/////I can see that KopitiamApek & retiredgangster are really flustered by this thread. They have been posting non-stop. Guess they must be staff of Mediacorp’s channel 8. LOL. /////

4 postings out of 87 is non stop? Quite a intereting way of defining things.
Ya, when I do not behave like sheep to rant in symphony with the rest, I am branded a staff of MediaCorp when the thread is about media. Of late, I have been branded a staff of so many gahmen depts I now must be having multiple strings of income!

I think it did a pretty good job on this letter, and I am one person who disses the sh!t times/states times on every possible occasion. So let’s focus on the content of the letter and not the messenger

neigh….i simplee hates hypcrites who thnk that they are the onlee highly iq educated trained…
they still never see a catapult targetted them even if it was right in front of their eyes..mediacorp? please lark… i am a survivor follower..followed by fringe and flashforwards… this ia all about ME…

- were the portrayals of chinese hookers and gamblers on malay or tamil programs? Does it happen often ?

- also, yes chinese characters sometimes get portrayed that way but chinese characters in shows and advertisements come from a diverse range of backgrounds, personality types and occupations.

discrimination happens when you essentialise or pigeon-hole a race. two trends i have noticed….

1) malays and indians are presented as baju-wearing , head-swinging ethnic bumpkins in contrast to modern chinese who are represented as being able to simultaneously inhabit tradition and modernity. ( ex. a KFC add from a few years back, with western dressed chinese couple and caricaturised malay and indians with exaggerated facial features )

2) malays and indians are often presented in lower income jobs in contrast to chinese characters who are middle class. ( ex. the recent government adverstisement about singapore going high-tech, thats somewhere on this website. You never see minorities in condo or car ads, and dont tell me its about target market, cos these are not race or culture-specific products )

You seem to think bad English = honest / unpretentious. This is false. Please recognize that a command of language reflects nothing on the person’s integrity.

That said, I refer you to http://engrishfunny.com/. I visit it when I wish to feel better about being an unemployed English major. You should feel right at home.

Get a life please!

“OK. Pimp lah. After all you have so many pimples on your face.”

“What?”

“OK. OK. Gambler. Many vacancies in our serials since IRs up. People enjoy watching gambling shows. Want or not? Don’t be over-sensitive lah. Laugh at others. Learn to laugh at ourselves at time. You want the job or not?”

“OK lah. King of Gambler like Chow Yuen Fatt. OK?”

I don’t think it should be such a big issue. The essence of Ms Chow Pei Sze’s letter was well preserved by the Editor of STForum. I would like to think the published version of the letter was a fine example of good editing. That is what really mattered. She should be happy that her letter got published.

Anyway, well done to Ms Chow for taking the trouble to speak up for the Malays when they were being unfairly stereotyped. I hope more will speak up for others across the racial and religious divide. That should be the way we should define the Great Singaporean Spirit.

Frankly, I don’t see why there should be a need by the MediaCorp scriptwriter to put in such unhelpful racist line in their film.

If you refer to my earlier comments, you’d have found that racist overtones of the TV serial are noted and the standard of local TV productions leave much to be desired.

Beware, there are racist hypocrites among us who champion equality but think and act otherwise. I’ve heard some really mean racist jokes that people in our multiracial society crack in private. The joke on TV is far milder by comparison. How often does the local TV touch on racially sensitive subjects? Besides, some of the staff are foreign talents who may not appreciate the importance of promoting racial harmony and avoidi sensitive jokes.

Would we appear to be patronising towards protecting the minorities and apply political correctness at random? I wonder how many ethnic Chinese would be offended when they watch some popular chauvinistic TV serials.

Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means,
warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison
us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not
Revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that.

Second, even if racism is present in and endorsed by Shakespeare, that’s clearly outweighed by the works’ literary merit, which ensures that they’re a mainstay on the school curriculum. Does “Daddy at Home”, or any MediaCorp show for that matter, have the same redeeming qualities?

Third, Shakespeare’s racism (assuming that’s what it is) was a reflection of the Elizabethan cultural milieu he lived in. Surely some four centuries on, we expect much more of ourselves — particularly with regard to any new creations of ours? We’re pretty much stuck with Shakespearean plays in the form and manner he wrote… with MediaCorp’s programmes, we’re not.

We do have to guard against mindless censorship on grounds of “political correctness”, which would be the case if MOE expunged Shakespeare from the syllabus. But this instance of racism on Channel 8 is worlds apart from that nightmare scenario.

One is an ediiting of a letter. The other is racism.

For the editing, the meaning is still there though her outrage is not as evident. Still, the letter starts with “i was appalled…” to help us come to the conclusion that she was appalled.

On the second issue. Some people think its making a big deal out of it though no one really denies it is a racist comment.

Faced with such a tough choice, racism and editing, TOC had to pick one for the main thrust of the story.
From it’s headline “Letter on ethnic stereotyping gets heavily edited by Straits Times” it’s obviously more upset with the editing than the racism, if its upset with the racism at all.

How instructive. Good to know that TOC has a fierce anti-ST agenda and is sticking to it. You all get MediaCorp sponsorship, is it?

I just got one fact for you:
Eventhough India/Indonesia may not have all these wonderful ratings/medals that China has, then WHY does China have the LARGEST number of illegal immigrants worldwide? Snake heads/Chinese stuffed in shipping containers, Huang Na’s mum using fake passport to get into Spore,etc,etc. Indian/Indonesians are not so desparate to do this inspite of their lower GDP and reserves. So I would therefore claim that India/Indonesia is better run than China.

some people brought up the point that we are making much out of nothing regarding that small comment. and yes it is true that we all are indeed a little racist once in a while.

but i prefer to fall back on caution most of the time. because, as pointed out by some in the forum so far, while it seems apparently miniscule, it (ie the racial remarks) perpetrates itself and can become entrenched if not carefully managed.