What I find interesting is out of the 7 NTs in SE Asia that participate in basketball regularly, 3 of them are essentially "Chinese": Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei (excluding Vietnam, whose people have "Chinese names"). Singapore I can understand because the city is basically 3/4 Chinese. But I particularly wonder about Malaysia, where the Chinese population is only 25%. Out of their 12-men roster, there are always at least 10 Chinese names; and the other 1 or 2, such as Guganeswaran who played in China for 6 years, speak Chinese well. What is more, their national league website (nbl.com.my) is exclusively in Chinese language, and their official basketball association's webpage (malaysia-basketball.com) also has considerable Chinese-language content.
I've never been to Malaysia so I'm just throwing this question out. A couple years back I met several Malaysians in my apartment in the U.S. -- they are all ethnic Malays with pretty stereotypic "Muslim" names -- and I see them go out and play basketball together. So I wonder if the sport is actually popular within the Malay community in Malaysia? Or is the overrepresentation just explained by genetics because the Malays are shorter? But that explanation also makes little sense as the "Chinese" Malaysian NT is not that tall and the Malays I met in the US don't seem to be that short (definitely taller than the Filipinos I met in the US )
Or is it because Chinese communities organize basketball better? From the forum I see that the Chinese communities in Philippines organize annual tournaments for schools and amateurs. I wonder if that's a factor!
Also, there have been some discussions about ethnic Chinese players in the Philippines. To me it seems like the "Chinoys" are also overrepresnted considering they are only 1.3% of the RP population but I'm not sure.
But, I've never seen any Chinese names in Thailand NT or Indonesia NT. Why is that??
I've never been to Malaysia so I'm just throwing this question out. A couple years back I met several Malaysians in my apartment in the U.S. -- they are all ethnic Malays with pretty stereotypic "Muslim" names -- and I see them go out and play basketball together. So I wonder if the sport is actually popular within the Malay community in Malaysia? Or is the overrepresentation just explained by genetics because the Malays are shorter? But that explanation also makes little sense as the "Chinese" Malaysian NT is not that tall and the Malays I met in the US don't seem to be that short (definitely taller than the Filipinos I met in the US )
Or is it because Chinese communities organize basketball better? From the forum I see that the Chinese communities in Philippines organize annual tournaments for schools and amateurs. I wonder if that's a factor!
Also, there have been some discussions about ethnic Chinese players in the Philippines. To me it seems like the "Chinoys" are also overrepresnted considering they are only 1.3% of the RP population but I'm not sure.
But, I've never seen any Chinese names in Thailand NT or Indonesia NT. Why is that??
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