So You think Asians are all the same...
“You Asians all do…”
For any Asian in America, hearing something like this from a non-Asian is about as common as it gets. Somehow, the non-Asians seems absolutely convinced that a quarter of humanity with diverse cultures can be lump-summed into one single term while the French and Russians are people of incredible difference that calling them “Europeans” collectively would be considered offensive.
To my accusation, most reply that Asians “look the same,” “act the same,” and “seem to share a lot in common with each other” (they were quite serious when they said these to me, not a slight tinge of sarcasm). To which I would say, “could you enlighten me how the French and the Germans look and act incredibly differently and does not share much with each other?”
Obviously, I am not saying only non-Asians are guilty of such cultural insensitivities (Asians say “white/black/”Mexican” people all do…” all the time) but it seems, unlike any other generalizations, people tend to not feel any sort of shame or embarrassment when they generalize the behavior and appearance of all Asians…the non-Asians generalize in the open (on the media), believing such to be a perfectly normal thing to do. Why is that?
Sure, the Americans’ general lack of willingness to teach/learn about any culture outside of Western European ones seem to be the primary reasons for the generalizations, but that still does not explain how they try their best to not call all Hispanics “Mexicans” while calling all Asians “Chinese” seem to be a funny joke.
So, are we, the Asians in America, by doing what we do and perpetuating the stereotypes/generalizations against us and making them a sort of devious social norm?
The answer, unfortunately, is partly yes. As I have mentioned in the previous post about how Asians are less "manly," many Asians are of very shy and introverted nature. This sort of character have prevented them from aggressively explaining the Asians' differences to non-Asians, and by silence, we have pretty much given an ok to the non-Asians to generalize us.
In contrast, every time anything remotely racial is said in public about Hispanics or blacks, they resort to protests and aggressive, often violent, verbal/physical counterattacks, making the social cost of generalizing them prohibitively expensive and potentially dangerous for anyone daring to do so.
I would just like to point out that in reality, the Asian community is much much more fragmented than the white one, at least here in America. While white people of different origins tend to intermarry quite a bit (so everyone becomes 1/8 Welsh, 1/8 Hungarian, 1/4 French, and a 1/2 Russian or something like that), intermarriage among different Asian groups rarely happens...and when they do happen, its quite a big deal, especially to parents and grandparents of the marrying couple.
A major reason is that many Asian countries are historically mono-ethnic and secluded themselves from migrations of other Asians, leading to extraordinary levels of ethnocentrism and lack of knowledge with regard to even their closest Asian neighbors.
Unfortunately, the wealthiest and most recognized Asians among non-Asians, namely the Koreans and the Japanese, both tend to see themselves as above other Asians and refuse to "reduce the purity of Korean/Japanese blood" through intermarriage.
Yet, feelings of ethnic superiority is not the only problem. Even people of same ethnic backgrounds refuse to intermarry due to political or economic differences. The best example that would come to mind is how people from Hong Kong and Taiwan refuse to recognize themselves as Chinese and thinks mainland Chinese are inferior, but since that example has been so overused and made sensitive, I would like to look at a couple of others.
As someone with significant Mongolian heritage (from my mother's side), I really have never thought about interacting with with people from Mongolia. To be honest, since Inner (southern part) Mongolia is part of China (meaning all the Mongolian Chinese like me are Sinicized) and Outer (northern) Mongolia became a client state of the USSR (people there are culturally Russified) so the two groups of Mongolians share very little in modern culture. Lack of physical exchange (I never been to Outer Mongolia and many Outer Mongolians rather go to Russia than China) deepens cultural divergence and prevents intermarriage.
The other group is ethnic Koreans born and bred in China (Chaoxianzu/Joseonjok/조선족/朝鮮族). Many of these people have been to South Korea (and many of them work for Korean companies in China) and know about modern South Korea very well. Yet, the fact that they hold Chinese political stance on many issues cause friction with South Koreans, leading to their ill treatment in South Korea (unlike Koreans from Japan or the USA, who tend to support South Korea in all issues). Thus, many Chaoxianzu has increasingly tend to regard them as distinct cultural group only ethnically linked to North and South Koreans.
It is perhaps unrealistic to expect non-Asians (or even some Asians) to understand the complex ethnic/political/cultural relations of Asia (in fact, most non-Asians' understanding of Asian politics is still in the Cold War era, i.e. other Asians don't like the Chinese cuz the Chinese are bunch of f-ing commies") but at least recognize that they are ignoring some very important issues when they generalized all 2 billion of us as "Asians."
For any Asian in America, hearing something like this from a non-Asian is about as common as it gets. Somehow, the non-Asians seems absolutely convinced that a quarter of humanity with diverse cultures can be lump-summed into one single term while the French and Russians are people of incredible difference that calling them “Europeans” collectively would be considered offensive.
To my accusation, most reply that Asians “look the same,” “act the same,” and “seem to share a lot in common with each other” (they were quite serious when they said these to me, not a slight tinge of sarcasm). To which I would say, “could you enlighten me how the French and the Germans look and act incredibly differently and does not share much with each other?”
Obviously, I am not saying only non-Asians are guilty of such cultural insensitivities (Asians say “white/black/”Mexican” people all do…” all the time) but it seems, unlike any other generalizations, people tend to not feel any sort of shame or embarrassment when they generalize the behavior and appearance of all Asians…the non-Asians generalize in the open (on the media), believing such to be a perfectly normal thing to do. Why is that?
Sure, the Americans’ general lack of willingness to teach/learn about any culture outside of Western European ones seem to be the primary reasons for the generalizations, but that still does not explain how they try their best to not call all Hispanics “Mexicans” while calling all Asians “Chinese” seem to be a funny joke.
So, are we, the Asians in America, by doing what we do and perpetuating the stereotypes/generalizations against us and making them a sort of devious social norm?
The answer, unfortunately, is partly yes. As I have mentioned in the previous post about how Asians are less "manly," many Asians are of very shy and introverted nature. This sort of character have prevented them from aggressively explaining the Asians' differences to non-Asians, and by silence, we have pretty much given an ok to the non-Asians to generalize us.
In contrast, every time anything remotely racial is said in public about Hispanics or blacks, they resort to protests and aggressive, often violent, verbal/physical counterattacks, making the social cost of generalizing them prohibitively expensive and potentially dangerous for anyone daring to do so.
I would just like to point out that in reality, the Asian community is much much more fragmented than the white one, at least here in America. While white people of different origins tend to intermarry quite a bit (so everyone becomes 1/8 Welsh, 1/8 Hungarian, 1/4 French, and a 1/2 Russian or something like that), intermarriage among different Asian groups rarely happens...and when they do happen, its quite a big deal, especially to parents and grandparents of the marrying couple.
A major reason is that many Asian countries are historically mono-ethnic and secluded themselves from migrations of other Asians, leading to extraordinary levels of ethnocentrism and lack of knowledge with regard to even their closest Asian neighbors.
Unfortunately, the wealthiest and most recognized Asians among non-Asians, namely the Koreans and the Japanese, both tend to see themselves as above other Asians and refuse to "reduce the purity of Korean/Japanese blood" through intermarriage.
Yet, feelings of ethnic superiority is not the only problem. Even people of same ethnic backgrounds refuse to intermarry due to political or economic differences. The best example that would come to mind is how people from Hong Kong and Taiwan refuse to recognize themselves as Chinese and thinks mainland Chinese are inferior, but since that example has been so overused and made sensitive, I would like to look at a couple of others.
As someone with significant Mongolian heritage (from my mother's side), I really have never thought about interacting with with people from Mongolia. To be honest, since Inner (southern part) Mongolia is part of China (meaning all the Mongolian Chinese like me are Sinicized) and Outer (northern) Mongolia became a client state of the USSR (people there are culturally Russified) so the two groups of Mongolians share very little in modern culture. Lack of physical exchange (I never been to Outer Mongolia and many Outer Mongolians rather go to Russia than China) deepens cultural divergence and prevents intermarriage.
The other group is ethnic Koreans born and bred in China (Chaoxianzu/Joseonjok/조선족/朝鮮族). Many of these people have been to South Korea (and many of them work for Korean companies in China) and know about modern South Korea very well. Yet, the fact that they hold Chinese political stance on many issues cause friction with South Koreans, leading to their ill treatment in South Korea (unlike Koreans from Japan or the USA, who tend to support South Korea in all issues). Thus, many Chaoxianzu has increasingly tend to regard them as distinct cultural group only ethnically linked to North and South Koreans.
It is perhaps unrealistic to expect non-Asians (or even some Asians) to understand the complex ethnic/political/cultural relations of Asia (in fact, most non-Asians' understanding of Asian politics is still in the Cold War era, i.e. other Asians don't like the Chinese cuz the Chinese are bunch of f-ing commies") but at least recognize that they are ignoring some very important issues when they generalized all 2 billion of us as "Asians."
Yep yep! The most successful Asians in the US are the Pakistanis and the Asian Indians. Usually coming over skilled in what they do.
ReplyDeleteThey are also grouped in with the Hmong people who aren't faring so well in the US. Pretty much a group of people without a land.
Average 'Asian' income per household is about 60 thousand (with about 4-3 ppl living in each household). Talk about unfair representation yeah? LOL but if you do look at it, we do all look similar, as well as any other people. They say there is at least 3 look alikes of you on this world.
If you get a chance you should read Strangers from a Different Shore by Ronald Takaki.... He is the first professor to teach Asian Ethnic classes or something (I forgot lol). But he revised his book A Different Mirror before he commited suicide (dealt with depression but he is very well respected Japanese American man. He felt it was honorable to do so.).
hmmm...I guess others think about Asians just the same way as Asians think about, say, white ppl....and come to think of it, when did we ever distinguish between different kinds of white people?
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