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Josh Hong's Chinese racism - not quite in a nutshell is a timely mirror for some Chinese Malaysians to reflect on their inner selves. There are interesting truths in his sometimes amusing yet germane article, though I noticed some areas that I would disagree with.

One example pertains to his remark that China's humiliation at the hands of Western powers in the 19th century did not affect Chinese perception of their own, perhaps not-so-grandiose, civilisation.

Regardless of the fact that China was defeated pitifully in its military encounters with Western powers and a technologically more advanced Japan during World War II, the greater body of Chinese 'civilisation' would remain largely intact as it must have.

Of course, like all values and norms that come into contact with foreign culture, they evolved naturally to eventually change the greater whole. Now, whether this was fast or significant enough for Hong's liking remains subjective.

However, what we may say with some certainty is that the Chinese ego after a series of military humiliations and foreign occupation would have been considerably dented.

If we look at the great civilisations of Greece, Rome and Egypt, which were invaded and severely defeated by other nations or even nomadic hordes, the depth, durability and indeed, grandiosity of their civilisations were never in question. They exist till today in the civilisations of modern European and American nations.

I believe Hong may be confused between Chinese civilisation and Chinese pride. While the latter forms part of the former, the former is not necessarily the latter.

Whether one should consider Chinese civilisation as grandiose would be also another subjective issue. However, as an item of interest, the Japanese, who denigrated the Chinese shockingly as sub-humans, had no compunction about adopting Chinese language as its own.

It is suggested that half the Japanese vocabulary are of Chinese origin. Even the name Japan or Nihon consists of two Chinese characters. The Japanese culture also borrowed and adopted heavily from Chinese culture.

Hong has an interesting theory to explain Chinese animosity towards the Japanese that he claims is 'more latent and less discussed'. He believes the Chinese detested and still detest the Japanese because they couldn't accept being beaten by a 'barbarian race of dwarfs'.

Well, I don't agree to this because being beaten, tortured or slaughtered by the Japanese during the last war would is terrible and hateful enough without worrying about comparative culture and anatomical measurement.

But I would like to offer in return my theory as to why the Japanese were unusually feral with the Chinese, calling them sub-humans and showing no bounds in their savage brutalities as demonstrated in at Nanjing .

The Japanese could not accept being culturally beholden to the 'weak man' of East Asia, thus they strove to erase completely from their physical surroundings and consciousness the reminder of their embarrassing cultural womb.

All this merely demonstrate that while Chinese racism is real and regrettable, it is not unique.

I recall one of the characters in the Akira Kurosawa classic 'Rashomon', narrating his grievances according to his perception, and undoubtedly self interest. Kurosawa's great tale had intended to show, a narration of either a crime, or a grievance would be seen differently by each individual party.

We may confidently assume all would be generally unreliable, with a mixture of those dangerous half-truths. How much spice each would have added on, no one knows.

As Kurosawa's film had moralised, there is no such thing as an objective truth, which is also a timely reminder when we talk about racism.

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