Malaysian Chinese

Malaysian Chinese are overseas Chinese who reside in Malaysia. Most are descendants of Chinese who arrived between the 17th and 19th centuries. Some people also refer to this group as the "Chinese Malaysian", keeping with the trend of naming ethnicity before nationality, e.g. "Chinese American", "Chinese Canadian" etc.

The Malaysian Chinese people maintain a distinct communal identity and intermarriage with native Malays is fairly uncommon due to the factor of Islam. Most Malaysian Chinese consider their being "Chinese" both a political identity and an ethnic identity.

The Malaysian Chinese people have traditionally dominated the Malaysian economy, but with the advent of affirmative action policies by the Malaysian government, their share has eroded somewhat. On most counts however, they still make up the majority of the middle and upper classes of Malaysia.

There are, in general, two sub-ethnic groups of Malaysian Chinese with two metropolitan centers. The Penang group is predominantly Hokkien and the Kuala Lumpur group is predominantly Cantonese-speaking. Modern movements to unify and organize Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian Chinese communities introduced standard Mandarin as the language of diaspora ethnic nationalism.

Traditionally, the Malaysian Chinese placed great importance and value on education because of their view of education being a means to improve their standard of living. Today, the Malaysian Chinese are one of the most academically competitive groups in the country and in the region (including Australia, a popular destination for many Malaysian Chinese students pursuing their tertiary education).

Like the Singaporean Chinese, a group of Malaysian Chinese speak English as their first language (something carried over from the British colonial days). They speak English at home, and make it a point to immerse and educate their children in the English language. They are commonly known as the "English-educated" (although strictly speaking the term is something of an anachronism as British-run public schools no longer exist in the country).

There is also a large segment of the Malaysian Chinese population who are predominantly Chinese-speaking. They are known as the "Chinese-educated".

An aside: while "proper" English is generally spoken and understood among the Malaysian Chinese, the main form used is a patois called Manglish (Malaysian English). Manglish is very similar to Singlish (Singaporean English). Manglish speakers typically understand 80-90% of Singlish and vice versa. See British and Malaysian English differences.

The Malaysian Chinese community is intricately linked to the Singaporean Chinese[?] community because of a shared history and culture. A fact worth noting is that Singapore was a part of the Federation of Malaysia before it became independent in 1965.

On that same note, the Malaysian Chinese are culturally much more distant from the Indonesian Chinese, Filipino Chinese[?] and Thai Chinese[?]. This is attributable to the fact that these countries did not have a shared history with Malaysia like Singapore did.

The entire Southeast Asian Chinese Diaspora is characterized by their considerable economic fortunes and their susceptibility to discrimination or political exploitation by native populations and states. This diaspora is commonly referred to as the Nanyang[?] Chinese.

The majority of Malaysian Chinese claim to be Buddhist or Taoist, but many are nominal and are in reality are atheists/agnostics. A fair number are Christian (Catholic, Methodist and other denominations) and an extremely small number profess Islam as their faith.

Famous Malaysian Chinese include:

• Michelle Yeoh - actress, starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Robert Kuok[?] - One of the richest men in the Asian pacific rim
• Zang Toi[?] - 5th Avenue New York fashion designer
• Jimmy Choo[?] - UK based shoe designer

See also: Demographics of Malaysia, Peranakan