not sure which PRC international media you are refering to.
Malaysian Chinese have more common cultural link with HK and
ROC. They use traditional Chinese writing 繁体字 till 2008 and today
are still debating what are the simplified characters they should
adopt. Their common day to day dialect is more Cantonese than
Mandarin, in their local Chinese radio and TV they speak cantonese.
Their singers, such as 光良，品冠，曹格，戴佩妮，梁静如all went to Taiwan, none has
gone to China. Malaysian Chinese watch more of the Star TV and
TVBS, in the south they watch 早安你好 on Channel 8. The only channel
they watch that is very PRC is 凤凰频视. not many people watch China
Central TV 中央台.
The real problem with their identification, or the lack of, with
PRC is the way PRC treat them. To the mainland Chinese, their own
country men 大陆同胞 comes first，then it is the 海归同胞 the Chinese
returned from overseas studies，then the people from HK, Macao and
Taiwan 港澳台胞。Malaysian Chinese are just overseas Chinese 华侨.
Singaporean are treated as Singaporean Chinese, with respect.
The Malaysian Chinese still can't see much in PRC, except the
business opportunity and a visit to their ancestors villages.
Malaysian Chinese who left China before 1947 were from ROC, they
know the communists. They were not happy with the British colonial
master, but only a small group joined Cheng Ping in the jungle. The
Malaysian Chinese left China for a better living, not so much
disillusion with the government because the country was at war with
Japan. The disillusion with China, PRC came in the peirod of
cultural revolution.
Malaysian Chinese nowadays learn simplified text in schoool.
They can read but cannot write the traditional text. For some
reason the newspapers still use traditional text, I asked them why
and they don't know. Maybe for the older generation's sake.
You mean PRC Chinese treat Malaysian Chinese and Singaporean
Chinese differently?
Whatever reason their grandparents left China, Malaysian Chinese
have very little sense of belonging to their country. They will
talk bad about the dominant race there but they won't talk bad
about the whole country because they live there, but that's about
it. Maybe they lean towards Taiwan, but the current generation
onwards do not have any dislike for PRC. I don't think they will
take sides in a PRC or ROC conflict unless they see one side as
clearly wrong or provocative.
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