Interesting, I didn’t know there were that many Indians and Chinese in Trinidad.
The Indians are really obsessed with Caste system. From my experience, the Sikhs are the most ‘purist’. While Hindus and Muslims can tolerate (and even welcome) interracial marriage as long as the future spouses convert to their religion, Sikhs don’t seem to cater to this idea of conversion. Yes, in theory you can convert to Sikhism, but I’ve never seen it being actually carried out in Malaysia.
A Chinese friend of mine was once trying to date a Sikh girl who was his college classmate. The Sikh girl actually liked him too but told him it’s impossible between them because her parents will never allow her marry outside the Sikh community. So they remained ‘more than just friends but never lovers’.
One day they had to do a group assignment together so the girl invited my friend over to her house. They weren’t doing anything outrageous, just normal chit-chat but her father could sense the ‘chemistry’ between them. To their surprise, the father suddenly brought a parang (Malay knife) out and chased my friend out. Lol, what an experience.
If people think you look Indonesian, you’re better off than being identified an Afro. 999 out of 1000 Chinese parents would not accept half-Caucasian half-black like Trevor Noah and Obama as son-in-law.
Yes, Indonesians hate Chinese the most. My Chinese Singaporean friends were refused service by taxi drivers several times in Indonesia, and they were quite frank in saying they won’t take Chinese passengers even if they pay double.
I live in Johor Bahru, yea the city right next to Singapore. Before the COVID outbreak, you sometimes see more Singaporean cars than Malaysian cars on the road. Where I live, it used to be 90% of the residents in my area are Chinese. And then in the 2010s Chinese started moving out and rent the houses to foreign labors like the Bengalis (Banglas), Viets, Burmese and Thais (kind of similar to White Flight but in reversed sequence).
It’s kind of strange because my area is very close to Singapore, even if the local Chinese move out I reckon the Singaporeans (who couldn’t afford housing in Singapore) would move in. Apparently the Singaporeans go live in those same areas where the local Chinese move to as well. Well, larger houses. I still stay in my area for the convenience: public hospitals, post office, schools, library and shopping malls all in vicinity. My area is still about 60–70% Chinese, but it’s been dropping over the years and shows no sign of reversal or plateauing.
The exact reason of this ‘Chinese flight’ is unclear, but definitely not due to safety issues. It’s cheaper to purchase larger houses in the ‘suburbs’ (we don’t really have the concept of ‘suburbs’ here like in the Western countries but it’s similar), so that’s one of the reason. It’s unlikely to be racially motivated, although these new towns do show Chinese predominance in demographics.