The Chinese in Town

In Indonesia, the people call themselves Indonesians; in US, Americans; in UK, British; in Australia, Australians.  Yet in this country Malaysia, most people call themselves by their race; Malays, Indians, Chinese etc.  Or sometimes, Malaysian Chinese.  They call themselves Malaysians most times when they have to fill in forms that request for 'country of origin'.

And why am I bringing this up?  Just to explain that here the title refers to the Chinese in China :)

These Chinese ladies are allegedly notorious for breaking up families here, for being GROs, for being grasping - any man who would provide them a better life than back in China.

Once, when we ran short of Indonesian maids, it was suggested that Chinese maids be brought in for several rather valid reasons:

• they spoke the local Chinese dialect
• the food was somewhat similar
• they didh't cost as much as maids from other countries

HOWEVER, the Malaysian Chinese ladies begged to defer for fear of losing their husbands.  And so the matter was shelved.

I digress though - my reason for this post is to talk about a Chinese lady that I met while walking Bernie in the field.  I had seen her a couple of times with her baby and another lady, but had not spoken to them.

I approached her once when she was alone with her baby and started chatting.  To my chagrin, she spoke in Mandarin, (I didn't know she was from China then) a language I had less than a smattering of :(  We managed though with signs and a bit of Cantonese that the lady understood.  If I didn't understand her I just nodded like a wise sage LOL.

I had thought she was married to a Malaysian and took her baby for an evening stroll as most mothers I see in the neighbourhood.

MIL however had something else to say from the gossip she garnered.  A lady told her the Chinese lived right next door to her and she wanted to move away because of the myriad number of cars with strange men dropping by, the noise, the loud chatter ... and MIL added have you ever seen her husband with her?  and don't tell her where you stay ... (Come to think of it, I very rarely see husbands out for evening stroll with wife and baby)

I added that since the lady is so upset with the Chinese, why move out why not call the police?  To which she replied these poor people come all the way to make a living,  how can you report them?

To-date I am still wonderng what to make of it.