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Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Monday, November 5, 2007
What is a Born-again Chinese?
What is a Born-again Chinese?
With the emergence of China as a new world/economic power, many ethnic Chinese across the globe are becoming increasingly aware and proud of their Chinese roots and cultural heritage. In Malaysia, this phenomenon is particularly observable: more and more ethnic Chinese Malaysians are sending their children to vernacular schools where Chinese is the medium of instruction; attending Chinese classes have become fashionable among working adults, and Chinese Malaysian are taking vacation trips to different parts of China in droves. In short, everything Chinese has become popular. This writer, an ethnic Chinese Malaysian with Christian upbringing, has come to see a parallel between the born-again Christians and the new “Chinese”. Thus, she coined the term “born-again Chinese” in jest, to tease the English-educated Anglophone Chinese around her. This term seems to have caught on and gained wide acceptance among Chinese Malaysians.
However, a search on the Internet for “born-again Chinese” revealed that several people in different parts of the world have used this term in the same context. The earliest entry was, in fact, in 1994!
Here are some of the references to the term:
1. The Sunday Times, July 17 1994.
http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~tanhw/life/sunday/confess.html
By Sumiko Tan
Confessions of a born-again Chinese
With the emergence of China as a new world/economic power, many ethnic Chinese across the globe are becoming increasingly aware and proud of their Chinese roots and cultural heritage. In Malaysia, this phenomenon is particularly observable: more and more ethnic Chinese Malaysians are sending their children to vernacular schools where Chinese is the medium of instruction; attending Chinese classes have become fashionable among working adults, and Chinese Malaysian are taking vacation trips to different parts of China in droves. In short, everything Chinese has become popular. This writer, an ethnic Chinese Malaysian with Christian upbringing, has come to see a parallel between the born-again Christians and the new “Chinese”. Thus, she coined the term “born-again Chinese” in jest, to tease the English-educated Anglophone Chinese around her. This term seems to have caught on and gained wide acceptance among Chinese Malaysians.
However, a search on the Internet for “born-again Chinese” revealed that several people in different parts of the world have used this term in the same context. The earliest entry was, in fact, in 1994!
Here are some of the references to the term:
1. The Sunday Times, July 17 1994.
http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~tanhw/life/sunday/confess.html
By Sumiko Tan
Confessions of a born-again Chinese
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