Hello, nice to meet you ! Time for Self-Introduction ~

Hello, My name is HO Can-Hao (何灿浩/ 何燦浩) and you can just call me "Hao" (pronounced as "how"). Maybe quite different from yours, "Ho" is my surname and also my forename; "Can Hao" is my last name and given name. Here's my picture:

When you see my name in Chinese character, you may think that I am from China, Taiwan or Hong Kong. It might be a bit surprising for you that I am actually a Malaysian; a "Chinese-Malaysian", though. I know this term might be a bit confusing as it sounds like dual nationality. In fact, for most people like me, "Chinese" represents our ethnicity and cultural identity while "Malaysian" indicates our nationality and national belonging. To preserve our culture, it is common that most of us are Chinese native-speaker. As one of minorities in Malaysia, however, we also need to learn Malay and English to communicate with other ethnic groups, such as Malay, Indian, Kadazan, Iban and the like.

It is exactly such complicated background which stimulates me to think and write in the first place. In many countries, it is taken for granted that every citizens should share a same culture and language and every minorities need to be integrated into the majority. To say the least, a rather high degree of homogeneity within a nation is justifiable or even worth pursuing. However, there is definitely a conflict between homogenization from the state and minority cultural right. As a Malaysian minority, such tension always prompt me to think about different issues such as nationalism (nation-building, nation-state), citizenship, minority right, culture and language, cosmopolitanism and multilingualism, transnational cultural/religious community, clash of civilization and etc.

Though my first language is not English, I choose to write in the language. By doing so, I hope that I can discuss the abovementioned issues with people from all over the world. Though I am fully aware that my English is far from enough to articulate my view accurately in the current stage, I hope that I can have good command of this language and become a multilingual writer in the future.

NB:

No matter who you are, you are more than welcome to express your views or/and modify my language. I especially hope that I can exchange opinions with other minorities from other countries as I believe that they are also facing similar predicament as us.