I was in Dragonfly with my boss friend, Kwanghan. We were talking about 1 of the female singer, I think her name is Kelly. Kwanghan was telling me that he dislike people who dye their hair blond. 崇洋 he says. For those who don't know, 崇洋, when directly translated, is "worshipping caucasians", or dare I say it, Angmoh. It refers to Singaporean Chinese who thinks the Angmoh ways are better than our Chinese ways. I share his view on people who are 崇洋.

But, after some observation, I realise Kelly is not 崇洋. She's 哈日. 哈日 direct translation to English is "likes Japan". It refers to people who likes things from Japan. It's not so much as worship.

How do I link 崇洋, 哈日 and progression together? For us South East Asian countries, we were colonized by the Ang Mohs some time back in our history. They were our leaders, as such, the older Singaporeans look to them as a class above us. And this admiration got passed down to their offspring. So people start to follow their lifestyle, buy their products, follow their religion. Then I look at the Japanese. They follow some of the Ang Moh lifestyle too. They dye hair their colour. But they are not 崇洋. They are still very in touch with their culture and roots. It's more like they thinks certain ways of Ang Moh are nice and chosen to adopt it, rather than blindly taking in all Ang Moh ways. And they managed to adopt the Ang Moh ways into their own that people were following Ang Moh ways through them. That's what I call progression.

There's another kind of progression that I am interested in. Racism. I've used the words "Ang Moh" numerous times in this article. It's racism they say. Same as Blacks, Cheenas, etc. In the olden times, I would say those words are racism. They are used in tones of despise. It divides people. If you are white, you are a class above, if you are black, you a class below. But in this day and time, I thought the tones of despise has melted away. The Blacks are not slaves anymore, but they are still black. Equality don't turn them into white. But they don't have to. That's the meaning of equality. I don't mind being called Cheena, or Yellow. That's what I am, and I am proud of it. Just as long you don't say those words to me in tones of despise, I can find no problem with it. Those words were used to divide people, and it was to be avoided. To show progression, we have to show that we are not afraid to use them anymore because they no longer carry the demeaning meaning they used to have.