In Singapore, citizens tend to
stereotype the cultural differences by race, into Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasians. These stereotyped differences
can lead to misunderstandings. As my best friend, Denise, is half
Chinese and half Indian, her features of a darker skin tone coupled with wavy
hair have often led to a number of interesting encounters. One particular
encounter struck me and got me thinking.
We were at the Hong Kong Xin Wang cafe to celebrate the
end of our finals. There was this particular dish - luncheon meat noodles which
the waitress introduced and upon doing so, she realized and immediately apologized
saying that it contained pork. She then went on to promote all the other
non-pork dishes. Clearly, she had mistaken Denise for a Malay. When Denise
replied using fluent mandarin, she was stunned and her eyes were wide in
bewilderment. In addition, upon
learning that Denise is able to converse in Mandarin, she began to talk to her
very slowly in Mandarin using a weird accent. There were times when even I
couldn't understand what she was trying to say as well.
Denise was initially a little offended as she felt that the
waitress doubted her Chinese language proficiency by deliberately conversing
with her in a different manner from how others would normally speak. Fortunately,
she was able to look at it in a different light subsequently given that she had
encountered quite a number of similar incidents prior to this.
This led me to think that if Denise were to take it seriously, it could have possibly led to an unnecessary heated argument that could have been prevented. The waitress should have been more sensitive to
such intercultural differences not only to Denise, but more so to everyone else
in the society. Furthermore, the fact that she is in the service sector makes
it an even more pertinent issue.
While it is normal to develop certain perceptions of an individual
based on his/her appearance, background and actions, we have to be sensitive
and mindful not to overgeneralize and jump straight into conclusions in order
to prevent conflicts. Every individual is unique and therefore we should be
open-minded and accept differences among individuals to maintain a harmonious
society which we all live in.
