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18-08-2016, 01:40 AM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapo...nst-xenophobia (http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/debate-foreign-born-athletes-grows-former-national-shooter-speaks-against-xenophobia)
In less than a week, the 21-year-old champion has returned home to a hero's welcome, and was given a standing ovation in Parliament. But the media frenzy over Schooling has once again sparked the debate of local versus foreign talent in Singapore sport.
Former national shooter and Raffles Girls' School student Zhang Jingna said on her Facebook page that the negativity was making her "sick".
Now a multi-award-winning fashion photographer based in New York, Zhang was born in Beijing and moved to Singapore at a young age.
Once named Sports Girl of the Year in 2006, Zhang said in a Aug 16 post that she had endured xenophobic insults growing up as a foreign-born child in Singapore.
"I thought the xenophobia I experienced as a child was just a number out of a pool of random experiences. Surely, I would grow up to be in better company than the strangers who told me I was about the same as sh*t, or that I would always be of the lowest classes of citizens compared to local-born Singaporeans. I was wrong.
"The hating on foreign nationals on my feed has reached a point where I am beginning to feel sick. To realise that some of these people are ones that I had once worked with makes it all the more painful," she said.
In a lengthy post, Zhang addresses some of the comments she had come across on Facebook in recent times.
Among these comments are netizens' calls for the Government to spend more money training and cultivating local athletes.
While acknowledging Joseph Schooling's "incredible" success, she points out that "it is of course easy to say all of these after he has already achieved what he has. But it doesn't always start and end like this". Some local-born athletes on scholarships overseas choose to never return, she says.
"If, for example, Joseph was indeed sent to the US on Singapore's dime and a) didn't win, b) never came back, or c) quit. I bet a lot of people would change their tune, and blame the Government for wasting money on a Singaporean who wasn't trained on Singapore soil, by Singaporean coaches," she adds.
Besides, it is difficult to groom young sportsmen in an academic-driven society like Singapore, Zhang points out.
Regarding those "purist" arguments that Singaporeans should not support athletes born in other countries, Zhang writes: "I sure hope your grandparents and theirs don't hear you saying this. It's heartbreaking."
"We all came from somewhere, we all benefited from the immigrants that our parents, grandparents and forefathers were. So let's stay civilised and not use racist and discriminatory words like 'purist'."
She also wonders if the treatment regarding Schooling's success would be different if he was not born in Singapore.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?234474-Ah-Tiong-used-sinkapore-as-stepping-stone-berates-us&goto=newpost).
http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapo...nst-xenophobia (http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/debate-foreign-born-athletes-grows-former-national-shooter-speaks-against-xenophobia)
In less than a week, the 21-year-old champion has returned home to a hero's welcome, and was given a standing ovation in Parliament. But the media frenzy over Schooling has once again sparked the debate of local versus foreign talent in Singapore sport.
Former national shooter and Raffles Girls' School student Zhang Jingna said on her Facebook page that the negativity was making her "sick".
Now a multi-award-winning fashion photographer based in New York, Zhang was born in Beijing and moved to Singapore at a young age.
Once named Sports Girl of the Year in 2006, Zhang said in a Aug 16 post that she had endured xenophobic insults growing up as a foreign-born child in Singapore.
"I thought the xenophobia I experienced as a child was just a number out of a pool of random experiences. Surely, I would grow up to be in better company than the strangers who told me I was about the same as sh*t, or that I would always be of the lowest classes of citizens compared to local-born Singaporeans. I was wrong.
"The hating on foreign nationals on my feed has reached a point where I am beginning to feel sick. To realise that some of these people are ones that I had once worked with makes it all the more painful," she said.
In a lengthy post, Zhang addresses some of the comments she had come across on Facebook in recent times.
Among these comments are netizens' calls for the Government to spend more money training and cultivating local athletes.
While acknowledging Joseph Schooling's "incredible" success, she points out that "it is of course easy to say all of these after he has already achieved what he has. But it doesn't always start and end like this". Some local-born athletes on scholarships overseas choose to never return, she says.
"If, for example, Joseph was indeed sent to the US on Singapore's dime and a) didn't win, b) never came back, or c) quit. I bet a lot of people would change their tune, and blame the Government for wasting money on a Singaporean who wasn't trained on Singapore soil, by Singaporean coaches," she adds.
Besides, it is difficult to groom young sportsmen in an academic-driven society like Singapore, Zhang points out.
Regarding those "purist" arguments that Singaporeans should not support athletes born in other countries, Zhang writes: "I sure hope your grandparents and theirs don't hear you saying this. It's heartbreaking."
"We all came from somewhere, we all benefited from the immigrants that our parents, grandparents and forefathers were. So let's stay civilised and not use racist and discriminatory words like 'purist'."
She also wonders if the treatment regarding Schooling's success would be different if he was not born in Singapore.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?234474-Ah-Tiong-used-sinkapore-as-stepping-stone-berates-us&goto=newpost).