Chope: Face Off

Like ketuanan Melayu, wayward youths and dirty toilets, "pan-Asians" on television will always emerge as a burning issue once in awhile. Former information minister Mohamed Rahmat had once tried to fight the scourge of "non-Malaysian" faces but like the battle against Malaysian time, it was an exercise in exasperation.

To begin with, however, I'd like to point out something: the term pan-Asian is misused. Not to give anyone an English lesson here, but the prefix "pan" usually means "from all over." Using dining as an analogy, pan-Asian cuisine is food that draws inspiration from the different culinary traditions of the continent. To hear some people use the term, however, one would think pan-Asian cuisine is a burger with buns made from rice.

Come on, let's be honest here. When the information minister Zainuddin Maidin talks about Pan-Asian faces, he's not referring to people who have a Malaysian father, but a Singaporean mother. He is talking about Asians with some sort of Caucasian lineage.

There is, in fact, a term for people from that kind of background—Eurasian. Unfortunately, however, it's not popularly used. Someone once described the difference between the usage of "Eurasian" and "pan-Asian" to me. Pan-Asian is what's used to describe attractive people worthy of a fashion ad. Eurasians, on the other hand, are those who "cannot make it." It's not a politically correct joke, but it's true.

And you know what? I almost never agree with Zam, but he is right about some things. There is a blatant preference towards the use of models, TV hosts and other media personalities who are white to a point. It's nothing to be ashamed of—other Asian countries have the same kind of preference for pretty faces of mixed ethnicity.

But where I differ in opinion is where the problem lies. I don't think taking measures to reduce the number of supposedly "non-Malaysian" faces is a sensible idea. To begin with, it smacks of racism, and second, well, most of these faces belong to people who are born and bred right in this very country. The idea that the likes of Marion Caunter, Maya Karin and Ashraf Sinclair are not Malaysian faces is not only discriminatory, but also factually incorrect. Unless, of course, the argument isn't whether they are Malaysians, but whether they're actually showing their faces on TV. Maybe he thinks they're wearing masks. I don't know.

To me, the problem—or the solution—doesn't lie with these personalities themselves. They're offered a job, so why not take it? Neither does it lie with the private TV stations or the advertising agencies. They are all corporations, and only the naive would expect an entity whose aim is to turn a profit to have any sort of social obligation.

No, talents and models who are part white frequently appear on the cover of magazines and on TV screens because we consumers prefer them. It's really that simple. To blame the media for this is to absolve ourselves from our responsibilities as consumers. Most of us wouldn't shop at a store that is deliberately overpriced, nor would we buy a product that is known to be defective. Barring extreme circumstances, the government doesn't need to take action in those situations. Consumers themselves can make the right decisions.

And I think we have. What we're saying is that we're OK with the fetishisation of people who are, possibly in our minds, one step closer to Hollywood. If we didn't, we wouldn't be tuning in to those shows, we wouldn't be reading those magazines. And we also wouldn't be buying cheaply made local goods who by brands that think their lack of originality can be masked by using white models in their ads. Somehow, TV programmes, fashion labels and magazine editors are choosing talents who look little like the majority of its audience, because they think that's what we want. And I think we're proving them right.

Of course, what people refer to as "pan-Asian" is usually prevalent in media that targets an urban, middle-class audience. But thee flipside is also true. Look at TV9, a channel that targets a more conservative and religious vierwership. Nearly every woman I see on the show is Muslim and wearing a headscarf. That's simply because it's what the channel thinks its audience wants to see. Which means Tata Young won't be coming on as a guest anytime soon.

But this admiration for all things smelling "foreign"—consciously or otherwise—isn't really limited to the media. In downtown KL, one is increasingly likely to find official signage in Arabic. More likely, in fact, than, say, English, Tamil or Mandarin, all languages far more commonly used here. It's not a bad thing to be accommodating to tourists, and Arabic-speaking tourists are a huge market and it makes sense to take care of them as well as we possibly can. It's just incredibly disappointing that the same spirit isn't extended to Malaysians—including those without "Malaysian faces."

Brian Yap might have a Malaysian face, but he just found out it's Made In China. E-mail him at brian@freeform.com.my