|
HAPPY TO STAY PUT: After a burglary, friends advised Madam Zhao (seen here with her son Chen Hao) to use a bicycle lock to secure her window grills. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
|
TWO episodes could have easily dashed Tianjin-born accountant Zhao Xiu Xin's Singapore dream and drove her to take the first flight home to China with her son.
One was the name-calling by the Singaporean schoolmates of her 15-year-old son Chen Hao, who studies at a neighbourhood school in the east.
They used to call him 'Chinaman' and make fun of his poor English, which has since improved.
Then, earlier this year, a burglar broke into her four-room Housing Board flat, through the locked front windows, and stole several thousand dollars in cash and valuables.
Yet mother and son have been happy to stay put, in part due to support from friends of Madam Zhao, a permanent resident here for three years.
Theyrallied round the fair, petite 37-year-old whose husband, a construction company executive, works in China.
She and her friends, all Singapore-based professionals from China, are part of a new club here for those with links to the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin.
'Singapore is a good place to live and study and I would be happy if my son could make it to university here,' says Madam Zhao in Mandarin. Her son, whom she describes as an average student, has developed a deep tan and a Singlish accent when he speaks English.
Fighting off the initial linguistic and cultural dislocation, new immigrants from China are forming clan associations and online networks to ease the pangs of homesickness and help each other settle in.
Madam Zhao is a member of the Tianjin Club, which held its inaugural welcome dinner in March. Its president is her boss at the Singapore-based Heping Construction Group, Madam Annie Chen.
The club is the third to be formed by mainland Chinese here, after the Hua Yuan Association and Tian Fu Club. Together, they have about 3,000 to 4,000 members, many of whom are university graduates.
Most of these new Chinese immigrantssay Singaporeans are always courteous andinstances of discrimination, like that experienced by Madam Zhao's son, are rare.
However, interviews with 20 of them find that they struggle to find common ground with Singaporeans.
They tend to hang out with one another and have fewer Singaporean friends, most of them confess to Insight.
Looking out for one another
CURRENTLY, there are a few hundred thousand new arrivals from China, a diverse group which also includes students and low-wage workers.
The three clan associations hope to be a force for bilateral goodwill and remain closely connected with events in China. For instance, they have raised more than $250,000 for victims of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake.
The Tianjin Club is also in talks with China's Xiamen Airlines to have non-stop flights from Singapore to Tianjin, without the usual stopover in Xiamen. With Singapore building an eco-city in Tianjin, the club feels there will be enough business passengers on both sides for direct flights.
On a personal level, formal or loose groupings of Chinese immigrants help those with a shaky grasp of English to acclimatise and figure out how things work here.
For example, Madam Zhao was advised by several Chinese colleagues, who have lived here for many years, to write to her son's principal about the treatment he was getting from some schoolmates, instead of, say, going to the school and creating a scene, as one might in China.
'The school responded fairly and the students in question were disciplined, so I was satisfied,' she says.
To prevent further break-ins, friends urged her to use a bicycle lock to secure her window grilles. She had made a police report, but the burglar remains at large.
While business people and executives with families look to clans for support, many students and young professionals gravitate towards social networking websites set up specially for them.
One of the most popular is SgChinese.com. It was started by 31-year-old Guangdong-born entrepreneur Patrick Li in 2001, when he was a lonely business student at a private school here.
The website, which makes money from advertisements, now has 28,000 registered users. Mr Li works with clan associations to organise activities for them, like a trip to Kuala Lumpur last month to support the Beijing Olympic Games torch relay.
Even without the help of clans or the Internet, new immigrants from China can find one another easily, given their swelling numbers.
While there are no official figures, a study shows that an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 of them were here in 2004. The number is from research done by Chinese studies professor Liu Hong, formerly of the National University of Singapore.
One finance professional from China in his mid-20s, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says he has met some 100 Chinese around his age in the financial sector.
As a result, he is never short of friends to hang out with on weekends. 'I even found that one Chinese colleague in my firm is a distant cousin of mine,' he says.
'Old versus new' immigrant divide
THE flip side of such numbers and networks is that recent arrivals from China could end up forming enclaves, with little need to integrate into Singapore's multi-racial society.
As it is, when Singaporeans join in their gatherings and karaoke sessions, they are the few older Chinese Singaporeans who 'like singing songs from China', says Mr Qiu Yue, a marketing manager who has organised such activities for clans.
Says the 31-year-old Tianjin native who has lived here for six years: 'The gatherings are a chance for us to speak jiaxiang (hometown) dialect, eat jiaxiang food and sing jiaxiang songs.
'But integrating into Singapore society is a different matter. The community clubs here welcome us, but there are still no social platforms to bring together Singaporeans and Chinese.'
The existing groups focusing on bilateral exchange are business-driven, such as Business China - a Singapore government initiative - and the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Among the new immigrant groups, the Tianjin Club welcomes as members Singapore businessmen with investments in Tianjin.
Networking site SgChinese.com has a few hundred Singaporean members. According to Mr Li, they are Mandarin speakers who are knowledgeable about China and may include single men looking for China-born girlfriends.
Part of the problem stems from a language barrier.
While young Singaporeans typically think and function in English, some new immigrants like Mr Qiu and Mr Li say they speak only enough English to order food.
Yet even fluent Mandarin speakers here do not share their cultural reference points, as young Singaporeans tend to know more about Taiwanese and Hong Kong pop culture than the culture of mainland China.
It takes time to sink roots
SINGAPORE and China established diplomatic ties in 1990. In the earlier few decades, contact between both sides was minimal, especially at the height of the Cold War period during the 1960s and 1970s.
According to Nanyang Technological University Chinese studies professor Yow Cheun Hoe, most new Chinese immigrants came after the late-1990s, when Singapore opened up its job market and education sector to foreign talent.
By that time, China's economy had taken off. The opportunities presented by a resurgent motherland mean a considerable number of these new immigrants have second thoughts about sinking roots here, says Dr Yow.
This, in turn, reduces the impetus to make Singaporean friends.
At least half of the 20 new immigrants interviewed by Insight, including Madam Zhao and Mr Qiu, are uncertain how long they will stay here. This, despite their admiration for Singapore's rule-based system of government and the way it has preserved Asian traditions while absorbing business practices and technology from the West.
Observers say the new breed of educated, mobile Chinese goes where the jobs and opportunities are.
One example of such a family is the Yangs. Mr Yang Xue Dong, 48, set up the Singapore office of one of China's biggest palm-oil refiners and traders, Longwit, last May.
He appreciates the stable pro-business environment here and has applied for permanent residency. However, with his wife still working in China and daughter studying in Britain, he goes back to China every other month.
Alone in Singapore, Mr Yang has found a community of friends by joining the Tian Fu Club.
He and other new immigrants agree, however, that it will take years - and possibly another generation - to form a deeper attachment and identification with Singapore.
That future can be found in Madam Wang Li, 52, and her family, who have been here since 1995.
Her husband is an engineer in a multinational firm, while her daughter went to school here and now works for a shipping company in Singapore.
All are Singapore citizens.
Madam Wang can natter away in English and has made friends of different races from volunteering at her neighbourhood community club.
However, her heart is with China on issues such as the Sichuan earthquake and disruptions to the Olympic torch relay by Tibetan activists.
In comparison, her 25-year-old daughter 'knows about them from reading the newspapers but they don't affect her the same way. She is more concerned about issues affecting Singapore'.
As Madam Wang puts it: 'Deep in our bones, my husband and I are still Chinese. My daughter is another matter, she really is Singaporean through and through.'
clare@sph.com.sg
SMS, e-mail us your views
DO YOU think new immigrants from China have managed to integrate into Singapore society? How can we improve interaction between Singaporeans and these new arrivals? E-mail stpol@sph.com.sg or send an SMS to 9827-7514. For SMS messages, type stpol followed by a space and then your views.
|
