Michelle Yeoh recalls being mocked as a ‘banana’

MALAYSIAN-born actress Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh (pic) revealed that she was mocked for not being a "pure Chinese", Sinchew Daily reported.

She said this in an interview with entertainment programme BUILD Series, where she appeared alongside fellow cast members Awkwafina, Ken Jeong and fellow Malaysian Henry Golding to promote the romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians.

“When I first went to Hong Kong, they didn’t see me as a pure Chinese because I grew up in Malaysia. I don’t know how to write Chinese and didn’t speak Chinese very well,” she said.

She recalled an incident where she went to a restaurant in Chinatown in England and asked for an English menu.

“I didn’t know how to use chopsticks, too. With my limited Cantonese, I could hear people saying that I was neither human nor the foreign devil (a term used to mock Chinese who do not speak or act Chinese).

“To them I was a ‘banana’, I looked Chinese but didn’t act like one,” she said.

> A 50-year-old Japanese manager died on the spot after crashing into a cow, China Press reported.

Both driver and cow died in the accident at about 6.45am on Mon­day along the KL-Seremban High­way.

Kajang OCPD Asst Comm Ahmad Dzaffir Mohd Yusoff said according to initial investigations, the manager hit the cow that suddenly crossed the road.