On Friday, March 31, 2023 at 12:04:33 PM UTC, ltlee1 wrote:
On Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 2:51:47 PM UTC, ltlee1 wrote:
An widely circulated video in which a Singaporean of Chinese ethnicity was disparaged because she did not speak English. In response, the First Lady of Singapore spoke up on the side of diversity, all in English.
https://www.guancha.cn/video/gczvideo/content.html?id=17217?s=zwyzxsp 中国女员工不会讲英文遭遇“歧视”，新加坡总理夫人表态
The following from Wikipedia.org:
"Main article: Languages of Singapore
Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil.[392]
Language used most frequently at home[1]
Language Percent
English 48.3%
Mandarin 29.9%
Malay 9.2%
Chinese dialects 8.7%
Tamil 2.5%
Others 1.4%
English is the lingua franca[393][394][395][396] and the main language used in business, government, law and education.[397][398] The Constitution of Singapore and all government legislation is written in English, and interpreters are required if a
language other than English is used in the Singaporean courts.[399][400] Statutory corporations conduct their businesses in English, while any official documents written in a non-English official language such as Malay, Mandarin, or Tamil are typically
translated into English to be accepted for use.[401][394][402] "
Will Singaporeans follow Hong Kongers example of mass protest, but for diametrically opposite reason?
Western media mostly portrayed the 2019 protest as a pro-democratic protest because
Hong Kong's Democrats supported the protest. The real cause is totally different. Sure,
many Hong Kongers had grievance over high house cost. But high housing cost had been
the main complaint for decades. Western media also criticize Chinese infringement over
some court cases. But not the average Hong Kongers. They agreed with the Chinese view.
The immediate cause was the Extradition Bill which would force Hong Kong government to
hand over to China people indicted by Chinese court. But such bill would have zero impact
on non-criminals and had little to do with Hong Kong's democracy.
How could such marginal cause gave rise to massive and prolonged protests?
Answer:
1. Hong Kong's pro-West political elites were more anti-China than pro-Hong Kong.
2. China's rise would dismantle the privilege of many Hong Kong non-business elites.
Most of these elites leveraged their English skill into better than average government,
university, and corporate jobs.
Hong Kong had been a British colony for 150+ years. Decades longer than Singapore.
And like Singapore, everything considered important was conducted in English although
about 90% of Hong Kongers ethnic Chinese. Every Hong Konger who wanted to get ahead
needed English skill. Over the years, English speaking Hong Kongers had became a super-
class who saw the rest of their compatriots as somewhat inferior.
What if English was de-emphasized and Chinese became Hong Kong's primary language
like in French in France and Spanish in Spain? Hong Kong's honorary Englishman certainly
want to delay its happening as much as possible.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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