I asked Ryan if the newspapers would have the times for the badminton matches and he said maybe. So I sat down on the sofa next to him as I looked for them. He then asked if I'd be supporting Malaysia or China. I replied that of course I'd be supporting Malaysia. Hello, I'm Malaysian?

'But you're Chinese.'

And I thought he had already gotten it. Why's it so hard to understand?!

'It's not like I live in China. I've lived in Malaysia my whole life.'

'But your parents are from China.'

Fricking. Hell. =.=

'My parents are not from China!'

'What? Then why are you Chinese?'

'My grandparents are Chinese! (If I'm not wrong) I'm 3rd generation Malaysian-Chinese!'

'But... that doesn't even count then. I wouldn't even call myself Chinese.'

Oh. my. God. Someone knock some sense into these... arghhhH! Even if my parents were born in China, I wasn't! Why the heck would I support China?! And not to call myself Chinese! Completely blasphemous!

My race is Chinese. I AM Chinese. I cannot imagine myself to be from some other racial lineage. What the hell is so hard to understand about that?!

'My grandparents are from England and then they moved here. But I don't call myself 3rd generation Australian-British.'

To put it lightly, my reaction was explosive.

Does British sound like a race to you? I feel like bashing him in just for that whole 'don't call yourself Chinese' crap. I refuse to take that from anyone. Your nationality is Australian, argh. You shouldn't need me to tell you that. There is no racial lineage for you, but there is one for me. I'm proud to be Chinese. The Chinese race may have originated from China, but I've lived all my life in Malaysia. I don't know China. Heck, I don't think I can name more than 5 cities there! I know nothing about their politics or whether they throw big shits over petrol hikes. And I'm not bothered by that.

But I can draw the Malaysian map blindfolded. I can name every capital, if I rack my head a little. I can sing the entire national anthem without referring to anything, unlike some of the Australians. In fact, most of them probably can't venture past the 1st verse (or did some of you not even know that there was more than 1 verse?). I'm quite confident I am able to recite the entire Rukunegara, rhythm or not. I can tell you what it's like to live in Malaysia, be a Malaysian.

But to be a Chinese in China is nothing I know about and I don't feel any obligation to find out. This might sound rude, but I see myself as having little ties with China. Being Chinese is a completely different matter. I celebrate Chinese New Year, every year without fail, including last year when I was still in boarding school. I speak decent and passable Cantonese, Mandarin and Hokkien. Sometimes I accompany relatives to the temples. I play mahjong and slam tables with tiles. There're many things associated with being Chinese, and if I'm not Chinese, well.. what the heck else would I be?!!

If you think about it, Malaysians have so much to be proud of. I often have people here asking me what I'm going to do after uni. I always reply that I'm going home, and some continue to ask me 'why'. WHY? Why what? Why do you have to ask me why, like it's a sin to come home, to my country, to earn a living, to maybe even contribute something to society? For all you bastards out here who think that Australia's the greatest place in the world when you have NEVER even ventured outside this country, this is a big FUCK YOU for your ignorance and stupidity.

Malaysians don't need to brag about enjoying tea on the balcony. Because we can do that, AND we have the best culture that we created: mamak. We don't need to brag about being a society that welcomes diversity. Because we already are a diverse, multicultural society. And your broadband is a complete joke, with weird restrictions and limits, making the Internet seem slower than real life. Streamyx owns your ass any day. I could make lots of digs at Australia, but I won't, because I know they can make their share of digs too. Malaysia sure as hell isn't flawless, but don't automatically assume your ass that Australia is better.

As you can see, I stopped bitching about the fact that Ryan can't tell why I support Malaysia and not China in badminton a long time ago. Major digression.