Chinese associations find it a challenge to attract youths

Members of Perak Ka Ying Association enjoying a food tasting event during an activity organised by the association. — filepics

IT HAS long been recognised that Chinese associations, along with Chinese schools and newspapers, make up the “three pillars” of overseas Chinese societies.

Same applies to the Chinese community of Malaysia; the prominent presence of many Chinese associations has enabled the early settlers to adapt well and to earn a living.

While these associations have made significant contributions during the late 1800s and early 1900s, it is disheartening to note that they are currently facing one pressing problem.

It is the difficulty in finding successors and attracting today’s youths to join them.

Perak Taipu Association youth chief Steven Law said compared to one or two decades ago when they would usually receive more than 100 new youth members a year, there were only 10 to 20 youths joining the association annually in recent years.

Chinese associations are struggling to get youth participation.

“In Ipoh, many youngsters were no longer based here. They are most likely to move out to bigger cities such as Penang, Kuala Lumpur and even Singapore to work and settle down there.

“The few new members we have every year are joining us only because of sentimental reasons, as their father and grandfather have been a part of the same association for years,” he told MetroPerak.

Law, who joined the association for the Taipu people of the Hakka clan 12 years ago, said youths today also did not know the benefits of being a part of a Chinese association.

“Most of them are busy with their own lives, as they might have to deal with work and family matters, so they think joining an association would only take up more of their time,” he said.

On the contrary, Law said joining associations would enable youths to interact with one another and broaden their horizons as they would often hold exchanges with other association members.

“Apart from giving rewards to our members’ schoolchildren who achieved academic excellence, we hold many courses and talks on self-development, including those that would help promote Chinese culture and education,” he said.

Law said associations were meant to celebrate togetherness among the Chinese community who descended from the same village or province in China.

“I think the mentality of youths nowadays are more towards thinking about what the association can give them.

“More importantly, it is the youths who should think about what they can contribute to the association in return for the betterment of the community.

Participants rolling dough during a tang yuan making competition held by Perak Taipu Association. This is one of the activities held by the association.

“This is because by joining an association, it goes without saying that you would have a support network comprising a lot of professionals from various fields as well as businessmen.

“One day, you may need these contacts,” he said.

Recognising this growing need for Chinese associations in Malaysia to evolve with the times to attract more potential successors, Perak Kwong Siew Association president and founder Chow Chee Peng said he had observed that youths were finding it difficult to adhere to the old-fashioned ways of conduct practised by the elders.

Chow, who is also the vice-president of the Perak Kwang Tung Association, said old-fashioned ways included giving out rewards to excellent students and holding gatherings during major festivals such as Qing Ming and the Mid-Autumn Festival, which were no longer viable approaches to attract the youths.

“Like the laws that govern this country that can be subject to various amendments, I think the same can and should also be applied to the constitution of Chinese associations.

“I see the problem of youths being too controlled by the elders in the associations, causing them to lack freedom in expressing their ideas and creativity to develop the association further,” he said.

With this in mind, Chow founded his current association just a year ago on June 10, 2016 to unite the descendants of Guangzhou and Zhaoqing cities in the Guangdong province of China.

“Since I can’t change the mentality of the elders who find it hard to stray from the conventional ways of managing a Chinese association, I decided to form my own.

“In this association where we unite Guangdong people, we are doing things the new way by being more open-minded and free.

“We do not try to restrict our youths but instead, encourage them to organise more activities as long as they stick to our principle of doing good for the people and the association,” he said.

These would include many youth-oriented activities that take place after work such as badminton and a hiking trip up Kledang Hill.

Taking one step closer towards modernising the association, Chow said they were currently in the process of finalising the membership card system for some 600 members.

“We want every single member to benefit from their membership, instead of the conventional selected few who would only benefit from receiving rewards for academic excellence.

“We are trying to draw up partnerships with various businesses, so that our members can enjoy special discounts at selected outlets with just the flash of our membership card,” he said, adding that these outlets would include eateries and medicine halls.

Chow added that it would take him roughly two more months to get the membership card system up and running.

“Hopefully once it is launched, it will pave the way for other Chinese associations to come up with new approaches to attract the youths and ultimately, stay relevant in today’s society,” he said.

Meanwhile, Perak Ku Kong Chow Association president Datuk Yik Phooi Hong said while they had been seeing more people in their 30s and 40s joining the association, it was still a challenge to find those in their 20s to be a part of them.

“While other segments of our association are quite active, it is hard for us to rope in youths to join our lion dance troupe.

One of the many activities the Perak Ku Kong Chow Association holds is the Parents Day and Dumpling Festival double celebration.

“This is because now, youths are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a lion dance troupe to join as schools and more Chinese associations provide training,” he said, adding that back in the 1960s to 1970s, his association was among only two to three associations in Ipoh that provided lion dancers training.

Yik also said youths in their 20s were more occupied with finding a good job and settling down..

“Most of them might not even know that they belong to a clan association as well.

“Even though some of their parents might be active in these associations, parents do not want to bother their children with joining associations because they would want them to focus on their studies and career first,” he said.

In his quest to look for new blood to lead the association, Yik said he amended the association’s constitution to allow five youth members to be appointed as committee members.

“I know it is hard for youths to be a part of the association’s leadership because the seniors don’t know them, they haven’t had enough time to gather a track record to prove anything.

“So to solve this problem, I would allow five youths to be appointed first and let them be active.

“After their term is over, we would review their performance and service to see if they should be allowed to be re-elected,” he said, adding that this was a new replacement scheme to ensure that more voices of youths might be heard in the association, and at the same time, dissuade the elders from feeling that they were being completely replaced by the younger generation.