By Kirsten Han
I am a Chinese Singaporean, and proud of it. I'm not as fluent in Mandarin as I am in English, but I delight in being bilingual. Living in Singapore, I have Chinese privilege, whether I want it or not.
All these things are simultaneously true.
"Chinese privilege" (or "majority privilege", which is essentially the same thing in Singapore when it comes to race since the majority race is Chinese) is a concept that we can use to talk about how there are particular issues, challenges, and barriers that don't exist for Chinese Singaporeans, but exist for others.
It points to how, for instance, I don't have to worry about whether particular HR staff or employers in Singapore will turn me away on the basis of my race, because even if the job ad says "bilingual speakers preferred", I can almost always assume that the two languages they mean are English and Mandarin. Or that, if I ever want to buy a HDB flat, I likely don't have to worry about the ethnic quota, while my minority friends do. It means that I can be confident that, whenever my government launches a national initiative, it will cater to me and my needs (especially if I am also cis and heterosexual and middle-class). Even if I were mainly a Mandarin speaker, there are still many spaces I can move about in within the country without much worry; like how cinemas often only offer Chinese subtitles with English-language films, which means that someone who only knows Mandarin can go to the cinema and still follow an English film, while someone who only knows Malay/Tamil can't.
What Chinese privilege is NOT about is demanding that Chinese people be apologetic or ashamed of being Chinese/in the majority race. What would be the point of that? Who would be served if I went around saying sorry for being Chinese, or if I stopped speaking Mandarin out of shame? It'd be totally pointless, because the whole point of the concept is to point to *systemic* inequalities, not just individual behaviours. Systemic inequalities and racism operate independent of what the individual feels about their position; I could be completely embarrassed about being Chinese, start refusing to speak Mandarin, and give up xiaolongbao for life (omg the horror)—and I'd *still* enjoy Chinese privilege in Singapore, because the system is set up to exempt me from particular obstacles and barriers on the basis of what it perceives me to be.
I don't understand why there are people who think that anti-racists talking about Chinese privilege want Chinese people to be sorry about being Chinese. Why would anyone waste time wanting Chinese people to do such a pointless thing?!
No one is demanding that Chinese Singaporeans feel bad or guilty about being Chinese. And as long as the system continues as it is, we Chinese Singaporeans cannot renounce our privilege. (You can *say* that you want to renounce, but again, the system doesn't care about your feelings.) But what we *can* do is decide how we want to use it to stand in solidarity with marginalised communities to reform/dismantle unjust structures and systems.
It's not about blame or saying that Chinese Singaporeans are bad people because we have Chinese privilege. It's about power, opportunities, access, and responsibility.