MAS' Chinese New Year Greetings : The Future

I think this is one of the best Chinese New Year videos ever produced in Malaysia. MAS has done it. Syabas. This video has gone viral and has also been mentioned widely in the media, including Singapore. 

The interesting thing about this video is that there are no Chinese featured in the video. All the people in the video are Malays, Indians (Punjabi included) and maybe Lain-Lain too. And they are all speaking Chinese (Hokkien, Cantonese or Mandarin). Here is the video.

This video is also an indicator of  a little noticed phenomenon in Malaysia.  There are presently about 70,000 non-Chinese students (majority Malays) who are enrolled in Chinese schools.  And this has been going on for the past 25 years and more.  There are easily more than 500,000 students of non-Chinese origin who have graduated from Chinese primary schools in Malaysia through the years. And the people in the video could be some of them.

I recall more than 20 years ago, a Malay friend put his child in a Chinese school. The girl has grown up and works in the US for a Malaysian Chinese multi national. Another Malay friend also put his three children through a Chinese school and they are high flyers now. 

All those children have grown up now.  I was at an office building sometime ago and a Malay girl in tudung was having a conversation in Chinese with her Chinese colleague.  Recently we met a young "pengantin" couple where the Malay girl could speak fluent Mandarin. 

Learning a new language is wealth. China will be the wealthiest nation on the surface of the earth. The Chinese will be the wealthiest people on the surface of the earth. The highest per capita GDP country in the world is supposed to be Singapore - another Chinese majority country. So it is logical and it should be rewarding to learn to speak Mandarin or other Chinese dialects.

Congratulations MAS. Congratulations to the ad guys who made the video.

Finally Happy New Year to all our Chinese friends.  Gong Xi Fa Cai.