I still remember how surprised a food vendor was, when I asked in Mandarin for a fork and a spoon to eat with. In China, all meals can be attacked with chopsticks, whereas Malaysian Chinese like ...

With Penang’s mix of English, Mandarin and Hokkien ... Some MM2H residents even hire mainland Chinese designers who visit Malaysia as tourists under the 30-day visa-free scheme, he claimed.

"In Malaysia, we want everyone to communicate well. Before independence, we agreed to use the national language while also improving proficiency in Tamil and Chinese," he added.