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

Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
Rainy said:
I think there is definitely some type of tangible difference. The culture that we grow up in, or spend a lot of time in, influences our viewpoints, beliefs, and our understanding of the things around us. So when you drastically change the environment those things change along with it. I kinda get what your cousin was saying.
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I sort of... get where she's going too, but it's sort of makes me wonder about how we are perceived, in terms of the "Asian" part of our identity, that is. Like, maybe my self-perception of my Asianness (for lack of better words) is actually a bit off-mark and I'm not as ~Asian~ as I think I am, cuz when compared to Asians who still live in Asia, I dont quite cut it?

I think I'm phrasing this very badly, btw. Hope some semblance of my confusion got through somehow :x

robox said:
yes, verily.

i mentioned this before in this thread, that i find the differences between asian-asians and western-asians to be very interesting.
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Yes. I have to agreeeeeee. Tis quite a fascinating thought to mull over~
 
G

Gully State

Member
YesNOnoNOYes said:
So I was talking to my cousin, who does not live in Australia and then I suddenly realise the divide between AsianAsian (Asians who still live in Asia) and AsianEmigrated... Basically, cousin revealed that she doesn't think I'm really all that Asian, ... she phrased it not like realAsian vs fakeAsian, but more like.... she feels that we are very, very different and, in her words, "I dont think you can feel at home anymore if you move back and live in Asia."

And then I noticed that this thread is mostly full with Asians who are living in America/Canada/Australia, etc. and it piques my curiosity with regards to ... is there a lot of AsianGAF who are still living in Asia? I wanna hear your voice, yoooo

Do you guys think there's a huge difference between Asians who live in Asia and Asians who has moved away?
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Yes we are very different but I disagree with not being able to feel at home part. At least for me personally, whenever I travel back to Taiwan, I very much feel at home..
 
S

StMeph

Member
There are some pretty stark personal/behavioral differences as a result of the cultural difference in upbringing and surroundings.

That said, I don't necessarily agree with it not feeling like home.
 
E

Esch

Banned
Yeah, for sure there's a difference. I mean you get a taste of your 'home' culture whenever you're in your house and doing activities with your ethnic community but it's just not the same as being in your ethnic homeland. You're going to have different attitudes.
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
Gully State said:
Yes we are very different but I disagree with not being able to feel at home part. At least for me personally, whenever I travel back to Taiwan, I very much feel at home..
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I feel pretty homelike too whenever I go back to Japan for a visit but I think cousin is totally unconvinced that I could reintegrate for good. She said my values are just not quite the same anymore.

Idk. It was just an interesting convo. That sort of reveal, to me, how different I'm being regarded by my cousin... Haha. It doesn't ruffle my feathers or anything cuz I think there may be some truths to her perspectives. Just realizing that I'm probably not as Asian as I thought I was.


Edit: Welcome FallingEdge!!! :D

EditEdit: These choccy croissants are so yummy <333333 Btw, does any of your relatives go crazy for BreadTop/BreadTalk/Asian bakery shop???? My aunt gets craycray whenever we pass one, we HAVE to go in and buy stuff.... XD
 
G

Gully State

Member
YesNOnoNOYes said:
I feel pretty homelike too whenever I go back to Japan for a visit but I think cousin is totally unconvinced that I could reintegrate for good. She said my values are just not quite the same anymore.

Idk. It was just an interesting convo. That sort of reveal, to me, how different I'm being regarded by my cousin... Haha. It doesn't ruffle my feathers or anything cuz I think there may be some truths to her perspectives. Just realizing that I'm probably not as Asian as I thought I was.
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Well...those are slightly different things. As an Asian American, I've never felt integrated in general with everybody else due to my upbringing so reintegration or being accepted as "one of us insert ethnicity here people" isn't necessary for me to feel at home within a community.
 
F

FallingEdge

Member
Had some pork buns for lunch but I forgot to take a pic =/

Septimus Prime said:
Hey, I know you!

On topic: Korean food and Cuban food are both delicious.
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Septimus from SRK? If so, I know you too. Team Top Gun!

YesNOnoNOYes said:
I feel pretty homelike too whenever I go back to Japan for a visit but I think cousin is totally unconvinced that I could reintegrate for good. She said my values are just not quite the same anymore.

Idk. It was just an interesting convo. That sort of reveal, to me, how different I'm being regarded by my cousin... Haha. It doesn't ruffle my feathers or anything cuz I think there may be some truths to her perspectives. Just realizing that I'm probably not as Asian as I thought I was.


Edit: Welcome FallingEdge!!! :D

EditEdit: These choccy croissants are so yummy <333333 Btw, does any of your relatives go crazy for BreadTop/BreadTalk/Asian bakery shop???? My aunt gets craycray whenever we pass one, we HAVE to go in and buy stuff.... XD
Click to expand...

Hi <3
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
Gully State said:
Well...those are slightly different things. As an Asian American, I've never felt integrated in general with everybody else due to my upbringing so reintegration or being accepted as "one of us insert ethnicity here people" isn't necessary for me to feel at home within a community.
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Yaya. It isnt necessary for me either, that's why i feel homey whenever i go back and visit my family. But clearly, cousin's point is that she doesnt think I can actually live back there for good. And that's the line of demarkation...... for her.

..... I dont actually WANT to go back and live back home anyway, though. So. Her stance to me is neither here nor there. It speaks more volumes on what she thinks of me, instead of the feasibility of doing the thing that is talked about.
 
M

MissDeviling

Member
YesNOnoNOYes said:
I feel pretty homelike too whenever I go back to Japan for a visit but I think cousin is totally unconvinced that I could reintegrate for good. She said my values are just not quite the same anymore.

Idk. It was just an interesting convo. That sort of reveal, to me, how different I'm being regarded by my cousin... Haha. It doesn't ruffle my feathers or anything cuz I think there may be some truths to her perspectives. Just realizing that I'm probably not as Asian as I thought I was.
Click to expand...
It's interesting that westernized Asians tend to just refer to themselves as Asians and not something more specific. We tend to lump ourselves into this term that really doesn't mean anything, just as European doesn't really mean anything. It kind of irks me when I find myself using the term because it's so vague and kind of encourages others to see us as one homogeneous group, when we're really quite diverse.
 
S

Septimus Prime

Member
MissDeviling said:
It's interesting that westernized Asians tend to just refer to themselves as Asians and not something more specific. We tend to lump ourselves into this term that really doesn't mean anything, just as European doesn't really mean anything. It kind of irks me when I find myself using the term because it's so vague and kind of encourages others to see us as one homogeneous group, when we're really quite diverse.
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I remember when McD's rolled out a new ad campaign that targeted us. Aside from the various vaguely racist things on their website, one of the funniest things they had on there was something about "the Asian language."
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
MissDeviling said:
It's interesting that westernized Asians tend to just refer to themselves as Asians and not something more specific. We tend to lump ourselves into this term that really doesn't mean anything, just as European doesn't really mean anything. It kind of irks me when I find myself using the term because it's so vague and kind of encourages others to see us as one homogeneous group, when we're really quite diverse.
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aaaa yaya this is quite true :x

i think it's a subconscious thing for me. cuz one side of my family is cantonese and the other side is japanese, and it's just easier to say..............azn

im so lazy. pls forgive~ ;____;
 
G

Gully State

Member
MissDeviling said:
It's interesting that westernized Asians tend to just refer to themselves as Asians and not something more specific. We tend to lump ourselves into this term that really doesn't mean anything, just as European doesn't really mean anything. It kind of irks me when I find myself using the term because it's so vague and kind of encourages others to see us as one homogeneous group, when we're really quite diverse.
Click to expand...

I cringe a bit too when I call myself Asian from time to time...usually though it's appropriate given the context of the discussion (common Asian American experiences)

Of course I have to deal with the Taiwanese/Chinese thing...
 
R

robox

Member
western asians are definitely a hybrid of asian and western upbringing and becoming something that is doesn't quite fit neatly into either category. it's neither good nor bad, just up to you to deal with it. a lot of the bitching in this thread is due to that :p

as for moving back or to another country, there'll a whole lotta factors.

taking yesno and japan as an example, in general, i think you'd be able to live there (mainly because i believe japan is easy mode for living abroad.) there'll be some adjustment but you may find things that feel weird or off whereas natives take it as a given.

now china, my ethnic origin, is a different story, and i myself could not see myself living there long term. it has been, and still is, very closed off to rest of the world world, and only slowly opening up. the culture shock would be pretty big. as the people there get richer, they're on their own unique cultural trajectory. plus septic systems are not what i'm used to. buuuuut it depends on the individual. hong kong i can deal with, but way too intensely urban. taipei was a happy medium. (i shall visit korea and se asia, maybe hopefully next year)

but for me, i only have 1 place i really call home. even moving from canada to us, i still can't say i can/want settle in the us.
 
Y

y2dvd

Member
I find it weird to be categorized or want to be categorized tbh. I'm just me. If someone ask me where I'm from, I'll say I was born in Houston. Sometimes they are surprised that I don't act "asian" and I'll joke that I've been americanized, but it gets annoying.
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
MissDeviling said:
It's interesting that westernized Asians tend to just refer to themselves as Asians and not something more specific. We tend to lump ourselves into this term that really doesn't mean anything, just as European doesn't really mean anything. It kind of irks me when I find myself using the term because it's so vague and kind of encourages others to see us as one homogeneous group, when we're really quite diverse.
Click to expand...

Just like the title of this thread.

I use Asia and Asian as a geographical term
 
S

Seductivpancakes

Member
Asian GAF I'm at a Chinese banquet right now. There's extremely loud karaoke and boring.

Have you guys pretended to be wolverine with your chop sticks when you were young?
 
A

A Pretty Panda

fuckin' called it, man
MissDeviling said:
What on earth

Next you'll tell me u pretended to be Goku by doing the Kamehameha motion while showering... My sister told me she was guilty of this
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I don't see how the two relate. Now if she said she was screaming in the shower like she was going super saiyan in the rain or something, that would make sense.
 
S

Seductivpancakes

Member
Cow Mengde said:
Eat slowly then. Eat like you're enjoying every morsel of food. That last sentence though is so like my family. Are you sure we're not related?
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Haha I'm was so sure a lot of Chinese families do that.

I don't think anyone could have enjoyed their meals slowly. There' was like 40 tables with different families and the waiters was bringing out the next dish as fast as they could.
 
M

Mr. Wedgewood

Member
y2dvd said:
I find it weird to be categorized or want to be categorized tbh. I'm just me. If someone ask me where I'm from, I'll say I was born in Houston. Sometimes they are surprised that I don't act "asian" and I'll joke that I've been americanized, but it gets annoying.
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Same here. Every week somebody mention my ethnic background, good or bad.

It really feels like people other than me care that I'm filipino. I recently got a comment, "thats your type of girl, she's filipino."

Ontop of that I get judged because I'm a male with long hair.
 
C

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
Seductivpancakes said:
Asian GAF I'm at a Chinese banquet right now. There's extremely loud karaoke and boring.

Have you guys pretended to be wolverine with your chop sticks when you were young?
Click to expand...

Wait, there's a possibility that people didn't pretend to be wolverine with chop sticks? I'm Indian and even I pretended to be Wolverine whenever I used chopsticks.
 
R

Rice-Eater

Member
MissDeviling said:
It's interesting that westernized Asians tend to just refer to themselves as Asians and not something more specific. We tend to lump ourselves into this term that really doesn't mean anything, just as European doesn't really mean anything. It kind of irks me when I find myself using the term because it's so vague and kind of encourages others to see us as one homogeneous group, when we're really quite diverse.
Click to expand...

For me I always it was about strength in numbers. I don't want to get into every other Western nation, but in the US we're a small minority group when you count all of us together. Count us individually by ethnicity and we're even tinier. Kind of hard to only have a Japanese American or a Laotian American hero to look up to. It's easier just to look up to Steven Yuen from the Walking Dead and claim him as one of my own as a Asian rather than look at him as only a Korean and have nobody to look up to because no one has "made it" from my specific group.

Asians from Asia don't have to worry about stuff like this. You're surrounded by millions of people who look and speak just like yourselves. You see your own kind actually get jobs in the movie and music industry and everything else. And yeah, it's very obvious why that is. We're not in the same boat and look to each other sometimes for inspiration and aid. I remember growing up rooting for Michael Chang despite not being Chinese or even caring about Tennis. This is just my personal opinion though, don't mean to sound like I'm speaking for everybody.
 
S

Szu

Member
FallingEdge said:
Cool. Didn't know that this thread existed. Only a half breed here. Korean/Cuban
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you-walked-into-the-wrong-neighborhood.jpg
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
Rice-Eater said:
For me I always it was about strength in numbers. I don't want to get into every other Western nation, but in the US we're a small minority group when you count all of us together. Count us individually by ethnicity and we're even tinier. Kind of hard to only have a Japanese American or a Laotian American hero to look up to. It's easier just to look up to Steven Yuen from the Walking Dead and claim him as one of my own as a Asian rather than look at him as only a Korean and have nobody to look up to because no one has "made it" from my specific group.

Asians from Asia don't have to worry about stuff like this. You're surrounded by millions of people who look and speak just like yourselves. You see your own kind actually get jobs in the movie and music industry and everything else. And yeah, it's very obvious why that is. We're not in the same boat and look to each other sometimes for inspiration and aid. I remember growing up rooting for Michael Chang despite not being Chinese or even caring about Tennis. This is just my personal opinion though, don't mean to sound like I'm speaking for everybody.
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I can understand where you're coming from, for sure *nodsnods*



And I didnt click on that Chinese people cant queue thread. Seems silly. IDK. Yellow on yellow hate eh. What sillies we are.
 
C

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
Rice-Eater said:
For me I always it was about strength in numbers. I don't want to get into every other Western nation, but in the US we're a small minority group when you count all of us together. Count us individually by ethnicity and we're even tinier. Kind of hard to only have a Japanese American or a Laotian American hero to look up to. It's easier just to look up to Steven Yuen from the Walking Dead and claim him as one of my own as a Asian rather than look at him as only a Korean and have nobody to look up to because no one has "made it" from my specific group.

Asians from Asia don't have to worry about stuff like this. You're surrounded by millions of people who look and speak just like yourselves. You see your own kind actually get jobs in the movie and music industry and everything else. And yeah, it's very obvious why that is. We're not in the same boat and look to each other sometimes for inspiration and aid. I remember growing up rooting for Michael Chang despite not being Chinese or even caring about Tennis. This is just my personal opinion though, don't mean to sound like I'm speaking for everybody.
Click to expand...

LOL, I remember rooting for Michael Chang even though I'm Indian (was a tennis player into HS). Beggars can't be choosers, as it were.
 
C

CapNBritain

Member
Gully State said:
I was just thinking that as well...although judging by the thread, there's a lot of yellow on yellow hate there too.
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Rice-Eater said:
For me I always it was about strength in numbers. I don't want to get into every other Western nation, but in the US we're a small minority group when you count all of us together. Count us individually by ethnicity and we're even tinier. Kind of hard to only have a Japanese American or a Laotian American hero to look up to. It's easier just to look up to Steven Yuen from the Walking Dead and claim him as one of my own as a Asian rather than look at him as only a Korean and have nobody to look up to because no one has "made it" from my specific group.

Asians from Asia don't have to worry about stuff like this. You're surrounded by millions of people who look and speak just like yourselves. You see your own kind actually get jobs in the movie and music industry and everything else. And yeah, it's very obvious why that is. We're not in the same boat and look to each other sometimes for inspiration and aid. I remember growing up rooting for Michael Chang despite not being Chinese or even caring about Tennis. This is just my personal opinion though, don't mean to sound like I'm speaking for everybody.
Click to expand...

The all Asians are ASIAN thing is a very interesting concept that really only exists in the Western world. In Asia, I think the divisions are so pronounced that people would be confused by the concept of yellow hating yellow. It'd be like pointing out when a British person criticizes a French person white on white hate.

While the banding together thing sounds plausible, I wonder if the Asian lumping wasn't something Asians came up with on their own, but one that non-Asians forced them into. If anything, I feel like most Asians in America would like to band together as Americans, and it's the non-Asian Americans that are instead lumping us all together as Asian.

YesNOnoNOYes said:
I can understand where you're coming from, for sure *nodsnods*



And I didnt click on that Chinese people cant queue thread. Seems silly. IDK. Yellow on yellow hate eh. What sillies we are.
Click to expand...

I have never experienced any of the abhorrent behavior attributed to mainland Chinese tourists in that thread, but I don't think that the posters there are simply being racist. Insensitive, yea. At least in that they could spend a few more sentences making it clear that they don't think that all Chinese people are savages. I just think they are pointing out a common behavior among a group of people and relating their experiences.

Of course, that's me giving them the benefit of the doubt. Phrases like "fucking mainlanders" definitely make me wince.
 
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