‘Mandarin Required’ Job Ads Exposed: Study Says It’s Really Code For ‘Chinese Only’

A Malaysian think tank sent 3,829 identical résumés under seven fake identities and found Chinese candidates got up to 12 times more callbacks than equally qualified Malay and Indian applicants — proving “Mandarin required” job ads often just mean “Chinese preferred.”

Cent-GPS

In Brief

A study sending 3,829 fake job applications found Chinese candidates received callbacks at dramatically higher rates than Malay and Indian applicants.
Mandarin language requirements were exposed as a hiring filter for Chinese candidates, with 71% of such firms only calling Chinese applicants back.
Wearing a hijab cost a candidate 40% fewer callbacks, while Indian male Thivakar had the lowest callback rate of all seven fictitious applicants.

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Picture this — you apply to over 500 jobs.

Same degree, same CGPA, same internship and technically, even the same face.

And you still get called back 12 times less than someone else applying for the exact same role.

That’s not a thought experiment; someone actually did it.

The Centre for Governance and Political Studies (Cent-GPS) built seven fictitious job seekers — Malay, Chinese and Indian, male and female — each with:

A Second Class Upper degree in Business
A 3-month internship
Born 1995/96, living in Klang Valley
“Intermediate” in Malay, English and Mandarin

The twist: the photos weren’t seven different people.

They were the same two models, made up with different skin tones to match each name; same nose, same jawline but different race on paper.

Over a three-month period, the team fired off 3,829 applications to 500+ sales and marketing jobs, then they sat by seven phones and waited.

The Scorecard

Nicola needed 2 applications for 1 callback, while Thivakar needed 28. Same resume.

Different name up top.

About 10% of the jobs demanded Mandarin.

All seven candidates — including Thivakar and Nur Sakinah — ticked the “intermediate Mandarin” box.

If the requirement was real, callbacks should’ve been evenly spread, but instead:

Nicola: 54.72%
Gabriel: 39.62%
Everyone else: single digits to low teens
Thivakar: 9.43%

71% of companies that demanded Mandarin only ever called Nicola or Gabriel — the two Chinese candidates — even though every other applicant claimed the identical skill.

The report’s own conclusion, no sugarcoating: the Mandarin requirement, “for the most part,” is a filter to hire Chinese candidates — not a genuine language need.

Candidate	Race/Gender	Callback Rate
Nicola	Chinese F	43.88%
Gabriel	Chinese M	32.72%
Zulaikha	Malay F, no hijab	12.80%
Nur Sakinah	Malay F, hijab	9.14%
Kavita	Indian F	8.96%
Saddiq	Malay M	7.86%
Thivakar	Indian M	3.66%

Same Woman, Same Everything — Minus The Hijab

Same model, same everything.

One photo in a hijab, one without.

Zulaikha (no hijab): 70 calls, 12.80%
Nur Sakinah (hijab): 50 calls, 9.14%

Taking the hijab off in the photo was worth a 40% jump in interview calls.

The study went in expecting Malay candidates to suffer the most — echoing a 2016 study on the same topic.

Instead, the Indian candidates came out worst, with Thivakar’s 3.66% the lowest score of all seven, edging out even the hijab-wearing Malay candidate.

Three hypotheses in, two flipped and one confirmed — but the thread running through it all stayed the same: race decided the callback, not the résumé.

@satthiyakandi Last one from this series, I promise 🤣 Me showing off my Kindergarten knowledge 🤣 #fyp #mandarinspeaker ♬ everyone using this sound – zup

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