THREADER Eddy Lee Kok Leong (@eddyleekokleong) pushed for Malaysian Chinese to practice their mother tongue which is made up of Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Teochew, and Hokchew instead of Mandarin.
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His argument is Mandarin is not a mother language for the Malaysian Chinese. It was however used as a neutral language for communication in Chinese vernacular schools.
Mother tongue languages such as Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Teochew, and Hokchew are keys that links the community to their culture and tradition.
Thread user Robert Pan (@robertpan84) agreed to the notion. He suggested that Mandarin be renamed as ‘Beijingnese’. He also took parents of Malaysian Chinese to task for their failure in imparting their mother to the children.
Strangely a number of Thread users just failed to fathom Eddy’s message that was delivered in video format. Thread user A (_qimalizz_) who is part Malaysian and part Thai accused Lee of being a racist. He said as a Malaysian should know Bahasa Melayu.
Threader @jaysencioconsolacion countered A by pointing out that Eddy was not disputing the national language. He was instead telling the Chinese to use their mother tongue which raises the possibility that A had failed language comprehension while in school.
Another Threads user @pitttshin pointed out the issue raise is limited to Peninsula Malaysia. He revealed that his mother studied in a Hakka school before World War II, in Papar, Sabah whereas his dad studied in Toi San language in Keningau. Mandarin was introduced only after the war.
Writer and editor Daphne Lee Mei Lin meanwhile pointed out a Malaysian Chinese’s mother tongue can also be Mandarin, Malay or even English.
Chinese school teacher, Cikgu Joe (@cikgujoe_sjkc) gave a contrasting perspective to the issue at hand.
While many young Chinese speak Mandarin, they struggle to read write and speak fluently. This is because most of them have become Western centric.
Physicist Freddie Cahyadi questioned which script would be used for the written form. He deemed the suggestion as a notion to provoke the Chinese to split. – Nov 11, 2026
Main image credit:Reddit
