[Above: 19-year-old Hwa Chong Institution student, Samuel Ma Huaqing.]

By Zubaidah Nazeer

HE MADE the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) say sorry. And he has been quoted by news agencies and sat in on closed-door dialogue sessions.

But Samuel Ma Huaqing is no think-tank expert. He's a 19-year-old Hwa Chong Institution student.

He has his own YouTube channel, a blog and two websites.

The Chinese national and Singapore permanent resident is not content with Xiaxue-ish navel- gazing.

Current affairs and global issues are his thing.

Like a typical teen, he showed up for our interview in a loose shirt and cargo pants. But when he spoke, a man emerged.

Dreams

Samuel, who came to Singapore in 2002 with his beautician mother, dreams of becoming a journalist or working in foreign affairs. His father is a computer engineer in Chengdu city.

Samuel started early, devouring reports from various publications, including four Chinese dailies.

He spends at least an hour daily, after homework, updating his blog and maintaining two websites - one on his hometown of Chengdu and the other of Chongqing city, both in south-western China.

His encounter with the BBC occurred in 2008.

Like many Chinese that year, he was excited and proud that his country was to host the Olympics.

He tuned in to various channels, including China- owned CCTV and the BBC, to keep up with news on the sports spectacle.

But on April 6 that year, what he saw on the BBC angered him.

A report on the torch relay accused the Chinese media of failing to report on the protests against China's human rights record in the London leg.

But CCTV did report on it, as did other news portals such as Sichuan News.

Said Samuel: "The flippancy of the BBC report angered me."

In the BBC report, headlined "China silent on torch troubles", its China-based reporter said that "China insists on keeping bad news away from its citizens."

Samuel rebutted this by creating a video presentation on YouTube of evidence compiled from CCTV news bulletins and reports from three China- based media which carried reports on the protests.

The video was quickly linked to many blog sites and drew comments, mostly supportive ones from Chinese netizens.

Ten days later, a post on the BBC Editors blog offered an explanation and apology for the mistake. Said Samuel: "This (report) shouldn't have happened in the first place because Western media, especially global networks, are supposed to be fair."

Four months ago, when Google pulled out of China over Internet freedom, he was sought by Al Jazeera for his views in its Global Village Voices segment.

So does he think he's an Internet celebrity? Samuel said: "Some friends teased me but I don't think I am a celebrity. I can walk anywhere and I'm not recognised."

He said he offers his views only to achieve "justice in the society I live in".

He added that "fabricated media reports can mislead people... causing unnecessary conflicts."

Samuel has also defended Singapore.

Among the criticisms from netizens he has countered are: Singapore is weak and just a "little red dot", Singaporeans cannot speak Mandarin or English well, and the island's HDB-filled landscape is boring.

In an attempt to assimilate, he picked up Malay - a third language he qualified to take when he entered secondary school.

Why, when the majority in Singapore can converse in Mandarin, I asked.

Admitting that he had been asked this before, Samuel said: "I took the option to allow me to get to know the culture, through language, of another major race in Singapore."

In 2006, Berita Harian reported that Samuel scored an A for Malay when he was in secondary school.

He's moving on to Spanish, but is still at beginner-level.

But he was quick to add that he's already good with Singlish.

His favourite words: "lah" and "meh". But he was careful not to use them during the interview.

But he has an opinion on Singlish and what he calls Chinglish - unintelligible English badly translated from Mandarin.

His disdain is expressed through snapshots he took of signage in China.

But aren't Singlish and Chinglish both mangled forms of English, I offered.

He said: "People who speak Singlish are Singaporeans whose first language is English and are taught proper English, but in China, English is not the first language and so Chinglish makes it worse."

In August, Samuel will realise one of his dreams of being involved in the Youth Olympic Games.

He will be a Mandarin and Malay translator and, "if really necessary", Spanish as well, he said. The young Chinese like him have grown more vocal, he insisted. And they are having an influence in the way things are at home.

Accused

He cited the case of the pedicurist Deng Yujiao, accused of fatally stabbing a government official who allegedly tried to rape her, as an example of the power of "Internet democracy". Her case sparked public support online as well as unusually sympathetic coverage in China's state-controlled media.

The police dropped the original murder charge to assault.

Press freedom does not come easily in China and that is why online discussions flourish, he said.

So why does he get riled by foreign media criticising China when Chinese netizens do it too?

Said Samuel: "Foreign media can also criticise the government, but not when they deliberately set out to demonise China like in the BBC report."

zubaidah@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The New Paper.