This rooster year, Malaysia Airlines came out with a simple and sincere ad that features non-Chinese offering Chinese New Year wishes in Mandarin and other Chinese dialects such as Teochew and Cantonese.
I thought this was a very heartwarming way of showcasing our region’s diversity and the message that came with the video,
“The richness of Malaysia (and Singapore) begins with our people. Experience a truly Malaysian greeting this Chinese New Year.”
was pretty clever in a way that (not surprisingly) most people in our region would know a second language or a third – and this is what connects all of us together.
In the words of Charlemagne, “To have another language is to possess a second soul.“