This week Prince Harry has gotten himself into trouble again. He was caught in video uttering racial remarks to his Asian colleague when he was training in Sandhurst.
As far as I know, Malaysians are a respectful lot. We are very mindful of our words when it comes to mingling with friends of other races. However, we fare quite badly when it comes to different nationalities.
I would apportion the biggest blame to ignorance. In Malaysia, Bangladeshi workers are called Bangla and Pakistani Paki. In the UK, Paki is a very offensive term to not only the Pakistani people but also Indians. It is as rude as calling me a Cina-pek.
But are we the only nation like that? Hong Kong people came to mind immediately. Malaysians to Hong Kong people are known as "Malai" people. Even though this is not a derogatory remark, calling us a Malai is a misnomer. Again, it's just ignorance.
Malai (or Malay) is one of the races in Malaysia. There are also Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Iban and other ethnic minorities. Therefore calling a Malaysian "Malai" is like calling a Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish, an English. The safe term would be British. Likewise, Malaysia should be Malaysian or even if you need to canton-ise it, it should be "Ma-lai-sai-ah".
Malaysians to Hong Kong people are just as bad. We call Hong Kong people Hongkies, which is an offensive term to some. Even Raymond's latest blog post has that! That too is attributed to ignorance.
Then again, I've always asked HK friends if there is a shorter term for Hong Kong people. Hong Kong-er? Hong Kong-ese?
Oh well maybe there are things we just can't extrapolate. Just because Taiwan people are called Taiwanese, does not mean Hong Kong people are called Hong Kong-ese. Likewise, just because an Australian is called an Aussie, doesn't mean Hong Kong people are called Hongkie or a Pakistani Paki!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Just because an Australian is called an Aussie
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6 comments:
Jap is also an offensive term to call Japanese. I know that people in Msia always say "Jap" for Japanese but it's actually offensive.
I call people from HK "Hong Kongers."
To be honest, I never get to know the terms "Hong Kongers", "Hong Kong-ese" or "Hongkies" before I went to the UK. Therefore, all three of them are not offensive to me at all. I think what is more important is the attitude you use to treat people from different races.
Teri: Didn't know about the Jap one. Thanks!;)
Kiki: That's true. Sometimes people can be offended even if we didn't mean it. So it's also good to have some knowledge of this.
I only found out that "Hongkie" is derogatory when I used that word in my office the other day. And to think that just because we're multi-racial means we're also very respectful when it comes to treating people of different nationalities. Suffice to say, living abroad has really opened my eyes and ears!
Hi Alden! Just want to wish you a very happy Chinese New Year..:)
I think it'scalled Hongkongite. Nip being an allusion to Nippon is also a derogatory term for a Japanese.
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