Victor Hu at “I am speaker” show in Beijing

Victor Hu at “I am speaker” show in Beijing

Hi everyone. I am Hu Jian Biao, I come from Malaysia.

I am a Cantonese. My ancestor comes from Kaiping, Guangdong. My grandfather migrated to Malaysia more than 80 years ago. Our family stresses on inheriting language and culture. Since young, my grandfather used to remind us to learn and speak our dialect.

Today, I come to “I am a speaker” show. I hope to introduce Chinese education in Malaysia to Chinese in China, who are of same origin with me. I hope to let you know the passion and commitment of generations of Chinese Malaysians in learning Chinese.

Le Jia: Go on, Hu, we listen to you.
The show “I am speaker” is a language related show. Let us talk about language. Some people say language’s main role is a communication tool. Then Mandarin should be a language that is gradually in extinction soon because Mandarin is well known in the world as a language which is hardest to learn, master and remember. Why so many Chinese are of the view that we ought to put in effort to master the language? A more important reason is that Mandarin is the key to reach to the goldmine of Chinese culture. My country, Malaysia is the best example. Chinese is only made up of more than 20% of population in Malaysia. Frankly, if I use the language as a communication tool, I do not need to know Mandarin. I have no problem living and communicating in Malaysia. Then why Malaysian Chinese insist to speak and learn Mandarin for generations? That is cultural recognition issue. I am a Malaysia. I love my country. That is recognition of my nationality. I am a Chinese. I love Chinese culture. That is recognition of Chinese culture. Hence the learning of Chinese is passed down generation after generation. To have the opportunities to learn Mandarin in Malaysia until my generation where there are still people able to speak Mandarin is a difficult task indeed. This is because Malaysia is a multi-racial country and a relatively young country. Once there was such a political interpretation. If you are a Malaysian Chinese and you love Mandarin, then you are a racist. You are a chauvinist. The more you want to defend your Chinese school, the more you love Chinese, then the more you are unwilling to assimilate into this country. This is how the Malaysian Chinese, under the political misunderstanding, defended the right to have access to Chinese education from one generation to another generation. You may not know this, in order to defend our right to have Chinese education, we were once in confrontation with the colonial government. Activists were arrested and jailed because of this. There was even a case of citizenship being revoked. You may not know, in order to learn Mandarin, to go to a Chinese school, building a single Chinese school in the time of poverty means the entire Chinese community chips in donation and effort to build the school. You may not know we once had a Chinese university. The university is built by the entire Chinese community. To what extent did the Chinese community involve? Right from lowest level of labourers such as all trishaw workers pooled all of their earnings for the day to donate to the Chinese university. Today Malaysia has its own Chinese regulatory centre. We also have Chinese literature faculty (in university). All these are achieved by few generations of Malaysian Chinese continuously fight, strive, bargain and accumulate for the result today.
The entire Malaysian Chinese education system is called Chinese education in Malaysia. You may not understand that the two words Chinese education, they appear to be lightweight but we are proud of it from the bottom of our hearts. The Chinese education gives us many sad memories and we are proud of our noble achievement too. You may not be able to feel my pride and my sorrow. To all of you, this is China. In China, speaking Mandarin, or you called Putonghua here, is the most common thing for you. But do you know as a Malaysian Chinese when I first landed at China in 1999 when everyone around me speaks Mandarin, my feeling was a mixture of excitement and moving. You may not understand how I was touched as speaking Mandarin in China is as it is as natural as you see flowers in the floral fair. It is natural and automatic. But in Malaysia, we are like a tiny oasis in desert. For some generations, we can only continue to put in our effort to support this tiny oasis called Chinese education, which has miraculous existed until today. The purpose for me to be here today is to take the opportunity to share with all Chinese here the Malaysian Chinese education system that we are so proud of. As I come to the end of my speech, I hope to hear your applause. The applause is not meant for me but the few generations of Chinese education activists who were selflessly contributing for Chinese education. I thank them. Because of them, I am able to read and write Chinese today. Thank you.

Judge Lu Yu: Let me speak first as I am the first who hit the button. In the show “I am speaker”, you are the one who is most sentimental today, not one of them but the only one. I am deeply touched by you.

Hu: Thank you.

Lu Yu : As a Chinese, I have never thought that speaking Mandarin is such a big thing. As you say, speaking Putonghua is so common here. After listening to you, I am very touched.

Hu: We have settled down in nanyang few thousand miles away, to maintain our tradition, my mother even prepares a set of clans book for us to recognize our heritage and blood as stressed by the Chinese. This gives me the cultural ties, cultural identity and cultural recognition. I will end my remark here. I am very sorry for taking up too much time.

Le Jia: I must tell you that you have an advantage in terms of your physical appearance.

Hu: I thank my mother and also my father, this is their creation.

Le Jia: I am not saying that you are handsome and as handsome as you have thought.

Hu : That is most regretful.

Le Jia: You are elegant and you are good at managing the technique of control and release. All the good points I would not mention here. Only one of Lu Yu’s points I slightly disagree. Lu Yu said you are the most sentimental here and not one of those sentimental ones among all the contests. It depends on how people interpret sentiment. You have a great advantage here as your topic has aroused national pride of the entire audience embedded in them. You are smart. As a smart person, you should be doing wise thing. From the three judges you need to select one. Who do you pick? Prior to your selection, do you not want to keep them in suspense first?

Hu: Yes, of course. Frankly speaking, prior to this, I have thought of more beyond judges selecting me.

Le Jia: Have you thought of the scene of all four judges pick you at the same time?

Hu: Yes, I have thought of that but this has not happened. I am still waiting for this to happen.
Let me talk about my impression of the four judges. Carina Lau has given me the greatest pressure.

Carina Lau: Why?

Hu: Because of charm!

Hu: Another judge who is intimidating to me is Le Jia. Your aura is great. Another one is Dicky Cheung. I may have offended you but this is because I grew up watching your show and I like you very much. Lu Yu is an icon of a knowledgeable woman. Your hairstyle suits you well. You look well.

Le Yu: Before you select your teacher, give them a chance to fight to be your teacher too. Let them talk to you. Let’s start.

Carina Lau: I will still leave it to the contestant’s will

Le Jia: You never go after a man. You only see whether a man likes you or not.

Carina Lau: No, I will see whether he is far sighted.

Hu: Wah, this is great pressure!

Carina Lau: No, no, this is not.

Lu Yu: Jian Biao I admire you. I also see your potential. I feel you are of a champion material. I hope we can walk to the end together.

Cheung: Jian Biao, you give an impression that you are an honest guy.

Le Jia: That is a fake scene.

Cheung: I am a very responsible man. I see the other side of you. If you are with me I will help you to dig, to make you a new Hu Jian Biao.

Le Jia: Now please state the wise choice in your life to proceed to be a champion. Please pick.

Hu: My choice is, Lu Yu.

Lu Yu: Hu Jian Biao is great. He is almost perfect.

Le Jia: If a contestant under me is your opponent one day, please give him a chance, Brother Hu.