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Google is your friend…</p>
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If I were in your shoes, that is what I would do </p>
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<p>Not sure why that may be surprising, since ethnic Chinese people speaking fluently in non-Chinese languages (e.g. English in the US and UK, Italian in Italy, French in France and Quebec, Spanish in Latin America, etc.) are not exactly unusual.</p>
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<p>it just showed me up for being an ignorant hillbilly 
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<p>I would say that you’re not ethnically Malaysian in the same way that whites in South Africa aren’t ethnically African.</p>
<p>^Actually OP said her family’s first language is Malaysian. That signals that they identify more as Malaysian than as Chinese.</p>
<p>Frankly, I don’t think it matters that much. But if you want, choose Asian: Malaysian. I don’t think it will help you either way. The whole system of racial preferences is BS, IMO (though I don’t have a problem with assembling a diverse student body, I see diversity along many axis), so say whatever is truthful and will hurt you least or help you most (and if Malaysians accept you as Malaysian, you’re Malaysian).</p>
<p>Probably won’t make any difference…Malaysian = Asian. Chinese = Asian. A white applicant of German origins won’t have an advantage over one of Polish descent, nor will an African American over a black Caribbean, assuming all are US citizens/residents.</p>
<p>I fully concur with Post 26. No one is going to look at your ethnicity and view you any differently if you cite Malay or Chinese. You’re making two very wide assumptions here. 1) that the college will discriminate against all Asians and 2) that it will discriminate against Chinese more than it will against Malaysians.</p>
<p>No. 1 is seriously debatable. No. 2 is a HUGE stretch even if by some off chance, No. 1 happens. Taken together, you’re being **paranoid</p>
<p>No 1 definitely happens, the statistics don’t lie. No 2 is questionable, but better to take the option that might be better anyways. </p>
<p>Some of the people here who are not in admissions claim No 1 does not happen but one of my relatives in admission for medical school and told us they hold Asian to much higher standard. Granted this is not undergraduate but I would think it’s the same.</p>
<p>Regarding Chinese or Malaysian, most people I’ve met whether they are born in Laos, Cambodia, Philippines told me they are actually Chinese. So regardless where they born they are still identify with Chinese. </p>