[Sg] - A Singaporean Chinese who can't speak Chinese, feels he's being unfairly discriminated against

[syed putra]

Logically, it would make more sense for the chinks to put their capital in the south. The south is economically much richer than the north. Also, the capital in the south provides a buffer zone from the barbaric tartars in the north and is also nearer the trading routes of south east asia.

However, historically, chink emperors and warlords who put the capital in the south always ended up being overrun by people of the North.

Nanjing (known as Jianye) served as capital of Eastern Wu during the 3 Kingdoms. Overrun by Wei/Jin from the North.

Southern Sung, despite being even richer than Northern Sung, was overrun by the Mongols.

The Ming Dynasty's original capital was in Nanjing. The 2nd Ming Emperor was eventually overthrown by his uncle, whose base was in Beijing.

The Southern Ming dynasty was also overrun by the Qing from the north.

The Taiping rebellion, whose capital was in Nanjing, was also overrun by the Qing, whose capital was in Beijing.

The KMT, again based in Nanjing, lost their capital to the Japs during WW2 and later on, lost the civil war to the commies, who were based in the North.

In many cases, rich and powerful dynasties operating from richer southern capitals, all lost to poorer and leaner enemies from the north. It's bad luck to put one's capital in Nanjing. Beijing has far better fengshui.

Maybe wheat and barley gives more power than rice.

 

[Rogue Trader]

The 'Speak Mandarin' campaign also netted many middle class sinkie chinkies who could barely speak mandarin and their kids. It was not part of the plan.

I think you are confusing the Speak Mandarin campaign with the mother tongue requirement education. Yes the latter definitely screwed many nonya sinkies and many emigrated in the 80s. I had a couple of classmates from middle class families who did that.

The Speak Mandarin campaign was pushed out during the early to mid 80s to 少讲方言 多讲华语 亲切又便利.

 

[Rogue Trader]

Maybe wheat and barley gives more power than rice.

It's the same with India. The rice eating southerners are physically less endowed than the wheat munching northerners. Diet could be an aspect. I think Neanderthal genes is a stronger factor

 

[tanwahtiu]

Peranakan is like put a dog and a cat together in a place and when they fuck breed a new spiece call doca ... create a bastard....

 

[nightsafari]

I hesitated to point this out earlier, but I believe you'd understand : your earlier expressed view (for sake of 'debate'), risks showing that your hangups over Mandarin due to archaic historical reasons (valid as they are), going as far as to say "fuck Mandarin" is manifestly unfair to all the Mandarin speakers in the world alive today (including all foreigners around the world learning Mandarin, not just all the people of China today),

it's just an expression of an opinion. take it is as you will. I'm of the opinion that most people are totally ignorant of anything beyond the last 50-100 years. They see that China speaks Mandarin now and assume that it was always the case. So back to the opinion, none of my ancestors ever spoke it. Ever heard the expression tng lang or tong yan? There's a reason Cantonese and Hokkien people used to call themselves that. It was to differentiate themselves from the northern barbarians whose language was Mandarin based. If your ancestors are from the north I can understand you defending it.

As I pointed out before if all of Chinese wore a queue and still do, would you take that as a representation of being Chinese? Our ancestors had to wear queues or risk beheading because of a similar edict by Manchus. The whole country did wear it and it was definitely a representation of the entirety of Chinese culture at the time. And it was even more absolute a mandate than the languages. By your argument, we should all follow suit and wear queues or not be considered Chinese? If you wish to do so that is of course your right.

and by extension to all Chinese people in general (as due to the historical & political reasons you pointed out, Mandarin is now effectively synonymous with and representing Chinese people in general today)
The way it is today (for historical & political reasons), Mandarin does effectively represent the Chinese language today, and as such can be taken as due representation of Chinese culture in general, today.

that's a projection you are making all by yourself. To lump all Chinese as Mandarin speakers is unfair to Cantonese, Hokkien, Shanghainese, Uyghur and all the other ethnic minorites and is tantamount to ethnic bullying. It is a form of soft ethnic cleansing. No different from a dominant species taking advantage of a lesser species. There are valid economic and political reasons to speak Mandarin and I won't dispute that. And certainly, many people feel the prestige of belonging to "the official language." What you are suggesting is basically erasing ethnic identities as they are tied to their languages. I will not argue that Mandarin represents the Cantonese, the Hokkien and the Shanghainese for example.

I choose to remember my ancestors and my roots. You are free to follow the northerners/mainlanders if you choose.