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Asian-GAF: We're all the same, like Stormtroopers |OT| |AT|

Y

y2dvd

Member
I would rather be flattered if someone adopted my culture's wedding. They found it beautiful enough to adopt to one of the most important days of their lives.
 
Troubled Bat

Troubled Bat

Member
Esch said:
yesss, another asian person that likes death metal haha

<----- Morbid Angel fanboy here.

as for other stuff I love hip hop, ambient music, folk from all over the world. Pretty much everything but country.
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Whoooo! &#12542;(*´&#8704;&#65344;*)&#65417;
 
Chuckie

Chuckie

Member
SRG01 said:
That literally means meat bread, which is appropriate. I see variants of that in canto bakeries.
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Septimus Prime said:
Meat bun, basically?

I honestly thought it was a Poring from the Ragnarok series.
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Thanks. Yeah that sounds appropriate....considering it is a round steamed bun full of meat.

Bakpao/Bapao/Bahpao are really common here in Holland... brought here by the Chinese Indonesian immigrants. Because most of the Chinese in Indonesia used to be Hokkien, the terms we use for Chinese food are often derived from that language.
When a friend from Hong Kong was visiting, she had no idea what I was talking about when I was talking 'Chinese' dishes. But that's what you get when you have a Dutchified name for a Hokkien dish that was already Indonesiafied before it.
 
S

Septimus Prime

Member
Tence said:
Thanks. Yeah that sounds appropriate....considering it is a round steamed bun full of meat.

Bakpao/Bapao/Bahpao are really common here in Holland... brought here by the Chinese Indonesian immigrants. Because most of the Chinese in Indonesia used to be Hokkien, the terms we use for Chinese food are often derived from that language.
When a friend from Hong Kong was visiting, she had no idea what I was talking about when I was talking 'Chinese' dishes. But that's what you get when you have a Dutchified name for a Hokkien dish that was already Indonesiafied before it.
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My wife knows Hokkien/Fukien (I think they're the same), but I was just going by the Chinese characters. The literal translation is "meat (&#32905;) bun (&#21253;)," so that's what I went with.
 
C

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
Madness said:
What does Bollywood have to do with a Hindu/Punjabi wedding? That's my point. You're reducing a religious/cultural event to a stereotype. And it's not that they can do whatever they want, they're not hurting anyone. If they wanted a native American/first nations wedding, is it alright for them to wear feather headdresses, make everyone wear moccasins, have teepees up, etc.
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Seeing as Bollywood movies romanticize weddings and use weddings to a level that Hollywood could only dream of - even I tend to associate Bollywood movies with "Giganormous Indian Weddings". If they wanted to do a "Native American' themed wedding and wear feather headdresses - more power to them. It's their wedding, their day, and their rules. Sure - some people might find it offensive. But unless their intent is to explicitly mock a culture; I don't see the point in getting worked up about it. They like indian culture enough to try to do a wedding based off of it. We're not some damn arbiters of "True Indianness" or whatever bullshit that is.


Madness said:
But it is mocking. It's using a cultural/religious event for strictly aesthetic purposes. It's one thing if the grooms were hindu, indian, or whatnot, but they're using that strictly for aesthetic purposes. It's not indian pop culture though. That's western ignorance to think this is Bollywood or India. If Indians were those clothes or bindi's outside they're laughed at, but if white people do it, it's fun, wacky, zany.

This isn't new. People have thrown Asian parties before where everyone wears geisha outfits, conical hats, serve ramen noodles. You reduce a culture or people down to stereotypes, that's the problem.
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No; it's not mocking. Especially in a country like the US, which is a giant ass melting pot and is a little unique in that respect - cultural norms from all cultures get blended (and bastardized) a bit to create its own sort of unique blend. Some people take that shit personally and internalize it, and think it's mocking - but they're not mocking us. I mean, hell, at my office today, one of the (indian) female engineers in my group is wearing a sari, and a couple of the indian men have bindis on at work. No one here gives a crap. You don't "mock" something by spending thousands of dollars on trying to emulate it.

/rant
This bullshit gatekeeping of "well, you didn't earn your way to being able to do this because you weren't mocked or had to go through what we went through" is that; bullshit. It's like male geeks bitching about newer female geeks who didn't "get mocked for being a geek back in the day" and only started becoming geeks because "it's cool now." Not everyone has to go through a rite of passage and "earn their stripes". I think all the freaking out about appropriation is actually a really bad thing, because basically we're trying to say "NUH UH YOU CANT BE LIKE US" to people who, more often than not, appreciate / like our culture. So we want to push them away? That's stupid. We should be trying to encourage empathy and understanding, not being exclusionary jaded assholes.
/endrant
 
C

CapNBritain

Member
Cybit said:
No; it's not mocking. Especially in a country like the US, which is a giant ass melting pot and is a little unique in that respect - cultural norms from all cultures get blended (and bastardized) a bit to create its own sort of unique blend. Some people take that shit personally and internalize it, and think it's mocking - but they're not mocking us. I mean, hell, at my office today, one of the (indian) female engineers in my group is wearing a sari, and a couple of the indian men have bindis on at work. No one here gives a crap. You don't "mock" something by spending thousands of dollars on trying to emulate it.

/rant
This bullshit gatekeeping of "well, you didn't earn your way to being able to do this because you weren't mocked or had to go through what we went through" is that; bullshit. It's like male geeks bitching about newer female geeks who didn't "get mocked for being a geek back in the day" and only started becoming geeks because "it's cool now." Not everyone has to go through a rite of passage and "earn their stripes". I think all the freaking out about appropriation is actually a really bad thing, because basically we're trying to say "NUH UH YOU CANT BE LIKE US" to people who, more often than not, appreciate / like our culture. So we want to push them away? That's stupid. We should be trying to encourage empathy and understanding, not being exclusionary jaded assholes.
/endrant
Click to expand...

I agree with this way of thinking. Why is it only ok for me to like Chinese things because I'm Chinese? I bet there are a shit ton of non-Chinese people who know way more about my culture than I am, and yet they'd be shamed for expressing an interest in it? As long as it isn't insulting, I think it's completely okay for any one to engage in any culture on any level that they want.

Septimus Prime said:
I'd recommend forgoing the lion dance. I've been to some weddings with it, and it's always boring.
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Holy crap this reminded me of the time my friends and I were volunteered to perform a Lion Dance at a school assembly by the heads of the Chinese Club. We had only joined to have another item on our college applications. Half of our group wasn't even Chinese. I'm pretty sure my friend dragged us into it to impress a girl.

We were told dress in black and then given no further instructions. On the day of the dance, we were handed this lion (or maybe dragon?) thing on four poles, and a flag. We were then told to go out and do the dance.

I have no idea how to do a Lion/Dragon Dance. Neither did any of my friends. So we just shrugged and went with it. We had no idea what we were doing and just ran around the gym with the lion/dragon over our heads for 5 minutes while not making eye contact with any Chinese adult (to avoid seeing the shame in their eyes). Kids still clapped and apparently no one was the wiser. Lion/Dragon Dancing must just be in our veins.
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
BROmF0f.png
 
E

Esch

Banned
Cybit said:
No; it's not mocking. Especially in a country like the US, which is a giant ass melting pot and is a little unique in that respect - cultural norms from all cultures get blended (and bastardized) a bit to create its own sort of unique blend. Some people take that shit personally and internalize it, and think it's mocking - but they're not mocking us. I mean, hell, at my office today, one of the (indian) female engineers in my group is wearing a sari, and a couple of the indian men have bindis on at work. No one here gives a crap. You don't "mock" something by spending thousands of dollars on trying to emulate it.

/rant
This bullshit gatekeeping of "well, you didn't earn your way to being able to do this because you weren't mocked or had to go through what we went through" is that; bullshit. It's like male geeks bitching about newer female geeks who didn't "get mocked for being a geek back in the day" and only started becoming geeks because "it's cool now." Not everyone has to go through a rite of passage and "earn their stripes". I think all the freaking out about appropriation is actually a really bad thing, because basically we're trying to say "NUH UH YOU CANT BE LIKE US" to people who, more often than not, appreciate / like our culture. So we want to push them away? That's stupid. We should be trying to encourage empathy and understanding, not being exclusionary jaded assholes.
/endrant
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Well fucking said.

If you expect white people to 100/100 every nuance and aspect of 'your culture' when they participate in it or use anything from it you're nuts, and just going through normal life must trigger you to death.
 
C

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
backslashbunny said:
I think you have a point, but perhaps there's a difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation? &the line between the two aren't really well-defined so people mix it up.

Something I'll have to think about. Honestly, I personally don't imitate or copy any other culture outside of America/Chinese/Taiwanese stuff, except for the food. I think I'd personally feel odd if I dressed or acted like I was a part of any other group unless invited by that group. It would feel a little too... I'm not sure what the word/feeling/emotion is.
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There is a line; but the line is based on intent. Something that's not available on the internet generally. It really feels like people trying to scream "I'M DIFFERENT, HOW DARE YOU TAKE AWAY MY SPECIAL SNOWFLAKEYNESS" in a lot of cases.

I mean, lets be honest, how many people in this thread sort of feel like they're an Americanized version of their parents' culture? It's hard to jump all over white people for "not completely understanding a foreign culture" when most of us don't understand it 100% either. Also, it implies that there is a single "true" way for the culture, which is bullshit IMO. We're not homogeneous.
 
E

Esch

Banned
Cybit said:
I mean, lets be honest, how many people in this thread sort of feel like they're an Americanized version of their parents' culture? It's hard to jump all over white people for "not completely understanding a foreign culture" when most of us don't understand it 100% either. Also, it implies that there is a single "true" way for the culture, which is bullshit IMO. We're not homogeneous.
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If you were born here and ever interacted with people from back home and people that were born there, you've experienced this. I'm sure everyone in this thread has been through the too asian/not asian enough dilemma.
 
R

Rainy

Banned
Sorry tangent but I remember in college, a few of my Indian friends were a part of this Indian Cultural Club and I was never too interested but felt guilty about never joining. Meh.
 
C

cdyhybrid

Member
I'm seeing Paul van Dyk for the second time in two weeks and going to Disneyland.

Went to Universal Studios today and they had a guy in a crazy ass Megatron costume speaking Mandarin.
 
R

Rainy

Banned
I have to go to a family party tomorrow night. Sometimes I hate them because it just turns into family members boasting about their achievements and me just sitting there awkwardly. Hopefully I don't have to stay too long. Besides that, playing Persona 4 Golden and Smash 4.
 
Y

y2dvd

Member
backslashbunny said:
NO.
Okay I will :<


That Spiderman thread made me think about Asian American representation in comics.

Do y'all think we'll see any kind of Asian representation on the big screen?

To be honest, there's a reason why Harold & Kumar were so dear to my heart-- aside from being funny (I thought they were), it was really refreshing seeing Asians on screen not being stereotypes or having their entire life story revolve around BEING Asian, but not entirely just being a "any ethnicity" character [thinking about Kumar's parents and Harold's coworkers].

Also man, I miss MC Jin. There aren't many Asian musicians these days.





Lastly, it's also kinda funny how the "nerdy" culture (of comic books and video games) have so little Asian representation, when that's one of our biggest stereotypes. Like.. damn.
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I agree as far as Harold and Kumar not playing into stereotypes but I just didn't think it was too funny regardless lol.

It would be nice to have more Asian representation in every day media. I'm sure there is still a huge population with little to no exposure to Asians. Maybe we'll come to a point where the first question coming out of a stranger isn't "So where are you from?"

Lastly, I imagine the Asian community would be outrage if media where to depict Asians as being nerdy stereotypes, even if it were true. If say a tv show had a "hip" Asian and a "nerdy" Asian on the same show, maybe the representations would be more acceptable.

ps. Speaking of nerdy, for some reason, it really annoys me when a nerdy person themselves do an impression of the whiny, nerdy voice to mock a nerd. I can't explain why it bothers me so much lol. The Black Nerd is notorious for this.
 
Troubled Bat

Troubled Bat

Member
I just want to say, that I hope everyone is having a great day!

backslashbunny said:
That Spiderman thread made me think about Asian American representation in comics.

Do y'all think we'll see any kind of Asian representation on the big screen?

To be honest, there's a reason why Harold & Kumar were so dear to my heart-- aside from being funny (I thought they were), it was really refreshing seeing Asians on screen not being stereotypes or having their entire life story revolve around BEING Asian, but not entirely just being a "any ethnicity" character [thinking about Kumar's parents and Harold's coworkers].

Also man, I miss MC Jin. There aren't many Asian musicians these days.

Lastly, it's also kinda funny how the "nerdy" culture (of comic books and video games) have so little Asian representation, when that's one of our biggest stereotypes. Like.. damn.
Click to expand...

Big Hero 6 came to mind from that, along with Nico Minoru from The Runaways. I remember there was supposed to be a movie about it, but that's when big success came from The Avengers.

Harold & Kumar is hilarious to me. I absolutely love the duo, because they're so perfectly in sync with each other. They brought something that was different, yet familiar to audiences, I guess you could say.

I haven't heard from MC Jin in quite a long time. He was so good! I also terribly miss Nujabes, nothing will ever move me like the music that he created.
 
R

Rooster12

Member
backslashbunny said:
NO.
Okay I will :<


That Spiderman thread made me think about Asian American representation in comics.
Click to expand...

Only asian-american Superheroes I can think of that has his own book is Atom and Dark Wolverine.

There are others but they're only supporting characters with minor roles in team books, which doesn't count to me anyways.
 
N

NipplesAndToes23

Member
I didn't know The Atom was Asian?

For Asian musicians that currently do music I know of Bambu, Hopie, Masia One, Adam Warrock, Ruby Ibarra, Rocky Rivera, and Prometheus Brown if he counts.
 
E

Esch

Banned
backslashbunny said:
in nerd-dominated hobbies, Asians don't appear.
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That's cause asians aren't the ones creating, producing, and distributing it. for all intents and purposes shit like comics, games, what have you are controlled by white dudes. just like most stuff in the us and canada.

That said, I try and put my money where my mouth is when an asian protagonist gets burn in something. Bought Far Cry 4 and Sleeping Dogs just cause, even though I liked them both.
 
S

SRG01

Member
backslashbunny said:
NO.
Okay I will :<


That Spiderman thread made me think about Asian American representation in comics.

Do y'all think we'll see any kind of Asian representation on the big screen?

To be honest, there's a reason why Harold & Kumar were so dear to my heart-- aside from being funny (I thought they were), it was really refreshing seeing Asians on screen not being stereotypes or having their entire life story revolve around BEING Asian, but not entirely just being a "any ethnicity" character [thinking about Kumar's parents and Harold's coworkers].

Also man, I miss MC Jin. There aren't many Asian musicians these days.





Lastly, it's also kinda funny how the "nerdy" culture (of comic books and video games) have so little Asian representation, when that's one of our biggest stereotypes. Like.. damn.
Click to expand...

The biggest problem around Asian (and Asian male) depictions on the silver screen is that Hollywood refuses to provide roles that aren't exotic, fetishistic or stereotypic. Asian cultures and characters are still depicted as "the other" and will not change until there is an overall greater acceptance in people's day-to-day lives.

edit: This reminds me of the time I was watching an Asian Dating workshop video on Youtube (yeeeeah, I know) but it actually got into a pretty good discussion about Asian identity. I don't necessarily agree with one of the points the guy raised -- that exoticism is good -- but it's not the first time I've heard that sentiment from Asians even outside of the dating sphere.
 
M

Mowki Kowski

Member
Guys: How do you handle your hair? I've noticed that Asian hair is super coarse and really only sticks out/up unless you do something about it. I've always kept mine short but have recently discovered Gatsby hair products, and I'm looking to branch out of the super-short fauxhawk.
 
beat

beat

Member
beat said:
Chops is still producing! I backed his Kickstarter just last year, I think. And I still feel kinda guilty I never bought the last Mountain Brothers album.
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To expand on this -- I was on my phone earlier today -- the album was an anthology of AsAm music, mostly in the hip-hop and R&B genres: http://blog.angryasianman.com/2014/01/chops-presents-strength-in-numbers.html

Leaving hip-hop aside, have y'all ever heard of Vienna Teng, Jane Liu, or Thao and the Get Down Stay Down?

Esch said:
That's cause asians aren't the ones creating, producing, and distributing it. for all intents and purposes shit like comics, games, what have you are controlled by white dudes. just like most stuff in the us and canada.
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Well, I think what backslashbunny meant was the theory is that as a large-ish consumer bloc of geek stuff, you'd think they'd try to make something for us.
 
R

Ragingnight

Member
backslashbunny said:
Oh, most definitely yes. But they're not (considered) Americans. They're "Asians." The "South Korean" and "Chinese" teams.
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definitely not true in the FGC. The only asians that are considered Asian in that context are people that actually are from Asia.

Nobody looks at Justin Wong, FChamp, clockwork, shadyk, ranmasama and associated them as not being American or even being referred to as being "Asian American". But they do consider people like Xian, Tokido, and nemo to be asian.

And for League of Legends, the only teams I ever heard getting referred to as an Asian team is a team full of Asians from Asia. I have yet to here anybody distinguish xspecial, wildturtle, reginaldo, and plenty of Asian American players as being something else than American. The communities don't even refer them to being "Asian American" but just American.
 
Y

y2dvd

Member
Not true with the LoL scene. Those LCS does a great job of defining wether the team is American or foreign. Those keeping up should easily identify this. The only way I can see someone confusing Asian American teams as being foreigners is if they saw a match between the two for the first time, but you'd still here commentary of NA vs (Asian team).

And eh, LoL streamers are kinda like rock stars to their genre with relatively huge followers. I wouldn't say Asian American streamers in general fit any more of the nerdy stereotype than any other streamer would.

In other news, caught the tail end of the Chinese New Years festival last night. There were kids demonstrating their Kung fu, the dragon dance (sorry if there's a name for this!), and beautiful fireworks. I loved hearing kids' reactions to the dragons coming out and love that we throw these festivals for the locals to enjoy.
 
F

FireAndBlood

Member
The new terminator villain is Lee Byung-hun. He's in so many good Korean films. Too bad all his American films are junk.

lee_lee.jpg


I wish Americans would realize how many good films Asia churns out each year.
 
Troubled Bat

Troubled Bat

Member
FireAndBlood said:
The new terminator villain is Lee Byung-hun. He's in so many good Korean films. Too bad all his American films are junk.

lee_lee.jpg


I wish Americans would realize how many good films Asia churns out each year.
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He is? Welp. I have my reason to go watch the new movie now!

Mmmm, Lee Byung-hun. :)
 
R

Ragingnight

Member
backslashbunny said:
I don't know about FGC, sorry, but when I followed LoL all the full Asian teams were referred to as Asian teams.

I know that quite a few of the top players in LoL are Asian American, and you're right-- they are referred to as American, but not because people don't think of them as being Asian American. Rather, they play for American teams, so they're American. Asian Americans still get treated like perpetual foreigners everywhere else-- this will probably stop the day people stop asking us where we're really from. (I'd wager a lot of gold that if a NA league team was 5/5 Asian players, there would be some comments about "Asians" and questions about whether or not they are actually an American team or brought over from Asia.)

Wouldn't count LoL championships as anything close to media representation, though. If anything, all it does is fuel the stereotype that "oh of course he's good at SC, he's Asian" / etc. Being Asian and therefore good at a videogame is not really the same sort of media representation as seeing Asian Americans / Asians / yellow and brown faces in "Hollywood" media.
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no prob
There is no pure asian team in NA that is Asian American in LoL as far as I am aware. There used to be a pure chinese team that came from China and they were considered an Asian team because they were literally from Asia.

As of now, there will be players refered as Asian in NA LCS because they are Asian and not Asian American. There are a couple of Koreans and Chinese players that joined for whatever reason, so you might be referring to them.

In terms of gaming, I feel Asians are treated pretty well. The whole stereotype of Asian gamers being the best isn't really felt by Asian Americans. You do see it when referred to actual Asians from Asia, but there are more factors in why that is the case.
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
Zoe said:
That's a pretty Western-centric way of thinking to call it "regular".

In Japan, there are Western-styled weddings done with white actors for the officiant. The one I went to didn't have that, but the vibe was completely different from any other wedding I had been to in America. The funniest part was everybody rushing the aisle, even stepping into it, to get pictures of the bride and groom as they walked toward the altar together.
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Oh I mean, .... like... Europeans also does this kind of wedding, dont they? And they've been doing it longer than just the Americans. So it's more like... it's funny how he used the word 'American', is all.




On topic of weekend. I did nothing but dungeon runs :> It was double-drop weekend!

On topic of asian-americans in comics, I guess most comic writers are not asian-americans so it's a bit hard for them to write those characters in? IDK I read mangas, mostly and theres heaps of asians in them :x

Also, mangas > comics #comeatmebros
 
S

SRG01

Member
Mowki Kowski said:
Guys: How do you handle your hair? I've noticed that Asian hair is super coarse and really only sticks out/up unless you do something about it. I've always kept mine short but have recently discovered Gatsby hair products, and I'm looking to branch out of the super-short fauxhawk.
Click to expand...

I have a rounder face so I have to wear my hair up or messy so I don't look like a bowling ball. :(

Also, I went to an Asian hairdresser this past weekend (didn't want to wait for my regular one) and it was the worst mistake I've made in the past few months. Ended up taking a chunk of my hair out, and fixed my hair in the worst possible way. At least they didn't charge me, but I still look pretty gross with a really bad fauxhawk.
 
V

Valkerionseven

Member
backslashbunny said:
Lastly, it's also kinda funny how the "nerdy" culture (of comic books and video games) have so little Asian representation, when that's one of our biggest stereotypes. Like.. damn.
Click to expand...

I actually read a whole paper about this my last semester of college on accident lol. Was really interesting wish I could link it but... university databases and bs. Focused on 3 characters Hazmat, Amadeus Cho, and North Star and how they were an attempt to not be stereotypes and what not and how multiple writers can skew that view.

Anyway same thing on screen. Was pretty disappointed with the movie version of Big Hero 6, even animated you would be hard pressed to tell its supposed to be a Japanese super hero team.... that and they cut characters cause movie rights are bs. Loved it as a movie, hated it as a comic reader lol

Sunfire_%26_Big_Hero_6_No.1.jpg
 
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