Its also very Muslim-friendly, and I learnt the Chinese for halal (). China, after all, has more Muslims than Malaysia has Malaysians. Perhaps thats why theyhorror of horrorsdared to use non-certified halal signs!
In school I learnt about Emperor Shih Huang Ti. Now I learnt that his name and spelling, and many other things besides, are oversimplifications of the very complex way people and dynasties existed back then.
Why history matters
History, when done well and learned in humility, is very cool and illuminating. Ive been to many major Asian historical sites from Turkey and Iran, to China and Mongolia, not to mention right here in South East Asia, and theres always something new to learn.
While the histories of these placesthose of our cousins and fellow Asianshad become more prominent over the last few decades, theyre becoming even more so now.
For too long our Asian history had been pushed to the periphery. We grew up learning more about Plato and Julius Ceasar than the great emperors and philosophers of Persia and China and the Indus Valley.
And even our study of Chinas history seems disproportionately coloured by what Marco Polo and other westerners wrote centuries ago.
Magnificent Mongols
Personally, Ive always been fascinated by the Mongols, especially Chinggis Khan (note the modern spelling). For far too long they were depicted as just hordes that flew out of Central Asia like bats out of hell, a plague sent by God as punishment.
They were certainly no angels, and they killed millions in their orgy of conquest. And they left in many of us a bit of the Mongol DNA, perhaps even of the great Khan himself!
Creating the largest contiguous land empire in human history was no mean feat. It required complex and sophisticated military and civilian technology, leadership and governance systems for which they didnt get enough credit.
While the tech bros of the Westthe Zuckerbergs and Musks et alare busy modelling themselves after the Roman emperors, salutes and all, dont forget that people closer to home were doing amazing stuff back then, or even earlier.
But for far too long their stories had been buried beneath the more glamourised and better marketed western ones.
The Asian challenge
Weve a lot to be proud of. While we claim kinship with all of humanity, we certainly owe more to our closer Asian cousins to understand and retell their (our) stories to the world.
Whats the point of my ramblings? Simpleat no time in the past few decades has life been roiled with so much uncertainty, with our identities as Asians challenged and our motives questioned.
Some of the accusations may very well be true. Theres no reason to believe were beyond doing some nefarious things ourselves. Many of the reasons our great empires from Persia to Mongolia fell was because of our own perfidy after all.
But we were, and are, just as capable of greatness too. Right now, the world needs some semblance of leadership from beyond the traditional Western ones. The world needs to hear words of hope and not just words of fear or anger.
History goes in cycles. Its our time to shine and lead the world. While China and India will justifiably take pole positions, we in South East Asia arent just rounding errors either. We have over 600 million people who share a lot in common, not least of which is optimism about our future.
The Asian century
We, too, had been great once, even if not quite in the same league as the big boys in Cathaythe archaic name for Chinaand India and Persia and Turkey and Mongolia. But weve been there.
This century will surely be the Asian century. We need to grab it with both hands and make the most of it.
We need to take what is good and throw away what is bad, from both East and West. But remember for far too long weve been too besotted with everything Western, and often ashamed of whatever thats Asian.
Time for a little introspection, to look at our own shared history, to learn lessons from them, and perhaps most importantly to throw away the shame and poor self-image that weve saddled ourselves for too long.
A good step is to travel and learn about our own Asian cultures and history. Theyre quite cool, and therere a lot more happy surprises waiting to be discovered.
They are quite cold too if you visit in mid-winter! But with that I wish you and all your loved ones: Happy Chinese New Year of the Wood Snake! And may much of the wood, and the snakes, around us be spared. They have their place in the order of things.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.