Being a primary school kid back then, we were not exactly matured at that period of time. I remembered there was this time at the canteen table where there were two segregated groups: namely the Malays and the Chinese. We did not know one another but somehow we started a very agitated argument. We threw abuses at one another such as “Malays stink,” “Malays are barbi,” “Malays are stupid. ”In primary school,we were probably only aware of our skin colour differences and we tend and preferred to mix around with our own race. The lack of interaction only led to further aggressive feelings towards the other “skin coloured” people.
Certainly in Singapore where the majority is Chinese, some of us do have our own prejudiced views towards other races, sometimes deeming them as being inherently lazy, not as bright in academic or work etc. And I do not deny that my own family did pass down some of these prejudiced views to me since I was young. These stereotyping of other races usually stem from lack of communication, understanding and tolerance towards one another. I myself studied in Chinese schools since secondary school to NUS where Jay and Rathi are the only non-chinese friends I have made in NUS.
In such environments, how often do we really get to interact and understand one another better? Racial Harmony once a year is definitely not enough. More could be done. Perhaps some racial elements could actually be introduced into the school curriculum to increase the awareness of our cultural differences and different values and beliefs and such prejudices would eventually disappear.
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Hi Huiwen!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting post and it gave me insights to a different aspect of intercultural differences.
I do agree with you that we all have prejudiced views passed on to us since young. I believe that each family has their own way of teaching their children how to identify themselves with their own race. And one such method could probably be to present their child with ideas of what the other races are like, and this may result in them putting down the other races unintentionally.
I guess as children, we were very immature and ignorant and we tend to follow what the adults say. A lot of misunderstandings amongst these children are thus formed.
Anyway, my post is also about an intercultural conflict which happened when I was in primary school. Which also owes to the same point about children being less educated in this aspect - dealing with other races.
I guess one method to minimize such conflicts would be to promote the practice of parents teaching their child from young about the different cultures. ( of course with as much accuracy as possible)
I think your blog post gives a very good example of how interacial disputes could happen even in a society which emphasizes a lot on multi racial harmony. Well done! =)
Cheers,
Shu Ting
Hello Huiwen,
ReplyDeleteVery controversial blog i must say. Hehe. I totally agree with you that as much as Singapore is a celebration of different races and cultures we still do have some cracks within the walls of our society.Racism does still exist. I have personally seen it and felt it. However, its at a very minimal level. I have friends from various different cultures. When i was in secondary school, my class was like a small international country. I had classmates from so many different countries (eg. Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Thailand). And surprisingly chinese students were not the majority in my class(~50%).So it really tested our resilience to racism and enhanced our ties with each other.Not only did it helped us to learn more about other culturs, it taught us to respect the culturs. I believe racial harmony has to be taught at home. Only then can it be encraved in our hearts.
A good write-up about a conflict which normally happens around us to the minority groups. Glad that you addressed it. :)
Cheers,
Rathi
Hey there again,,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your good suggestion!.. That solution unforunately did not cross our minds at that point of time. Perhaps it could be due to the fact that we were too young to think of intellectual solutions..hehe..
Cheers,
Rathi
Hi Huiwen,
ReplyDeleteGood job! I like the way you addrressed the intercultural conflict. Though involved as one party of the issue, your evaluation is objective and gives some insight into the miscommunication among different cultures.
I can relate to it well that people tend to stay at their ease zone and mix with their own race.I have stayed at halls and residences in NUS and the majority people here are Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese. Apart from Hall activities, people seldom interact with those of different races. As a result, in one group there are always either prejudiced or overgenerized views shared towards other groups. And if a Chinese's food put in the public refrigerator get stolen, intuitively he/she will probably be suspicious of some race.
Hopefully government will make more effort to promote racial harmony.
Cheers,
June