<p>Quote:- "So, are they Malaysian or Chinese? And if they are Malaysian, why are they singing a Chinese song in Chinese?"</p>

<p>The girls are, in terms of nationality, Malaysians.</p>

<p>"...why are they singing a Chinese song in Chinese?"</p>

<p>To understand why this is so, you need to know a bit of history, otherwise you'll be quite confused as you are now. </p>

<p>Malaysia, (i.e. Peninsular Malaysia) was a former British colony which became an independent nation in 1957, and joined later by Singapore, Sabah &amp; Sarawak, (i.e. British North Borneo), in the early-1960s to form Federation of Malaysia (Singapore left the Federation and became an independent city state in the mid-60s)</p>

<p>When Malaysia was a British colony, the British administrators imported, (the technical term was "indentured"), thousands of workers for their rubber plantations, tin mines, factories from China and colonial India. My Hakka grandfather, from Guangdong Province, was among them.  </p>

<p>These early 18th, 19th Century wretchedly poor illiterate Chinese and Indian workers had to build Chinese and Indian vernacular schools and imported Chinese and Indian teachers from China and India to teach their children in order not to lose their "Chineseness and Indianness" A small number of these Chinese vernacular schools, (which gives Chinese medium education for the first 6 years), still exist today alongside the "National Type" schools where the medium of instruction is the Malay language.</p>

<p>So, the ethnic Chinese girls in the video obviously attended these vernacular schools for 6 years and "switched over" to the National Type schools for their "High School" education to learn more Malay and some English. </p>

<p>Here's a biodata of one of the girls. </p>

<p><a href="https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&amp;sl=zh-CN&amp;u=https://baike.baidu.com/item/%25E7%258E%258B%25E9%259B%25AA%25E6%2599%25B6&amp;prev=search" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&amp;sl=zh-CN&amp;u=https://baike.baidu.com/item/%25E7%258E%258B%25E9%259B%25AA%25E6%2599%25B6&amp;prev=search</a></p>

<p>Because of the country's colonial history, and the mass importation of Chinese workers principally from Guangdong and Fujian Provinces, the ethnic chinese population, numbering at present about 10% of the total population, (in a total population of about 32 odd million), could speak at least one Chinese dialect, mandarin, Malay and English. I myself in my old household had to speak Cantonese with my mother, Hakka with my grandfather and my English educated father in English.</p>

<p>The video is obviously shot on location somewhere in China and judging from the "deserted" streets and buildings in the background, it was obviously a purpose-built movie set to film period movies.</p>

<p>The "中国上海东海影视乐团" was merely the name of the orchestra. (it wouldn't make economic sense to bring a whole orchestra from Malaysia to China to shoot a music video.      </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-01T17:30:09.710Z
2020-04-01T17:30:09.710Z
Wayne Cheah
<p>The songs in the video are in Chinese. The symbols in Chinese are called Hanyu Pinyin, which have the same meaning as the phonetic symbols in English.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-02T06:28:25.567Z
2020-04-02T06:28:25.567Z
cloud
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/BuAULI7PbRw?t=7" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://youtu.be/BuAULI7PbRw?t=7</a></p>

<p>They are obviously Asian, and I seem to recognize some of the letters as being Chinese. Also, the song itself seems to be a famous/classic Chinese song which I've heard in other contexts as well.</p>

<p>However, there is also a "Romanized" or "Latinized" text above the Chinese (?) text, which confuses me.</p>

<p>Also, the video description contains a <strong>.my</strong> link, which is the TLD for <strong>Malaysia</strong>.</p>

<p>So, are they Malaysian or Chinese? And if they are Malaysian, why are they singing a Chinese song in Chinese?</p>

<p>Bonus points if you can tell me where and when they recorded the video.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-01T15:06:01.630Z
The song is in Chinese, the latin letters are [Pinyin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin).
fefe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-01T15:07:32.867Z
The video also contains text saying 中国上海东海影视乐团
fefe
<culture><history><lyrics><songs>
Are the Asian girls in this music video Chinese or Malaysian, and are they singing in Chinese?
# Are the Asian girls in this music video Chinese or Malaysian, and are they singing in Chinese?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-04-01)

<https://youtu.be/BuAULI7PbRw?t=7>

They are obviously Asian, and I seem to recognize some of the letters as being Chinese. Also, the song itself seems to be a famous/classic Chinese song which I've heard in other contexts as well.

However, there is also a "Romanized" or "Latinized" text above the Chinese (?) text, which confuses me.

Also, the video description contains a **.my** link, which is the TLD for **Malaysia**.

So, are they Malaysian or Chinese? And if they are Malaysian, why are they singing a Chinese song in Chinese?

Bonus points if you can tell me where and when they recorded the video.

**Tags:** culture, history, lyrics, songs

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The song is in Chinese, the latin letters are [Pinyin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin).  
> **username_1**: The video also contains text saying 中国上海东海影视乐团  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2020-04-01. Score: 2

Quote:- "So, are they Malaysian or Chinese? And if they are Malaysian, why are they singing a Chinese song in Chinese?"

The girls are, in terms of nationality, Malaysians.

"...why are they singing a Chinese song in Chinese?"

To understand why this is so, you need to know a bit of history, otherwise you'll be quite confused as you are now.

Malaysia, (i.e. Peninsular Malaysia) was a former British colony which became an independent nation in 1957, and joined later by Singapore, Sabah & Sarawak, (i.e. British North Borneo), in the early-1960s to form Federation of Malaysia (Singapore left the Federation and became an independent city state in the mid-60s)

When Malaysia was a British colony, the British administrators imported, (the technical term was "indentured"), thousands of workers for their rubber plantations, tin mines, factories from China and colonial India. My Hakka grandfather, from Guangdong Province, was among them.

These early 18th, 19th Century wretchedly poor illiterate Chinese and Indian workers had to build Chinese and Indian vernacular schools and imported Chinese and Indian teachers from China and India to teach their children in order not to lose their "Chineseness and Indianness" A small number of these Chinese vernacular schools, (which gives Chinese medium education for the first 6 years), still exist today alongside the "National Type" schools where the medium of instruction is the Malay language.

So, the ethnic Chinese girls in the video obviously attended these vernacular schools for 6 years and "switched over" to the National Type schools for their "High School" education to learn more Malay and some English.

Here's a biodata of one of the girls.

<https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=https://baike.baidu.com/item/%25E7%258E%258B%25E9%259B%25AA%25E6%2599%25B6&prev=search>

Because of the country's colonial history, and the mass importation of Chinese workers principally from Guangdong and Fujian Provinces, the ethnic chinese population, numbering at present about 10% of the total population, (in a total population of about 32 odd million), could speak at least one Chinese dialect, mandarin, Malay and English. I myself in my old household had to speak Cantonese with my mother, Hakka with my grandfather and my English educated father in English.

The video is obviously shot on location somewhere in China and judging from the "deserted" streets and buildings in the background, it was obviously a purpose-built movie set to film period movies.

The "中国上海东海影视乐团" was merely the name of the orchestra. (it wouldn't make economic sense to bring a whole orchestra from Malaysia to China to shoot a music video.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2020-04-02. Score: 0

The songs in the video are in Chinese. The symbols in Chinese are called Hanyu Pinyin, which have the same meaning as the phonetic symbols in English.


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