Invading Europe en Masse: East Asians as the Foot Soldiers of Global Capitalism
The yellow faces come in many forms and many languages, but there is no doubt where they come from. The definite voices of spoken Chinese, Korean, and Japanese echoes through the major tourist sites of the Continent, even, in some broken, ill-pronounced forms, among the local tour guides and shop owners seeking to get some extra businesses from these arrivals from the other side of the world. And the Oriental hordes have made their presence felt.
In sheer numbers, a crude observation show them to be just as numerous as, if not more than, visitors from other European countries, much more cheaply and easily reached from these destinations. And the willingness of the Asian hordes to spend and consume at these tourist destinations have completely beat out European tourists. The Asian tourists are snapping up expensive local produce, luxury brands (cheaper than their home countries), and pieces of kitschy souvenirs in quantities inconsistent with the state of the world economy.
The Europeans have not lost on the significance of these hordes and are working quickly to accommodate. In the heart of Athens, Prague, Krakow, or Budapest, it is hard not to find shops with at least some simple signs (usually along the lines of “sale” “tax free” “can use credit card”) written in these three languages. Tour guides speaking these languages are nearly always available, and there are even exchange bureau that readily changes Yuan, Won, and Yen into local currencies.
However, to simplify these hordes as short term tourists just in to spend a few euros and go home is, unfortunately, definite over-simplification. Along with increased Asian tourists is a dramatic increase of local businesses catering to the Asian crowds. Chinese restaurants and sushi bars are popping up everywhere to represent the largest group of foreign restaurants in Europe aside from American fast food chains. And much unlike the American fast food chains, these Asian restaurants are actually all run and staffed by Asians.
And increasingly, the “Asian lifestyle” is becoming more and more integrated into the local community. Just as many non-Asian faces grace the inside of these Asian restaurants as Asian faces, and many of these consumers are not even tourists. Outside the obvious tourist zones, new forms of non-immigrant “Chinatowns” are emerging in surprising places like rural Albania and Bosnia, with Chinese merchants peddling to locals all sorts of manufactures imported from Chinese factory.
Aside from the grass-root import-export scene, large businesses from the Orient also dominate in conspicuous ways. Throughout the Balkans and former Soviet territories, Chinese car brands Great Wall and Geely feature prominently on the streets and large advertising billboards. Locals play around Taiwanese-made Asus and Acer laptops. Heavy construction equipments have obviously Japanese brand names. And the Korean giant Samsung seems to put up their flashy blue sign on a tall building in every Eastern European city.
Surely, to group together all of “East Asian” presence here in Europe would be to ignore the massive competition that exist among the firms hailing from each East Asian economy, and the fact that the different ethnicities of East Asia do not really interact or even cooperate as they continue to dominate the local business scene. However, despite the generalization, one thing is for sure: the locals here are learning not to just look west toward Western Europe and America for economic development. The yellow peoples from the East are becoming as important for their economic future.
For an East Asian, no matter where he or she hails from, the powerful demonstration of East Asian economic ascendance here on the streets of Europe has to be a point of massive pride. For decades, the Caucasian world was the undisputed economic centers of the world, and any non-Caucasian wealth was considered some sort of “exception to the rule.” But in the coming decades, if East Asia can true work together as an intertwined economic bloc, she can fundamentally challenge and destroy this Caucasian-dominated world economic order...
In sheer numbers, a crude observation show them to be just as numerous as, if not more than, visitors from other European countries, much more cheaply and easily reached from these destinations. And the willingness of the Asian hordes to spend and consume at these tourist destinations have completely beat out European tourists. The Asian tourists are snapping up expensive local produce, luxury brands (cheaper than their home countries), and pieces of kitschy souvenirs in quantities inconsistent with the state of the world economy.
The Europeans have not lost on the significance of these hordes and are working quickly to accommodate. In the heart of Athens, Prague, Krakow, or Budapest, it is hard not to find shops with at least some simple signs (usually along the lines of “sale” “tax free” “can use credit card”) written in these three languages. Tour guides speaking these languages are nearly always available, and there are even exchange bureau that readily changes Yuan, Won, and Yen into local currencies.
However, to simplify these hordes as short term tourists just in to spend a few euros and go home is, unfortunately, definite over-simplification. Along with increased Asian tourists is a dramatic increase of local businesses catering to the Asian crowds. Chinese restaurants and sushi bars are popping up everywhere to represent the largest group of foreign restaurants in Europe aside from American fast food chains. And much unlike the American fast food chains, these Asian restaurants are actually all run and staffed by Asians.
And increasingly, the “Asian lifestyle” is becoming more and more integrated into the local community. Just as many non-Asian faces grace the inside of these Asian restaurants as Asian faces, and many of these consumers are not even tourists. Outside the obvious tourist zones, new forms of non-immigrant “Chinatowns” are emerging in surprising places like rural Albania and Bosnia, with Chinese merchants peddling to locals all sorts of manufactures imported from Chinese factory.
Aside from the grass-root import-export scene, large businesses from the Orient also dominate in conspicuous ways. Throughout the Balkans and former Soviet territories, Chinese car brands Great Wall and Geely feature prominently on the streets and large advertising billboards. Locals play around Taiwanese-made Asus and Acer laptops. Heavy construction equipments have obviously Japanese brand names. And the Korean giant Samsung seems to put up their flashy blue sign on a tall building in every Eastern European city.
Surely, to group together all of “East Asian” presence here in Europe would be to ignore the massive competition that exist among the firms hailing from each East Asian economy, and the fact that the different ethnicities of East Asia do not really interact or even cooperate as they continue to dominate the local business scene. However, despite the generalization, one thing is for sure: the locals here are learning not to just look west toward Western Europe and America for economic development. The yellow peoples from the East are becoming as important for their economic future.
For an East Asian, no matter where he or she hails from, the powerful demonstration of East Asian economic ascendance here on the streets of Europe has to be a point of massive pride. For decades, the Caucasian world was the undisputed economic centers of the world, and any non-Caucasian wealth was considered some sort of “exception to the rule.” But in the coming decades, if East Asia can true work together as an intertwined economic bloc, she can fundamentally challenge and destroy this Caucasian-dominated world economic order...
Comments
Post a Comment