<p>As another Malaysian Chinese, I must say I find this a bit amusing. Malaysians aren’t exactly free from racism, and this would undoubtedly be controversial if a premier Malaysian publication had published it, but it’s the kind of self-deprecating humour Malaysians like to make about our own ethnic groups. Nobody actually takes ethnic stereotypes seriously - we just use them as the butt of jokes.</p>
<p>I didn’t see anything too wrong with the article in the first place - I immediately saw it as satire. Normally I can’t get sarcasm or deep humour that well, but this was quite obvious to me. I think it was just poorly done, but what can you expect from college students? They aren’t exactly writers for The Onion - and unfortunately, satire is great when done correctly, but when done terribly as in this case, things get ugly.</p>
<p>To the guy who suggested that writers should make satirical intent clear with a note at the end, that normally defeats the purpose of satire by ruining the punchline, so to speak. When there’s a good chance that the satire was done wrong, however, it’s probably a wise thing to do.</p>