Why were most people in China surprised that a Malaysian Chinese can speak Chinese?

为什么大多数中国人吃惊于马来西亚华人会讲中文这件事？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

June Yu

Lives in ChinaAuthor has 1.7K answers and 2.1M answer views4y

Most overseas Chinese abandon their heritage, culture and language in order to “fit in” to the local culture. For example, few American Born Chinese knows how to read and write Chinese. Most overseas Chinese look down upon (even hate) their ancestors’ culture and refuse to learn about it. They are scared to be found out having ties with China.

Malaysian Chinese are the only one branch of overseas Chinese that insist to build Chinese-language schools to teach their children their own culture. That’s why Chinese from China feel surprised to see some “Chinese who are still Chinese”.

因为大多数海外华人为了“融入”当地文化而抛弃了他们自己的传统、文化和语言。举个例子，很多在美国出生的华人不会读写中文。大多数海外华人看不起(甚至憎恨)他们祖先的文化，更拒绝了解。他们害怕被别人发现自己与中国的关系。

在海外华人群体中，马来西亚华人是唯一坚持建立华文学校，教授中华文化的。所以当来自中国的中国人看到有些海外华人居然还是货真价实的中国人时，会感到万分惊讶。

Yong Wen San

Born and raised in Malaysia, lived in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.Upvoted by

Lim Chee Keat, lives in Malaysia (1978-present)Author has 449 answers and 1.9M answer views5y

It’s probably because unlike our more prominent neighbour Singapore:

The Chinese in Malaysia are not the majority ethnic group.

Malaysia does not have a policy of promoting an international image of being fluent in Chinese (cf. Singapore, which markets itself as a bi-lingual society).

Unknown to most people, Malaysia is the only country outside of mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau that has a complete Chinese language system of education from primary school right up to the end of secondary school. 90% of Chinese Malaysians attend Chinese primary schools, i.e. the first six (6) years of their schooling will be entirely taught in Mandarin (other than Malay and English).

这可能是因为我们跟名气更大的邻国新加坡不一样：

在马来西亚，华人是少数族群。

马来西亚也没有打造中文流利的国际形象，新加坡就把自己标榜为双语社会。

大多数人都不知道，马来西亚是除中国大陆、台湾省、香港特区和澳门特区以外唯一一个拥有从小学到中学的完整中文教育体系的国家。90%的马来西亚华人入读华文小学，也就是说，他们前6年的教育是用中文教授的(而不是马来语和英语)。

A sample of page from a Primary Four Science textbook, as used in Malaysian Chinese schools (just to illustrate the expected standard of Chinese in the local Chinese schools - which, I think you will agree, is fairly high):

The secondary school demographics is a bit more varied, with some either ceasing their Chinese language studies completely, or attending public secondary schools where Chinese is taught as an individual subject up till upper secondary level, or attending one of the 60 Chinese Independent High Schools (華文獨立中學 or 獨中), where the medium of instruction continues to be Mandarin. The result is that the standard of vocabulary among the Chinese-educated Malaysians can vary anywhere between upper primary to upper secondary level. But whatever the level at which the students stop learning Chinese formally at school, the six years of full Mandarin immersion in primary school would have psychologically moulded them to be very comfortable speaking in Mandarin.

这是马来西亚华文学校使用的小四科学教科书（只是为了说明当地华文学校的汉语教学目标——我想你也会觉得这可一点也不简单）：

进入中学后，学生们有了不同的选择，有些人要么完全停止了中文学习，要么一直在有教授中文的公立中学读到高中，要么选择60所华文独立高中之一就读，这60所高中的教学语言依然是普通话。这导致了受过中文教育的马来西亚人的词汇水平各有差异。但是，无论学生在正式停止中文学习时的中文程度如何，小学六年的中文沉浸式学习，都会让他们在心理上养成用中文说话的习惯。

In addition to that, Malaysia - unlike Singapore - has never had a nationwide Speak Mandarin, Not Dialects 「多講華語、少說方言」 programme. This organic linguistic situation has allowed for the other Chinese languages such as Cantonese 廣府話, Hokkien 闽南话, Teochiu 潮州話, Hakka 客家話, etc. to survive and thrive on their own natural terms. Kuala Lumpur and its environs is mostly Cantonese-speaking, all the way up north to Ipoh. Further north to Penang Island, the locals there chatter away unabashedly in Hokkien. Over to East Malaysia, the Hokchiu dialect is the dominant Chinese dialect in the state of Sarawak, whereas in Sabah, it’s the Hakka dialect.

除此之外，马来西亚与新加坡不同，没有“多讲华语、少说方言” 的运动。这种语言环境使得中国各地方言，如广东话, 闽南话, 潮州话, 客家话等, 有了生存和发展的自然条件。吉隆坡及其周边地区，一直到北部的怡保，大部分人使用粤语。在槟城岛以北的地方，当地人使用闽南话。在东马来西亚，沙捞越州盛行的中文方言是福州话，而在沙巴地区则说客家方言。

It is such a language environment that has put Malaysia as the country with the fourth highest level of fluency in the Chinese language worldwide. A secondary school leaver who has studied Chinese at least as a subject up to Form 5 (equivalent to Year 10/11) with a minimum C4 (~60%) grade should comfortably sail past the HSK Level 5 or 6.

I had two China colleagues visiting my office just a few days ago. One hailed from Beiing, and the other from Guangzhou. What a great opportunity it was for me to flex both my spoken Mandarin and Cantonese skills concurrently. And they were even more surprised to discover that I could also read and write Chinese. :) When visiting Taiwan recently, the locals were also surprised to hear me speak to my wife in our local Hokkien patois, which is very similar to Taiwanese Hokkien. Yes, I just boasted about my ability to speak three variants of Chinese… :)

正是这种语言环境使得马来西亚成为中文流利程度全球第四高的国家。一名中学毕业生至少把中文当做一门学科学到中五（相当于10/11年级），C4（~60%）的成绩应该就能轻松通过HSK 5级或6级考试。

前几天，有两位中国同事来我办公室，一个来自北京，另一个来自广州。这对我来说是一个很好的机会，我的普通话和粤语同时派上了用场。但他们更惊讶的是我不单会说，还会读会写。最近我去了台湾省，当地人听到我用马来的闽南语和我妻子说话时也很惊讶，他们说跟台湾闽南语非常相似。没错，我就是在显摆我会说三种中文方言……）

To be sure, this linguistic skill is not exclusive to Chinese Malaysians alone. In recent years, more and more Malay and Indian Malaysian parents have started sending their children to Chinese primary skills, seeing the benefits of being tri-lingual. On more than one occasion have I been served at a shop or restaurant by non-Chinese Malaysians speaking to me in flawless Mandarin and writing down my orders in Chinese.

诚然，这种语言技能并非马来西亚华人所独有的。近年来，越来越多的马来人和印度裔马来西亚父母开始意识到掌握三种语言的好处，开始让孩子学习简单的中文。我已经不止一次在商店或餐馆里遇到非华裔的马来西亚店员，可以用流利的中文和我交谈，而且还能用中文记录我的要求。

My point: I strongly believe that Malaysians’ broad fluency in Chinese is a unique asset that is difficult to find outside of China, and is one that the country would do well to preserve and nurture (rather than being politicised, but that’s another sad story) - not just for cultural preservation, but also as a competitive advantage.

我的观点是：我坚信，马来西亚人普遍熟练掌握中文是一份独特的财富，在中国之外的地区十分难得，而且这个国家会很好地保护和鼓励这种文化（无关政治，那不是什么令人开心的事）-不仅是为了文化保护，同时也是一种竞争优势。

Yu Frank

Studied at Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyAuthor has 248 answers and 712.6K answer views5y

Because at first I am surprised that American-born Chinese cannot speak any Chinese language, so after self-reflection I don’t relate Chinese ethnicity with Chinese language.

Then I find that most Malaysian Chinese can speak Mandarin.

最初我对美国出生的华人不会说中文而感到惊讶，所以在反思过后，我不再把中国民族与中文联系起来。

后来我发现大多数马来西亚华人都会说中文。

Iskandar Zulkifly

Self Tought Malay related policies in MalaysiaAuthor has 186 answers and 132.5K answer views2y

Few reasons :

All Malaysian neighbours (e.g. Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippine) with Chinese ancestry did not speak and write Chinese (mostly).

Malaysian of Chinese descendants only account for less than a quarter of the population.if Singapore with 3/4 of Chinese ancestry can't speak and write Chinese, what can you expect from Malaysian Chinese ?

The face/image of Malaysian gov to China always a Malay people.

原因有下面几个：

所有具有华人血统的马来西亚的邻国（新加坡、印度尼西亚、泰国、菲律宾等）都不会说中文，更不会写（大多数）。

马来西亚华人后裔只占人口的不到四分之一。连占到总人口3/4的新加坡华人都不会说中文写中文，人们还会指望马来西亚华人会吗？

对中国人而言，说到马来西亚，想到的就是马来人。

Chara Chan

born and raised in Sichuan, ChinaAuthor has 1.5K answers and 7.4M answer views5y

I knew that long before I encountered them on the Internet.

I think I had some ideas of the Chinese living in the S.E. Asian countries from the movies and the articles I read in my primary and high school. After all, I read more than one magazine or newspapers on a daily basis since junior high.

I thought that most of them are Cantonese, but it turns out that many speak Hokkien.

Chinese are everywhere in S.E. Asia in similar living conditions: making a lot of money, marrying an indigenous woman and having to be killed when the economy is on the decline or when the other races are jealous of their wealth.

早在互联网热议这个现象之前，我就发现了。

我通过小学和中学期间看过的电影和文章，对生活在东南亚国家的华人有了一定了解。毕竟，从初中开始，我每天都要读上几份杂志和报纸。

最初，我以为他们大多是广东人，但事实证明很多人说的是闽南语。

东南亚各国中国人的生活都大同小异：赚了很多钱，娶当地妇女，在经济衰退时期，或因为富有而招致其他种族的嫉妒

Kelsey Mun

native Chinese speaker but also fluent in EnglishAuthor has 65 answers and 96.6K answer views1y

Well this actually happened to me quite a few times. Because they think everyone from Malaysia is Malay or they confused nationality with ethnicity.

事实上，我就遇到过好几次这样的反应。因为他们要么认为马来西亚人都是马来人，要么把国籍和族群混为一谈。

Nordan Obrecht

Knows ChineseAuthor has 574 answers and 523.9K answer views5y

I’ve never had that kind of situation, more the opposite seeing people being upset that a Malaysian Chinese can’t speak a sinitic language.

我从来没有遇到过这种情况，与之相反的是，人们对马来西亚华人不会说中文感到失望。

James Wildes

Lived in MalaysiaAuthor has 61 answers and 217.5K answer views5y

Most Chinese Malaysians will still speak Cantonese or Mandarin at home. Outside of that they will also learn Malay as that is the primary language as well as British English. So it should only be a surprise to them because they forget that most Chinese who live in Malaysia are usually 3–4th generation immigrants and kept their culture alive by staying among their kind. Which will slowly change or is changing as these 4th generation kids go abroad to study and make friends with those outside of their culture.

大多数马来西亚华人在家里还是说粤语或普通话的。除此之外，他们还会学习马来语，因为马来语是跟英语一样是主要通用语言。

因此，这对他们来说是挺意外的，因为他们忘了大多数生活在马来西亚的华人都是第三代至第四代移民，因为华人聚居，中华文化得以传承。

随着第四代移民出国学习、与不同文化的人交朋友，这种情况将慢慢改变或已经慢慢发生改变。

Liubin Ben

Research Associate (2010–present)Author has 77 answers and 44K answer views5y

Where did you learn that “most” people surprised? I think Chinese people will only be surprised if maylasian Chinese can not speak Chinese ( actually there is no language called Chinese! Mandarin, catonnese, Hakka …)

你从哪里看出“大多数”人觉得吃惊？要我说，中国人对不会说中文的马来西亚华人才会感到惊讶（实际上，并没有一种叫做汉语的语言！应该是普通话、广东话、客家话……）

Tianqing Zhang

I am a Chinese.5y

I was very superise when I found one of my net friend in Weibo was a Malaysian(Chinese Malaysian). I had never think about that they can speak such fluent and normal Chinese.

I think it may due to the fact that most ethnic Chinese we know are from the US and most of them can not speak Chinese at all. We(or, I ) simply believe overseas Chinese speak local languages or Cantonese ,Hokkien dialect or something like that.

当我发现我的一位微博好友是马来西亚人（马来西亚华人）时，我就非常惊讶。我从没想过他们能把中文说的这么流利地道。

我想这可能是因为我们认识的多数华裔来自美国，他们中多数完全不会说中文。我们（或者只有我）认为海外华人只会说当地语言或广东话、闽南话或其他方言。

Fan Wei

Lives in MF LandAuthor has 92 answers and 86.2K answer views5y

Maybe in the past we would be surprised, but with a growing number of Malaysian taking part in Chinese entertainment shows, many Chinese, especially the younger generations, are getting used to the idea that a lot of Chinese Malaysian can speak Chinese quite well like singaporeans.

也许过去我们会感到惊讶，但随着越来越多的马来西亚人参加中国的娱乐节目，许多中国人尤其是年轻一代，早就见怪不怪了，就算知道很多马来西亚华裔的中文讲得和新加坡人一样好也觉得没什么。

Afiq Aziz

Author has 653 answers and 759.2K answer views5y

Are you sure they were surprised? I went through jobstreet.com (Job ad website) and everytime there is any company from China publishing any job vacancies , their requirement is most of the time "candidate must be able to speak Chinese"(Mostly Bank of China, ICBC, Country Garden, and some from Huawei). Seems like they have full knowledge that Malaysian Chinese can speak Chinese.

你确定他们会很惊讶吗？我浏览过jobstreet（招聘网站），中国企业发布的职位大多要求“应聘者必须会说中文”（主要是中国银行、工商银行、碧桂园，还有华为）。看起来他们对马来西亚华人会说中文这个事实已经有了充分的了解。