Thursday, October 1, 2009

"For Chinese Only"

Some people are unbelievably racist, and that's not okay.

Anne, Fate and I happened to be at Limkowing's Mooncake Festival today, organised by the China Club.  We were tired from filming all day, and decided to rest awhile in the plaza while we packed our stuff.  As we sat down, a burly Chinese guy, one of the organizers, told us the section was reserved "for China Club members only".  Anne and I could have passed off as members, but Fate and Norman, Malay and Kenyan respectively, obviously could not.  He was quite polite, so we decided not to stir up a fuss and moved to the other side of the plaza.

There was a buffet table and the food was free, but alas, it was 'reserved' also.  Anne and I had no trouble getting food, but a black guy was told that it was "for Chinese only".  He was allowed to get drinks though.  Go figure.  To top it off, Fate overheard someone saying "I thought I sent the email that only Chinese people were allowed?"  She must have assumed that non-Chinese people didn't speak English.

Its completely ironic, and quite distasteful, that Limkokwing "The Global University" would have allowed such a thing to happen.  "For Chinese only".  Imagine if we were at the Botswana Independence Day celebration, which takes place next week, and tried to sample their food, only to be told that it was for "Africans only".  What's the point of organizing a Chinese cultural event for Chinese people?  We're in Limkokwing for pete's sake, we should be sharing our culture with the supposedly 'diverse' student community.

I really do wonder what the guy who was chased off might have thought about Chinese people, and I am ashamed of my race.  There was a fight in the plaza today among a group of male black students.  I shudder to imagine that that sort of discrimination might lead to similar strife between the Chinese and the Africans.

I pray it does not.


3 comments:

shane said...

they are so lame! they shud just go celebrate it at their house if they wan to make it "for chinese only"

John Loh said...

So true...

Alison T. said...

man that's so odd. I didn't know LKW had such ... mentality. humourous too in some ways. CHINESE ONLY HAHAHAHAH. Cmon.