Why Did A Chinese Family Leave Singapore?

Notes: (1) This week's blog is totally non-technical. I post it here just for sharing a life story and experience. It was written by my wife in 2003 (her English is much sharpened now) as an essay for English course, part of the nursing degree she pursued (she is now a RN working for VA).  (2) The story described what happened many years ago. Situation is definitely different now, especially China has ascended to world's second-largest economy. (3) If you find it is not to your interests, just don't read it further.

15 years ago, I didn’t know the real meaning of discrimination. Like all residents in Beijing, the capital of China, I enjoyed all the privileges as a Pekinese:  speaking standard Mandarin and having the highest quality of life in education, economy, culture, and politics in the whole country. Therefore, the Pekinese looked down on all the people who spoke Mandarin with local accents and regarded them as second-class citizens. Today, after having suffered from discrimination and prejudice in different societies of different countries, I believe that every immigrant has his or her own special feelings about racial and ethnic discrimination. My immigrant experience in Singapore tells me that any discrimination—positive or negative—is not fair, and an adverse prejudice or discrimination may underlie a favorable one for some people. 

In 1994, after my husband got his Ph D degree from EPFL in Switzerland, my whole family moved to Singapore. We were exhilarated and excited because we had left the life which made us feel discriminated against and isolated from Swiss culture, people, and society during six years in Switzerland. After all in Singapore we would live again in Chinese society where we could speak our own language and enjoy authentic Chinese dishes. Therefore we intended to settle down on this small beautiful and rich island.

This island country’s population is three million, which is made up of 76.4 % Chinese, 15.5 % Malaysian, and 8% Indian from India. Around 1994, this country became one of the world’s high-income countries. The Chinese there speak both English and Chinese. The government of this county is mainly authoritarian and predominantly Chinese. Therefore all the policies made by the government tend to favor to the Chinese.

Because we are Chinese, from very beginning we benefited from the policies in which racial and ethnic discrimination was obvious. First, for keeping Chinese in the dominant position of the society, the government allocated 76% immigrant quota to Chinese people. Second, the government set various financial aids to attract Chinese people who received Ph D degree from overseas.  The policies benefited the government indeed in the effect of one stone for two birds: on one hand this country got the highly educated individuals; on the other hand, the government extended the labor pool of qualified Chinese immigrants and kept other races out.

Under these circumstances, my husband easily got a job with a big company in Singapore before his thesis defense. Besides a quite good salary, the government offered him allowances, such as housing and medical. Within one year after we landed in Singapore, we got our immigrant status and purchased a reasonably priced house of our own in the housing market which is controlled by the government and available only for citizens and permanent residents.  All we got from the government were far more than we expected before we came into this country.

Our “achievements” were admired deeply by some of our friends who came from France, Australia, and Britain. Some of them had been working in Singapore or married a Singaporean girl more than eight years, but they were still waiting for their green card.     From the viewpoint of them, the government opened the arms to welcome us to this country. In contrast, they didn’t receive any allowances at all from the government; they even could not select a cheap apartment to live because foreigners had to live in the apartments assigned by the government. Thereupon, they felt their contributions to this country were totally ignored by the government.

In this country, the government fosters national pride by telling people the success and the achievements they have made.  At the same time, the government emphasizes that the Chinese people are the achievements’ makers. Therefore, the Singapore Chinese consider themselves the greatest people in the world, who have radically turned a poor region into a prosperous country within 30 years since the dependence from Malaysia.  Both the attitude of discriminatory government and the self-pride of common people promote a trend that Singaporean Chinese are superior over any other races. They think Malaysians are lazy and Indians are liars. They don’t allow any Chinese to be a maid because in Singapore a maid holds the lowest social prestige; if Chinese became maid, the Chinese’s superiority will be toppled.  Consequently, the maids come from only the Philippines and Indonesia. Among Chinese, Singaporean divide all Chinese in four categories: Singapore Chinese, Taiwan Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, and Mainland Chinese. Although we have the same physical appearance as Singaporean Chinese, our accent---no matter if we speak Chinese or English—can tell us apart.  According to the economic prosperity, Singaporean Chinese are superior in every aspect to other Chinese, and Mainland Chinese is in the lowest position in all aspects due to the economic poverty of China.  In the mind of Singaporean Chinese, Mainland Chinese come to Singapore just for earning more money as well as for having more children (because of Chinese policy of one child for one couple). As a result, they show their superiority in front of the Mainland Chinese in every opportunity.

Once, my husband met an ordinary man on the street.  He asked my husband what kind of job he did. My husband told him he was an engineer. This man said to my husband, “ As an engineer here, your salary is higher than your president, DENG XIAOPENG.” (DENG XIAOPING was Chinese president at that time.) His attitude was telling us it was the Singaporean who gave us everything we needed.  We met very often the similar ridiculous people in Singapore.

Another time, my husband bought a Walkman from a small shop. After paying, he kept still and stared at the salesman for a while; then, this man asked, “What are you waiting for?”  My husband answered, “ I am waiting for ‘THANK YOU’ from your mouth.”  He replied my husband, “I have never said ‘THANK YOU’ to a China Man.” He meant how a giver could say “THANK YOU” to a recipient.

One day while I walked on a street with my son, who was three years old and born in Switzerland, one woman came to me and directly asked whether I came from mainland China. Then she said to me, “ You have only one child, right? He is very lucky to have the chance to come to Singapore, and you too. You can have more children here, not only one. Don’t you?”  I knew she hinted if we didn’t come to Singapore, my son had no food, no clothing, no good education, and so forth.  I had heard similar words from different mouths hundreds times. Finally I found the best way to answer such nonsense question: keeping silent.

Another painful experience happened to me in a taxi. When the driver knew I came from mainland of China, he began to speak down about Mainland Chinese. Automatically I defended, “Why do you speak down so much about Chinese while you use many things made in China, especially Chinese medical herbs?”  He yelled to me, “We Singaporeans throw a lot of our Singapore DOLLARS for your GRASS!”  Not only superior are Singapore Chinese over other people, but also more precious are Singapore DOLLARS than Chinese medical herbs.

Although we got the house and the permanent resident status easily, the feelings of disappointment and frustration were increasing as we lived there until we left this country with tremendous regret of coming to this country. We lived in Singapore just one year and a half. It seems to me like ten years and a nightmare. During the time, I said to my husband over and over again that the only thing could made me happy was to bring me to the airport with my entire luggage and leave this country for good.

We have left Singapore now for seven years and a half, but the painful experiences are still very fresh in my mind. Through my experiences, I hope everyone who don’t want be treated by discrimination shows his or her integrity against any discrimination, including any benefits and favors from discrimination. 

If some day I go back to Beijing, I will never treat those people who can’t speak standard Mandarin like inferior citizens because I know any discrimination is not fair.