Language alone is still not enough. In Malaysia, many Malaysian Chinese go to Chinese vernacular schools. However, these schools were heavily influenced by the ROC (Taiwan) syllabus. That made them more politically inclined to Taiwan. Many students have opted to take the UEC exams, and continued their tertiary studies in Taiwan.
So there is plenty of pro-Taiwan, anti-PRC influence amongst the Malaysian Chinese vernacular students. In particular, those born around 1970s to mid 90s. It didn't help that Taiwan became increasingly more political over the years. So this created substantial anti-China sentiments amongst even hardcore Chinese-speaking Malaysian Chinese. Many of these folks don't speak English well. Yet they passionately dislike China. The most famous example is Namewee, a singer-songwriter. He passionately supports the HK protests, and hates the PRC.
Then we add these folks to the banana Malaysian Chinese who have fully embraced the West, and we have a potent mix of China-hate amongst Malaysian Chinese. They are concentrated in the urban areas like Kuala Lumpur. So the image of mainland China amongst the Malaysian Chinese is still quite divided.
Having said that, the younger generation of Malaysian Chinese are much more receptive to mainland China. They are spending their teenage and young adult years when Chinese soft power is blossoming. This current generation use XHS, watch Chinese media, and are not bothered by the politics. Also, not all bananas in Malaysia are anti-China. Many of them knows the West for what it truly is and are happy for China's rise.
My father like to listen to Internationale ,The East is Red and March of the Volunteers, he played it loud and our neighbor compliant to the police, mind you bro we were under Martial Law at that time.
