Mandarin in Singapore, you’ll know that “hua ren” and “zhong guo ren” can be used interchangeably. If fact, some don’t even use the term “hua ren” at all when they talk about their ethnicity, they simply say “zhong guo ren” even if they no longer hold China citizenship.
Since Li Jiawei was born in China and learnt her Mandarin in China, it is only understandable that she would use the term “zhong guo ren” to mean ethnic Chinese.
I think people are making too much out of this.
She has been living in Singapore for so many years, she should know the difference between using zhong-guo-ren and hua-ren by now. She misses her home, she is a hired-gun for Singapore. Thus, don’t expect any loyalty from her because Singapore literally bought the medal (coach and players) from China. To people like her, Singapore is “I pay you money, you get me medals” … would you in her shoes think of yourself as part of your bosses’ family, just ask the foreign maids if they feel Singaporean?
deadpris: Thank you for putting the record straight.
may i knw where you see the clip of li jia wei and any clips available for feng tian wei? thnks.
The clip can be found here http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=426895254
Oh for god’s sakes. Why do people insist on making judgements on people they barely even know.
So now I can say that JS is a person who has zero tolerance and a propensity for making shallow judgements based on the one paragraph JS wrote? Truth is, I can’t say that in all honesty because I don’t know JS as a person. I based all of my impression of this person on one paragraph.
I don’t expect or demand loyalty. That is up to that person. And I’m in no position to judge whether or not these girls are loyal or not based on press reports because trust me, the press isn’t always that accurate.
I know Singaporeans born and breed in Singapore who have next to no loyalty for this country. Being born in a particular place does not guarantee loyalty. Just as not being born in a particular place does not necessarily mean disloyalty.
And seriously, zhong guo ren and hua ren are often used interchangeably. Even I sometimes lapse into saying I’m a zhong guo ren because I lived overseas for several years for a while and while I know the difference, I often forget. There is technically NO DIFFERENCE between zhong guo ren and hua ren if you are talking about ethnicity, i.e. it’s techinically not wrong to use either term to refer to ethnicity. The term zhong guo ren is still currently being used to refer to ethnicity. It’s only in the last few years that this term has become less popular as people not of Chinese Nationality sought to either distance themselves or differentiate themselves from being from China the country. Sometimes, people in China would say they are zhong guo ren min as opposed to zhong guo ren to differentiate between nationality and ethnicity.
Also, given that Li Jiawei was giving an interview to CCTV, it is very possible that she used zhong guo ren to refer to ethnicity because Mainland Chinese will understand that to mean ethnicity. The term hua ren to refer to ethnicity in China, as far as I tell, is far less common than zhong guo ren. Hua ren is also, if I’m not wrong, not often used to refer to ethnicity in Hong Kong too where I think they use Tong Yan (ie Tang Ren) to refer to their roots in China.
I really don’t understand what the fuss is. We seem to be the only country that is soooo bothered by this whole loyalty thing. What’s with Singaporeans? What’s with all this bitterness and intolerance disguised as patriotism. It’s jingoism and it’s dangerous. Do Singaporeans have this thinly disguised sense of inferiority that they can’t believe that someone could actually find something worthwhile to stay in Singapore for other than money?
We normally say, ‘I’m a Chinese from Singapore, and definitely not ‘born in Beijing, a China national’. Anyway, I’m glad she has given the excuse of going back to studies to go back to Beijing, as I think she is pretty satisfied with her monetary gains she has made in S’pore. LJW is really an economic opportunitist. I hope Feng TW will stay, and have made S’pore her home. We need more of Feng than Li.
who really cares??????????????????????????????????????????
“在外‘飘’了这么多年，是时候为家乡做点什么了。”李万祥说，“新赛季摘牌大会结束后，北京队主动联系了佳薇。双方很快达成了协议。我们全家都很高兴。”虽然是以外援身份加盟，但在李万祥眼里，这是女儿对“娘家”的回报，“为北京队打球，待遇什么的都不重要。”
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/04/12/新加坡国手回北京队娘家/
Fact no: 1- Most sportmen/women would like to end up in the arena of presitigious tournaments llike Olympics, World Cup, Thomas Cup, ……..
and are willing to carry the flags of their sponsers.
Fact no: 2- A win in this tournament represents first and foremost, a personal win which is why they fought ‘tooth and nail’ for the top spot.
Their sponsers win and glory is just incidental.
Fact no: 3 Nobody can change history and it will be recorded as Singapore is the first country……….
If you want to change the facts, produce another Tan Howe Liang. If we keep on harping on this subject, we may hurt many more people.