“are you malaysian?”
so, people have asked me if i’m part hispanic or if i’m filipino, but malaysian? that’s a first.
after my southeast asia in world political economy class, i went to the garden cafe for lunch. i was speaking to the woman in my broken cantonese and ordered a “Roasted Chicken saan mun zee”. i couldn’t say ‘roasted chicken’ in cantonese, so i asked her how to say it, and she responded. then our conversation continued:
[lady]: are you malaysian?
[me]: no, i’m from america
[l]: yeah but, are you malaysian?
[m]: oh, no, i’m chinese. my mother was born in hong kong.
[l]: ohhh, because your skin is slightly darker, and your eyes are so nice and big.
—————-
you’re probably saying, “what? dora’s not dark at all” but you’d be amazed at the number of times other chinese people have said that to me. so, i absolutely didn’t answer her question when i answered, “american” (yikes?). 
when you think of south east asia, do you think, hainan island? hainan island is located south of china, a province of china, but its neighbors are the phillipines (to the east), and malaysia & burma (or myanmar) to the west. in class today, one of our topics of discussion included the ethnic diversity in southeast asia with indians, chinese, new guineans and of course, colonial invaders. continuous mixing gives you what you have today as the ASEAN 10 (association of south east asian nations), and their cultural linkages are so interesting! malaysian people on the borneo island easily share the same tribal customs of people in the mountainous regions of taiwan; indigenous people of the ryuku islands, part of the japanese archipelago, share linguistic traits with people of southeast asia; madagascariens are indonesian by origin! what? who would have known?
i think by taking southeast asia as an example, people (aka politicians) should take time to reconsider their cultural roots and the colonial-constructed border lines that define and separate same families of people. in essence, we are all related.. when are we going to end these family feuds?
