chmalay.txt "Louis R. Andrews" Not surprisingly to me at least, the mean IQ of the Chinese in Malaysia is about 10-15 points higher than that of the Bumiputra. Date sent: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 10:12:23 -0400 From: "Louis R. Andrews" Send reply to: LRAnd@groupz.net Organization: Stalking the Wild Taboo - http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/ To: h-bd@egroups.com Copies to: FMieleX@aol.com Subject: [h-bd] Re: Ethnism & Insurrection in Malaya Louis Andrews here - Frank Miele wrote: > Purely economic or ideological explanations would have difficulty > explaining > why the Overseas Chinese, who are usually better educated and wealthier > than the surrounding Malay populations, are either disproportionately > found in Communist insurrections or blamed for them. Interestingly, the Chinese were brought to Malaysia by the British as unskilled laborers largely to work in the mines doing work the Brits had difficulty getting the Malays (Bumiputra now) to do. Chinese are now about 30% of the Malaysian population have have suffered from both legal and illegal discrimination (Affirmation Action for the majority Bumiputra) since their arrival. Malays has free (sometimes even compulsory) schooling under the British, while no effort was made by the Brits to educate the Chinese children. The Chinese (still dirt poor) established their own tiny schools to educate their young, even though most of the adults were illiterate themselves. There has also been severe economic discrimination against the Chinese by both the British and later the Malay governments. Dispite this, the Chinese now control much of the wealth in Malaysia. They also vastly outnumber Bumiputra in college graduates in the sciences and engineering, while the latter tend to stick to easier subjects. Most Chinese are middle class or better, while over 75% of Bumiputra are considered poor despite their ethnic cohorts having controlled the government since the British left. In nearby Indonesia where the Chinese are a mere 3%, they control about 70% of the private capital. A similar situation exists in Thailand. Both countries, like Malaysia, have a long history of anti-Chinese/pro-indiginous population discrimination. Not surprisingly to me at least, the mean IQ of the Chinese in Malaysia is about 10-15 points higher than that of the Bumiputra. While some cultural factors are undoubtedly involved, I'd suggest Occam's Razor again as in the black/white differential in the US as well as the Jewish/gentile differential throughout the Western word. Louis Andrews http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MyPoints-Free Rewards When You're Online. Start with up to 150 Points for joining! http://clickhere.egroups.com/click/630 How to contribute to H-Bd: 1. To reply privately to just the sender of this message, click the "Reply" button on your email package. 2. To reply publicly to the entire H-Bd list, click the "Reply All" (or equivalent) button on your email package. 3. To start a thread, email your message to h-bd@egroups.com Date sent: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 17:36:21 +0100 To: LRAnd@groupz.net From: salter@erl.ornithol.mpg.de (Frank Salter) Copies to: h-bd@egroups.com Subject: [h-bd] Re: Ethnism & Insurrection in Malaya Frank Salter here commenting on Louis Andrews and Frank Miele. There is evidence that Chinese success is not only due to elevated IQ, though this would obviously give them a boost into the professions. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: In demonstrating the limits of IQ as a predictor of occupational achievement, Flynn (1991, p. 141) persuasively argues that "hard work and abstemiousness" cannot be overlooked as independent and powerful causes of occupational success. Although Flynn does not mention consciousnessness, this is essentially the ingredient he argues can make such a big difference between groups of similar IQ. His argument is based on the fact that Chinese and Japanese Americans' academic, occupational and income outcomes are far above average, even though their IQ's are roughly equivalent to those of White Americans . Two statistics define this phenomenon. First, Chinese Americans require seven IQ points less than White Americans in order to win entry to university or a high-status occupation. Flynn calls this the threshold factor. Secondly, of those Chinese Americans capable of entering university or a high-status profession, more do so than do White Americans, 78 percent versus 60 percent. Flynn calls this the capitalization factor, the analogy being better exploitation of available talent. The result is that Chinese Americans are overrepresented by a factor of three to five among college faculty, architects, scientists, school teachers, engineers, and doctors. For these figures Flynn relied on research by Weyl conducted in the 1960s, which has been updated for the 1980s. The more recent figures indicate that Chinese Americans are overrepresented in science and technology disciplines by a factor of between 4 and 11 (Weyl 1989, p. 169), despite an IQ advantage of about 3 points, with a spatio-visual advantage of 8 points (Lynn 1987). GROUP STRATEGIZING: Louis Andrews points to the discriminatory measures adopted by majority Malay populations to control Chinese minorities. Their use of political weapons in group competition is answered by cohesive business networks among Chinese. The overseas Chinese are one of the classic ethnic middleman groups that deploy group strategies in competition with other ethnic groups. Most of the following comes from Light and Karageorgis (1994) on ethnic economies, and in particular the research of Janet Landa (1981; 1994), herself of Chinese-Malaysian background who did field work on Chinese middlemen in that country. She discovered 7 layers of diminishing solidarity: 1. Near kinsmen from family; 2. Distant kinsmen from extended family; 3. Clansmen; 4. Fellow-villagers (in China); 5. Fellow-Hokkiens; 6. Non-Hokkiens; 7. Non-Chinese Ethnic middlemen groups are advantaged in treacherous and otherwise risky business environments. This is because the ethnic nepotism shown between group members mitigates the risk of reneging, while members of more individualistic groups must rely on contracts and other security measures that impose relatively high transaction costs (Landa 1994). Additionally, aggressive middleman groups can themselves create business risks that drives businessmen belonging to outgroups to the wall, through discriminatory trading and strategic reneging. The potential profitability of the aggressive use of group solidarity is compatible with transaction cost economics. It was the original insight by Coase that profit is affected by the cost of conducting transactions. Some economists have used this idea to argue that the trust engendered by kinship and ethnic ties tends to lower the risk of transactions and hence the cost of providing the security of enforced contracts (Landa 1981;1994; Light and Karageorgis 1994). In the case of cohesive trading groups that systematically discriminate in favour of their own members, solidarity can also be turned to creating risk for nongroup members. Ethnic closure is most feasible in "nondecomposible" industries, in which activities are highly interdependent and where, as a result, a group controlling key assets is very difficult to dislodge or prevent from expanding its share of the trade (Landa 1994). For this reason ethnic business networks expand more rapidly horizontally within a market niche than between niches. References: Flynn, J. R. (1991). Asian Americans: Achievement beyond IQ. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ. Landa, J. T. (1981). A theory of the ethnically homogeneous middleman group: an institutional alternative to contract law. Journal of Legal Studies, 10(June), 349-62. Landa, J. T. (1994). Trust, ethnicity, and identity. Beyond trading networks, contract law, and gift-exchange. Michigan University Press, Ann Arbor. Light, I. and Karageorgis, S. (1994). The ethnic economy. In The handbook of economic sociology, (ed. N. J. Smelser and R. Swedberg), pp. 647-71. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Lynn, R. (1987). The intelligence of the Mongoloids: A psychometric, evolutionary and neurological theory. Personality and Individual Differences, 8:813-44. Weyl, N. (1989). The geography of American achievement. Scott-Townsend, Washington, DC. >Louis Andrews here - > >Frank Miele wrote: > >> Purely economic or ideological explanations would have difficulty >> explaining >> why the Overseas Chinese, who are usually better educated and >> wealthier >>than >> the surrounding Malay populations, are either disproportionately found >> in Communist insurrections or blamed for them. From: "Patricia Hausman" To: , "Frank Salter" Copies to: Date sent: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 13:47:45 -0400 Subject: [h-bd] conscientiousness Frank Salter wrote: CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: In demonstrating the limits of IQ as a predictor of occupational achievement, Flynn (1991, p. 141) persuasively argues that "hard work and abstemiousness" cannot be overlooked as independent and powerful causes of occupational success. ________ I agree with this in part, but not completely. Of the Big Five personality factors, conscientiousness is the only one that has a substantial correlation with g. Therefore, I am hesitant to call this factor fully independent of g. It may well be partly independent of it, but that it is fully independent is an assumption IMO. Flynn uses conscientiousness to explain the difference in IQ levels required for admission to a university. I agree that it is important, but think it a mistake to assume that it is the only relevant factor . Another Big Five characteristic-- introversion--might also have predictive value. Asians tend to be more introverted than Caucasians. They therefore may get more enjoyment from studying (a generally solitary pursuit), which in turn may contribute to their better high school performance. There may be other differences in cognitive styles that are also relevant; I haven't seen any comparisons between the groups so I don't know. In short, I think it fair to say that a combination of personality and cognitive traits is at work here. PH ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Click Here to apply for a NextCard Internet Visa and start earning FREE travel in HALF the time with the NextCard Rew@rds Program. http://clickhere.egroups.com/click/449 How to contribute to H-Bd: 1. To reply privately to just the sender of this message, click the "Reply" button on your email package. 2. To reply publicly to the entire H-Bd list, click the "Reply All" (or equivalent) button on your email package. 3. To start a thread, email your message to h-bd@egroups.com