It's tough being a Singaporean overseas sometimes

[lennyl]

Long time ago, we had the Michael Fay incident.

Then some bright spark decided to ban chewing gum.

Then people got the two mixed up and assume if you bring chewing gum into Singapore, you get caned.

And of course, there's always the "so which part of China is that?" questions.

For a while, Batman bin Supraman was pretty famous.

And now, we have Samuel Ong to thank for more notoriety.

 

[leejay]

Haha, same sentiments here. Well, not everyone knows Singapore. When you are in Europe and when you strike up a conversation with someone, they immediately classify you under Chinese. To them there's not much difference between Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese and HK, TW, and Chinese Chinese. Chewing gum is like a landmark. When you said you are from Singapore, the topic will be changed to chewing gum.:bsmilie:

 

[kcuf2]

Haha, same sentiments here. Well, not everyone knows Singapore. When you are in Europe and when you strike up a conversation with someone, they immediately classify you under Chinese. To them there's not much difference between Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese and HK, TW, and Chinese Chinese. Chewing gum is like a landmark. When you said you are from Singapore, the topic will be changed to chewing gum.:bsmilie:

well, thats because of our skin, we of course look and definitely is a chinese.

Every Ang Moh i see on the street are americans to me. To me, europeans, americans, brazillians, french or watever are just another Ang Moh that is american to me. No diff...

 

[Hitman]

well, thats because of our skin, we of course look and definitely is a chinese.

Every Ang Moh i see on the street are americans to me. To me, europeans, americans, brazillians, french or watever are just another Ang Moh that is american to me. No diff...

Which reminds me of a joke....

A Chinese walks into a bar in America late one night and he saw Steven Spielberg. As he was a great fan of his movies, he rushes over to him, and asks for his autograph.

Instead, Spielberg gives him a slap and says, "You Chinese people bombed our Pearl Habour, get outta here."

The astonished Chinese man replied, "It was not the Chinese who bombed your Pearl Harbour, it was the Japanese". "Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, you're all the same," replied Spielberg.

In return, the Chinese gives Spielberg a slap and says, "You sank the Titanic, my forefathers were on that ship."Shocked, Spielberg replied! , "It was the iceberg that sank the ship, not me."

The Chinese replies, "Iceberg, Spielberg, Carlsberg, you're all the same."

 

[Zeddy]

Which reminds me of a joke....

A Chinese walks into a bar in America late one night and he saw Steven Spielberg. As he was a great fan of his movies, he rushes over to him, and asks for his autograph.

Instead, Spielberg gives him a slap and says, "You Chinese people bombed our Pearl Habour, get outta here."

The astonished Chinese man replied, "It was not the Chinese who bombed your Pearl Harbour, it was the Japanese". "Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, you're all the same," replied Spielberg.

In return, the Chinese gives Spielberg a slap and says, "You sank the Titanic, my forefathers were on that ship."Shocked, Spielberg replied! , "It was the iceberg that sank the ship, not me."

The Chinese replies, "Iceberg, Spielberg, Carlsberg, you're all the same."

HAHAHA. Excellent joke.

 

[Robert]

From the title of the post, it can also be read differently.

It's tough being a Singaporean overseas sometimes, because sometimes the China Chinese do embarrass us terribly.

Was in Paris recently and was at a road crossing. This bunch of China tourists were waiting for their turn to cross when suddenly a few of them cleared their throat and spit on the road. The French people looked at them, and then looked at my wife and I - we had to tell the French "We're from Singapore - they are from China. Very different". :sweat:

 

[aeskywan]

Long time ago, we had the Michael Fay incident.

Then some bright spark decided to ban chewing gum.

Then people got the two mixed up and assume if you bring chewing gum into Singapore, you get caned.

And of course, there's always the "so which part of China is that?" questions.

For a while, Batman bin Supraman was pretty famous.

And now, we have Samuel Ong to thank for more notoriety.

Pardon me for not catching up on the news.... but who is Samuel Ong? And what did he do?

 

[LittleWolf]

they immediately classify you under Chinese. To them there's not much difference between Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese

You cannot expect others to not classify you as Chinese when you do it yourself in the very next sentence - the noun in "Singaporean Chinese" is still "Chinese", with "Singaporean" only as an adjective. I.e. you put the Chinese-ness above the Singaporean-ness.

Not to mention that there are lots of Singaporeans of non-Chinese heritage who would hardly be mistaken for Chinese nationals.

 

[lennyl]

Pardon me for not catching up on the news.... but who is Samuel Ong? And what did he do?

I guess we could call him a "camera enthusiast"

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&c...&q=samuel+ong+camera+phone&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

 

[david_goh]

I guess this sort of things happen all around the world, just that he hit headlines...

 

[Ah_Seng]

I was in a train in India when a group of PRC chinese men boarded the train in the middle of the night and started gambling and smoking right next to my cubicle, as they booked the one next to mine. On my way to the toilet, the train master suddenly grabbed my hand and said:" Tell your friends no smoking in the train!" I told him we're not related but he insisted i'm one of them. :dunno:

The next day, the group had alighted and he was surprised i was still around and realised his mistake. Treated me very politely afterwards.

Well....don't say the Ang Mos, even the Indians cannot tell us apart..........:bsmilie:

 

[Robert]

Well....don't say the Ang Mos, even the Indians cannot tell us apart..........:bsmilie:

Even the China Chinese can't tell us apart.

Another incident in that same Paris trip - my wife and I went to the Louvre Museum and after walking around, we went to the souvenir shop. There was this table that displayed the Louvre Guidebook in various languages - English, Japanese, Spanish, German, Chinese etc etc. We were looking for the English version and this group of China Chinese (who were browsing and talking loudly as usual) took a copy of the Chinese Guidebook and handed it to me.

Indignantly, I told him loudly "I'm looking for the English version". We found it - took it - paid and walked off.

 

[Sion]

I guess we could call him a "camera enthusiast"

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&c...&q=samuel+ong+camera+phone&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

He should be given lessons in proper photographic techniques.

Maybe he was inspired by Guru Edison? :bsmilie:

 

[lennyl]

Even the China Chinese can't tell us apart.

Funny you should say that. In Beijing a year ago, I was stopped a few times by people asking for directions (no, they were not con artists). Amazing thing is I actually managed to give directions once

On the flip side, in Singapore, I was sometimes mistaken for a foreigner (not from PRC though - my Chinese is not good enough). C'mon, I haven't been away that long...

We were looking for the English version and this group of China Chinese (who were browsing and talking loudly as usual) took a copy of the Chinese Guidebook and handed it to me.

Indignantly, I told him loudly "I'm looking for the English version". We found it - took it - paid and walked off.

From what I've observed, among Chinese from PRC, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, we're the only one who prefer to read in English. I think it is in large part thanks to our education, where most subjects are in English.

Not knowing anything else other than what you described, I thought the guy who passed you the Chinese book is being extraordinarily helpful.

 

[Robert]

Not knowing anything else other than what you described, I thought the guy who passed you the Chinese book is being extraordinarily helpful.

It's the tone in his voice and attitute like "You're Chinese, this is the only version for you" that pissed us off.

 

[hazmee]

Hahahahahahahahahahha!! They don't call you King of Kopitiam for nothing!

 

[Sion]

Once I was walking in Paris a French policeman stopped me and asked: "Où est-ce que vous allez?"

I was taken aback as I couldn't speak French. So I replied, "Bei Hiaw Kon lah."

He looked at me and said, "You Where from?"

I said, "Sin Ka Pore."

He seemed not to understand me, "Excusez-moi?"

So I said, "Great Wall."

Now he seemed to be happy with my reply and waved me away.

 

[Canonised]

Yesterday while in a tram in amsterdam, I needed to ask the black conductor (obviously an imported Dutch) the location of the stop for a superlong Dutch street name, and since I was unable to pronounce it, I have to show him the image for the street sign and all he did was laugh at me :cry: and when I asked him again, he said he didnt know where the hell was the stop..... and so got no choice but have to move further to the front of the long tram .... and after 5 mins, heard over the superloud speaker system in the tram .... "hey, the man from China, alight at the next station ... ya,,, the man from China" ....:dunno:" ....

i believe they also think that, we, the yellow skin creatures are also all kungfu experts :bsmilie:

 

[Sion]

Once I was visiting Singapore an Ang Moh tourist stopped me and asked how to get to Anderson Bridge.

I didn't want to tell him I was a tourist just like him.

So I figured out "Anderson" is "Ang Moh" right? And "Bridge" is "Kiew".

I told me to catch a MTR to Ang Moh Kiew and suitably proud of my knowlege of Singapore and Hokkien.

 

[hazmee]

Singapore will forever be part of China. LOL!