HI! Ok this topic might sound a bit odd and sorry if it offends anyone. I hope it doesn't do that.... But I notice that since Asians are becoming more united and everyone is hanging out, solidarity I guess, day by day, etc.... could an Asian person be able to become another kind of Asian? Do you know what I mean?? Like let's say you are born into a Vietnamese American family or whatever, after growing up for however many years, and hanging with Chinese, and learning more about Chinese, and then after a long thought about it... is it ok for you to become a Chinese identity? Or lets say you are from a Filipino family, can you become Japanese? A Lao becoming Thai, a Japanese becoming Korean, or whatever... It doesn't mean that you ever forget where you came from, or your family or anything, but it is just that you really feel like you fit in more with another Asian group. Like you are a Korean trapped in a Chinese body or something. After all, we're all Asian anyways, right? :

This is a difficult question. I believe that someone could become part of another culture. If I were to move to South Africa, live there for a long time, adapt a lot of the local customs, and relinquish my old culture(s), then yes I could become culturally South African. Then, I would identify more with South Africans. However, that does not change my ethnicity. Some people would judge me solely on my ethnicity and never accept that I am a member of their community.

I believe that one could become culturally the same as some other ethnicity, but that doesn't change ones genealogy.

I'd say that culturally, we AA's are becoming somewhat similar to each other, and the beginnings of a sort of Pan-Asian-American subculture is starting to form. It is still in the infancy stages, largely because many AA's are either immigrants or only first generation born here. Therefore, the cultural and emotional ties to the "old country" are still very strong - many Corean-Americans more strongly identify with Coreans in Corea, and it is true also for Vietnamese-Americans, Cambodian-Americans, et al.

However, on the basis that in terms of overall apperance, there is much similarity between the various nationalities of East Asia, as the generations go on, and more and more inter-Asian-American marriage takes place, I believe you'll see us begin to merge into a more nebulous "pan-asian" identity. It's already happened to the majority of whites in this country. Most American whites have roots from all over Europe, and I believe, in a few generations, this will be true of AA's as well.

SomekindaAsian

LOL you're too funny for words. I have thoughts on this, but I can't devote the time to respond with anything but a dash because I gotta go, but I'll give you my thoughts when I get a chance...

heheheehe still giggling about this supject...too funny for words.

OK...I only have one thought on this subject.

1. What's the difference between a Chinese and a Korean? Answer. Nothing, if he's an Asian American. (substitute Chinese for another country and Korean for another country and the answer would be the same).

Sure, you can start to think Chinese a bit if you immerse yourself in the culture, but that's just like...hmmm...immersing yourself in the French culture if you are in the midst of learniing French. You have to, in order to become fluent. But as far as culture is concerned, if you're a Vietnamese, and you immerse yourself in the Chinese culture, the difference is minimal. I mean, it's so close already, there's not much to assimmilate. We eat the same stuff, do the same things, and think the same thoughts. The only difference is we speak different languages.

So freakin what?

I was immersing myself in the Chinese culture because I wanted to learn the language, but at the end of the day, when I close my eyes to go to sleep, I'm still who I am..and proud to remain that way. We are all fluent in English...does that mean we want to become Englishmen? Hardly.

Asians groups are basically alike but with a lot of differences in my opinion. But I am curious about something.

What if another individual (asian or non-asian) mistakes an asian for another asian of different descent (example: a korean mistaken for a japanese). Would it be right for the Korean person to get upset? Or is there any reason for him/her to get mad?

I just want to get your opinion on this, folks.

One more thing on this...

You are what you think. If you feel a closer bond to one group, by all means, identify with it. Women have been doing this for centuries! We have to identify with our men's cultures because our children will have to be part of his 'clan' and the only way for them to be accepted wholeheartedly is for us women to feel as if we are a part of the group.

Just wanted to share that perspective on the women's side, just in case you guys hadn't thought of that, because guess what, if I married a Korean, my children will have to identify with that group...same with Japanese, or Chinese, or Vietnamese....although it wouldn't take any effort on my part if it was a Vietnamese man....

XXX,

QUOTE

What if another individual (asian or non-asian) mistakes an asian for another asian of different descent (example: a korean mistaken for a japanese). Would it be right for the Korean person to get upset? Or is there any reason for him/her to get mad?

I guess it depends on the situation. I know New Zealanders who hate being identified as "Australian" even though they are so similar ethnically and even in terms of their accents, that anyone who is a non Kiwi or Aussie would be hard-pressed to tell them apart. Same for say, Greeks who don't like being lumped in with Italians despite rather similar appearance. My opinion would be that if the mistake was made honestly, with honest ignorance, it would be best to gently instruct the "offender" as to your true ethnicity/nationality. Heck, with my complexion, I've been mistaken for Chinese by whites, Mexican by Chinese, and, well, the Mexicans always just called me "chino" which I guess means Chinese - but to them, all Asian-looking people are "chinos."

Thanks MLK! I really like what you said when you said:

"You are what you think. If you feel a closer bond to one group, by all means, identify with it."

I am of a Filipino-Thai American background, but I feel more Japanese than anything else. Its not only that I look physically more NE Asian Japanese than a SE Asian Fil-Thai, but I also feel more similar to the Japanese culture. Ive always had Japanese friends and kinda grew up with the culture when they included me in Japanese events. When I lived in Japan a few years, I realized I was really home. I believe home is where the heart is. I havent forgotten about my family past and the Filipino and Thai history, but I really feel most at home in Japanese culture. Although if people ask me to specify my Asian ethnic background I say that my family is Thai Filipino but Im Japanese. I just leave it at that. Some people wonder and may think Im adopted or something. But I dont care. I know some people might think this is dishonest since I wasnt born as "Japanese", but I think it is the most truthful thing that really describes who I am. Those people who think of identity in a rigid way may disagree, but I dont agree with them. I honestly am what I honestly think. Honto ni arigato MLK!

Establishing identity is tough. and i guess its always been tough. Most of the time people identify with what ever their parents tell them. Me? I had to find my identity as well. Since i went to schools with mostly a white population I identified with white culture when i was very young (with exception of when i would see my relatives).

Searching for my identity was tough because as i grew older and some of those white people began to see me as more of a threat, I began to be confronted with my blackness. i mean when you grow up in america and you see white people on tv, and the music you listen to is identified with white people and the movie stars you see doing the things youd like to do (have cars, zoom around and save the world) you begin to get mixed up.

Highschool was when i was directly confronted with my skin color. Especially when i was in the lunchroom. it's like self segregation was in mass effect. The white people took the tables on the left hand sid of the lunch room in the back. The blacks took the tables on the right hand section in the back. The asians took the tables on the left hand side in the front, The hispanics took the middle tables in the front.
And the rejects, nerds, and everyone left over took the tablesin the front of the lunch room on th right.

i was part of the group left over. As a black kid i wasn't sure what the protocol was.
i went to an all male school and there were all these unwritten rules. it was kind of like prison where you dont know the rules until you break them and someone knocks you out because of it. after a few weeks i knew that the black students didnt like me or accept me. i mean heck, i went to a hippy run middle school where everyone hugged each other before highschool. i wasn't all tough and hard core.

The whites didnt accept me except as a stereotype. many times white kids would run up to me and ask me to rap or what the latest information on a rap group was. i was like, " Am I wearing a shirt saying all time black representative or i work for MTV?"

The administration of my highschool, which was all white, i think tried their best to intergrate the students although they jsut didn't know how to do it. No one on the staff wanted to step forward and take any initiative to make changes and get rid of the stereotypes. In fact, i think some staff encouraged the segregation on campus.
My guidance counselor (if you want to call him that) was absolutely no help. Everything, and i mean everything from finding about information to colleges to bettering my studies, I did on my own. And he always told me to just go to the B.Y.C when i would tell him about what i was going through. B.Y.C stands for the black youth club. Which was full of the guys who hated me. So, i wasn;t going to go there.

Eventurally I settled on hanging around with the outcasts. That was a multiracial group. i was black, Tim was white, Romeo was mexican, and Pat was Chinese.
And because we all chose to hang togther everyone jumped all over us. But we didnt let that push us apart. We were freinds. If anything all the adversity brought us closer together. but one thing was for sure, i was beginning to wake up and realize that my skin color was going to be a factor in almost every element of my existence.

When i got to college i admit that i was a bit ovely sensative. I wasn;t sure who to identify with. My freinds ffrom highschool had sort of gone their own way and I went mine. And with college comes a whole other level of racial harmonics (I learned that term in a politics class, nifty huh?) I guess you could say i was a cornecopia of everything and everyone around me. I didnt make one connection in college. When i tried I just couldn't get over the feeling that i was working harder to get to know them than they would get to know me. it was like i was expendable unless i was on a sports team making money for the school.

i was in college purely on academics. So, I filled my time with studies, bodybuilding,
watching movies. After awhile i jsut stopped trying to get to know anyone.

i graduated and went out into the real world. I had already worked my way through college so i wasn't some peice of meat in a pool of piranna. I had now embraced my blackness. i wasn't to outspoken just yet. my outspokeness came when i entered graduate school and was just fed up with the silence. I was fed up with my silence and the silence of those around me. Ever get that feeling?

Ever have that experience where you walk into a classroom and everyone is talking
(most of the people are white). you enter the room and then everyone shuts up.
I started realizing that people were afraid fo me for some reason. No matter what I said people were afraid of me. All that negative energy i attracted in highschool, all that apprehensivness i encoutered in college, and the silence that was deafening in grad school was from fear.

I dont consider myself a generally scary person. but when i saw this and identified it i used it. Not in a negative way. That would hav jsut made me a jerk. When i say i used it I mean I internally took all that fear int he people around me and used it to give me strength. And once i had that strength i started working on me. I wasn't going to change who i was. What i planned on doing was getting to know who i was as a black man. And to do that, and with my new found strength, i became more outspoken. I was the one in class who brought up the uncomfortable subjects in class. i was the first (in this class) to discuss issues like racial bias int he media, self segregation, gender politics.

And when i did, and when i started getting some conversations going i started learning about other people. i started learning that peoples silence wasn't always because of my skin color or because of me. i learned that some people where jsut as shy as me, especially on that first day.

What can i say about present day? i still encounter racists especially since i am an adult black male. I take negativity and try to turn it into positivity. i know alot more about who i am and that has given me feeling of acceptance. i am a black man, but i dont use my skin color to handicap me or to determine who I should hang out with or what music i should listen to.

learning about me wasn't a smooth process, but i guess its never a smooth process for anyone.

Yeah, I also dream of waking up Korean or Japanese.

Korean and Japanese people must get better Hamburger patties at McDonald. White American never look down on Korean or Japanese American.

Who made up this topic

switchin ethnicities is impossible... switching culture is do able though