Eugene Pang from Malaysia: “Started living in Shanghai in 2001, mind you I was only a kid then, but my parents were 3rd generation Malaysian-Chinese, taking advantage of the opening market. It was then obviously better than during the 1970s, but scars from the Cultural Revolution still persisted in certain people’s attitude. But importantly, things were still improving. Back then, we overseas Chinese community had a condescending saying that “China is developing so fast that it’s people’s culture and civility can’t catch up.” That’s no longer the case anymore, but many overseas Chinese who have never been back, only reading news from like Epoch Times or something continue to believe in their own cultural superiority over mainlanders, when in reality, I often find their behaviors more reminiscent of the Chinese that I met in the early 2000s. As late as 2011, whenever I return to Malaysia, I felt like I was returning to a place where people behaved more civilly, but today every time I return, I can’t but help feel pity for my compatriots.”

“「我於 2001 年開始在上海生活，請注意，當時我還只是個孩子，但我的父母是第三代馬來西亞華人，他們利用了開放市場的優勢。當時的情況明顯好於1970年代，但文革的傷痕仍存在於某些人的態度中。 但重要的是，情況仍在改善。當時我們海外華人有一種居高臨下的說法，「中國發展太快了，人民的文化文明跟不上」。 現在不再是這樣了，但是很多沒有回來過的海外華人，只是看大紀元之類的新聞，仍然相信自己比大陸人有文化優越性，而實際上，我經常發現他們的行為更讓人想起大陸人。我在 2000 年代初認識的中國人。直到2011年，每當我回到馬來西亞，我都感覺自己回到了一個人們舉止更加文明的地方，但今天每次我回來，我都會情不自禁地為我的馬來西亞華人同胞感到憐憫。”