Restoring a link to their heritage

Chinese Malaysians work to brush up skills in proper Mandarin, reports Elaine Tan in Kuala Lumpur.

Samantha Tan, 39, is what Malaysians refer to as a "banana", a term that describes an ethnic Chinese who cannot speak, read and/or write in Mandarin. This ranges from complete ignorance of the language to having a decent command of one or two of the three skills.

"Growing up, we spoke Mandarin at home, but I've always wanted to do a 'tuneup', especially since Malaysian Mandarin isn't considered proper Putonghua. So going to China to study Mandarin was on my 'bucket list' of things to do," said Tan, who is not able to read or write the language.