The thread that simply would not end - are the Chinese people racists or not?

Josh Hong tries to be laughably controversial, but all he succeeds in doing is to confuse the past with the present, the China of the diaspora and the China of the Mainland, the high Confucian culture of the Chinese elite and the low Taoist culture of the peasant masses.

Let's address the main question - were the ancient Chinese racists or not? To answer that, one must ask if mankind/humans were racist. We already conclude humans must be the most developed living organism, but we have only really had the chance to compare ourselves with chimps.

We have yet to meet any Martians, but rest assured that if we do, and they don't drive faster cars than us, we will surely proclaim that mankind must be smarter and superior to those lousy Martians.

It is a phenomenon often cited in pop psychology - 'the availability heuristic'. The ancient Chinese looked back at 5,000 years of history and saw only cold winter steppes filled with nomadic tribes in the north, wasteland and high mountains in the west, unending ocean in the east and flesh-eating barbarians in the teeming southern jungles.

China was literally the 'Middle Kingdom' and Chinese culture was indeed in the center of the known world. Every time the ancient Chinese came into contact with something foreign at the fringes, they managed to absorb it - tribe after tribe, culture after culture - into the Greater Chinese family.

No wonder Chinese culture became self-referential and yes, racist.

Even more amusingly, lots of indignant folks have written in to try and defend 5,000 years of Chinese history using various historical references to prove this point or that point. But there is nothing to defend.

Yes, the ancient Chinese were racist and all of us descendants of the dragon should be proud of that. Let's put it this way. Malaysian history starts circa 1400 with Parameswara. Chinese history starts circa 3000 BC with the first Xia dynasty.

If you want to be picky, China as a unified country began around 200BC with the First Emperor of Qin (go watch the movie 'Hero'). No other culture has managed to survive intact over that long period of time. No other culture has put out such a large body of sophisticated art and poetry. No other culture has absorbed its neighbours time after time for thousands of years.

My personal favorite comparison? When Li Bai was penning his immortal poems in 8th century, Chang An , guess what people in other parts of the world were doing?

Before anyone starts beating their chest in pride, I would also like to draw the distinction between high Confucian culture and the peasant culture of the feudal masses. Yes, Self-conscious reminded us in his letter that many of us are descendants of tin-miners and coolies. Yes, this is in fact true.

You probably would not have seen too many members of the Qing era Confucian literati fleeing China to pan for tin in the mines of Ipoh. Much of the values we attribute to being 'Chinese' in Malaysia, such as thrift and mercantilism, are in fact, only the traits of the Hokkien and Cantonese immigrant class.

The old Confucian elite abhorred profit and considered the merchant to be the lowest of all social classes. Of course, this class of elites was wiped out by 20th century events and to paraphrase Comrade Deng, getting rich in China these days is glorious indeed.

So, who are we as Chinese Malaysians? I would argue our culture is a curious amalgam of high Confucian culture, Taoist superstition, feudal family structures, southern Chinese mercantilism tendencies and the bitterness of surviving of Western colonialism and government-sponsored racism.

The irony is that while our ancestors were the least likely candidates to appreciate high Chinese culture, yet some of us lay claim to that 5,000 years history to justify our so-called superiority over the natives.

And is the average Chinese Malaysian racist or not? Now, that is the question we should all debate!