What it Means to be A Singaporean Chinese

Challenging topic.

1- Knowing how to converse appropriately in my mother tongue, and write in it as well. Strange that some people struggle with it. For all the western values injected into our brains, the fact remains that we are Chinese by blood. To deny one's heritage is akin to denying yourself of your self-identity. Look at your surname. It defines who you are. Nothing can change that. Even if you do, manage to have it changed, where you come from cannot be forgotten.

2-Knowing how to converse in dialect orally. I personally find it a shame that i am not as fluent as i would like to be in my dialect. It is something disturbing that is undergoing a dilution in our society today. Generation after generation, as more english speaking families spring up, the fluency of singaporeans in dialect has been dwindling. It does not help that some of the younger generation find some dialects crude and offensive, used only for cursing. If you cannot even understand your dialect, then you should not even acknowledge that you are of that dialect group. It brings your dialect to shame. A frightening trend that is looming, is the possibility of this effect of dwindling , happen also to chinese.

3-Know traditional customs. "I wont clean graves at Qing Ming cos i dont hold joss sticks" is the biggest load of bull shit i have ever heard. You can still clean the graves without offending ur religious beliefs. Religion and custom should be divided along a clear line. Respect and religion are two different things. If you wont clean graves, if you wont pay respects to ancestors, then dont even accept those ang paos and have reunion dinners. Every aspect of our customs are vital to our identity and it should be preserved, to stem the tide of changing mindsets.