Tan Howe Liang was borned in China too?

Question

People have been saying how proud they were of Tan Howe Liang's 1960 summer olympics silver medal and refusing to acknowledge the achievements of the women's tables table tennis team in Beijing 2008. Little did they know that Tan Howe Liang was also born in China in 1933. Migrated to Singapore in 1937. So what's the difference between Tan Howe Liang and our women's table tennis team then? I'd say shut up and cheer for them and accept them as fellow Singaporean.

Answer 1

LOL

Yeah many people are unaware of that

Actually we cannot blame those who complain about the 'true' nationality of our medallists

But cant we just congratulate them?

I understand many are not, lamenting the fact that theyre not 100% Singaporeans

But then at the first place these athletes come only cos the public accepted them to represent Singapore

If they win then why should we complain about their originality?

And some more, its the first medal in 48 years (?!?!)

Congrats to Li Jiawei and co.

Thanks for having done us proud

I hope this is the first of many more to come, and hopefully, the first by Singapore-born athlete in future

Answer 2

Cannot compare this way. Going by your logic, all of us can be seen as originating from China, India or elsewhere right? The main diff btw Mr Tan and the table tennis team is that the latter was systematically talent-scouted and brought into Singapore just for winning medals for Singapore. From what I understand, this is what many people I know are uncomfortable about...instead of the fact that they came from different countries and become Singapore citizens. Over long term, other sports in Singapore may follow suit and this may not be good for Singapore sport development. The value we pass on to the younger generation seems to be that we can always use money to buy shortcut.