During my years of miserable comfort in London, I was once asked by a Malay classmate from Brunei: 'When will you stop hanging around with so many Chinese people from different countries?'

Quite untypical of me, I said, 'Well, not until you stop seeing all your Muslim friends from the Middle East and South Asia.' And we both laughed.

Indeed, shaking off one's ethnic or religious significance is a tricky business, and all the more so if one seeks to look at one's own racial group with sarcasm, witticism and criticism.

To the disappointment of those who are quick to brand me an anti-Chinese freak, I am fairly confident of my Chinese credentials - whether or not this is necessary is another matter. After all, is someone who taught the Chinese language to British-born Chinese kids in Islington, North London, qualified to be anti-Chinese? Or does one call a person helping out at a remembrance service held for the 58 mainland Chinese who were suffocated to death in Dover, England, in the summer of 2000 a China-basher?

What about someone who is consistently fighting against demeaning remarks being made against mainland Chinese girls in Malaysia? Or would a person who once travelled across central Europe just to understand the plight of undocumented workers from China be a self-loathing Chinese?

Anyway, I draw solace from the fact that Noam Chomsky, too, is often accused of treachery of the Jews on account of his sharp criticisms of Israel.

In this regard, I thank Sim Kwang Yang for his empathy with my venture into assessing the Chinese race critically, and cannot agree more with him that ethnicity and religion are the two foremost terms of reference in Malaysia.