THE Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia has urged the Chinese community here to focus not only on their careers but to also consider having children, China Press reported.
Its president Tan Sri Goh Tian Chuan urged young Malaysian Chinese to pay equal importance to their careers and to starting a family.
The number of Malaysian Chinese in the country has plateaued at around seven million for the past few years, he said.
Goh voiced hope that the government would give more incentives, such as additional tax benefits, to encourage young couples to have children.
He acknowledged the economic challenges faced by youth these days that make it hard for them to start a family.
“Young people have to put all their focus on making money and delay getting married and having children. Not only that, many choose to not have children,” he said.
> Veteran China-born singer Na Ying, whose triumph at the reality music show Singer 2024 became a subject of controversy, has acknowledged that another contender deserved to be the winner.
“I felt like a thief. It felt as if I had stolen something. I did not even dare to glance at her,” she said, referring to Moroccan-Canadian singer Faouzia.
The winner and runner-up should be Faouzia and American singer Chante Moore respectively, she said.
China Press reported that Na made the comments in response to allegations that the competition, which took place last month, was rigged.
Na said she should only have been placed third at best.
“When I was announced as the winner, I felt as if I had been struck by lightning,” she said, acknowledging that her victory was bound to be controversial.
Previous reports indicated that viewers were surprised by Na’s victory as she had often ranked lowly throughout the competition for forgetting her lyrics and singing out of tune.
The contest is only open to professional singers globally.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
