Comparing Asian Nationalities | Asian American Poll

COMPARING ASIAN NATIONALITIES
(Updated Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 04:39:09 AM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

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WHAT YOU SAY

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Rivalry among the Chinese,

I agree, but wouldn't it be ridiculous if the younger American-born generations of future Chinese would continue to see themselves from what province of dialect group they came from first, other than seeing themselves as Chinese-American or Asian-American first?

I mean, the younger generations would not be able to speak much Chinese, let alone relate to anything as pertaining to China or the regions of their ancestors.

Many Toisan people only have fanciful dreams of their homeland (Tang-san, "homeland of the Tang people"). Many of my uncles have never even been there in their entire life, yet we only hear the old folks speak of it with nostalgia.

This Chinese divisiveness is so much like the Italians in America. The northern originated Italians also look down on southern originated Italians and vice versa. But, with time, the younger generations now only see themselves as Italian-Americans.

San Francisco and L.A. Chinatowns are dying. You hardly find any real Toisan folk there now. Last time, I went to one, most of the people in the streets were not speaking Toisan. I heard Cantonese, Vietnamese, Chaozhou, Mandarin, etc. The old time Toisan folk are dying out and their grandkids want to have nothing to do with the Chinatowns. We can't relate with it no more. We just go to church there, eat there once a month and visit the nearby graveyard in a Mexican neighborhood, oversee the opening of a museum not far from the same railroads that our ancestors built with their dedication, blood and memories. Our connection to the Chinese immigrant experience is fading, while our connection to Chinese culture is largely symbolic. Assimilation and acculturation cannot be avoided. It takes its toll on any group.

I would like to relate with the other newcomer Chinese, but find it hard to due to all these rivalries. Maybe my kids and your kids will someday only see themselves as Chinese-Americans first and nothing else?

Now, it is just too confusing.
look back to the glorious Tang Dynasty Wednesday, February 27, 2002 at 00:12:10 (PST)

Rivalry among the Chinese:
I don't know about the situation in Korea (aside from a bit about vocabulary differences between North and South Korea), but in Japan, up until about 120 years ago, regional dialects were still a big enough problem (i.e., Shikoku dialect) to impede communication, sometimes requiring chains of 2 interpreters. Then the Ministry of Education was established and started drilling Tokyo dialect into everyone's heads as proper, academic Japanese. With that (and strong central government in general knocking down trade barriers inside the country) came significant reduction in regional-based hostilities (aside from the fact that everyone outside Tokyo hates the Giants). So I think, if the educational system in China improves, and the central government actually enforces free trade rules and cracks down on provincial officials trying to impose their own illegal tariffs, everyone comes to speak better and better Mandarin, travel around more, get a more diverse geographic distribution in regional universities, etc., we'll find the regional hostilities start to ease up a bit.

Think about it:
America has roughly the same land area as China and the people are more spread out, so by your theory should expect even worse regionalism ... and as I pointed out above, Japan also has regional dialects which used to severely impede communication, until they started to die out (but they are still alive enough to confuse the hell outta foreign students who end up in universities outside of the Tokyo area).
T.H. Lien Tuesday, February 26, 2002 at 23:24:33 (PST)

i dont look any different than the rest of you,

That's only a very small population on Taiwan that don't believe they are Chinese and are of Chinese Heritage.

The vast majority still know they are ethnically Chinese.

The rest is really politics. You can read the Taiwan forum on this site to get more insight.

AC dropout Tuesday, February 26, 2002 at 14:55:29 (PST)

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