Comparing Asian Nationalities | Asian American Poll

COMPARING ASIAN NATIONALITIES
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:21:01 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

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WHAT YOU SAY

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AZN Realist,

There is nothing wrong with telling the truth, as most truth is based on one's own perception.

I'm hesitant to engage you in a conversation regarding your country, because quite honestly I don't know much about Malaysia. I do know I'm part Chinese. I've also been a victim of racism, in this country, because I look chinese and sometimes because I'm not chinese looking enough.

I've had slow service in restaurants many times. In college up in the mainland, I went to an american restaurant with my girlfriend and some of her friends. My girlfriend at the time was Navajo. We had a Japanese student with us too. One girl was Samoan. The others were Navajo. After we were seated, three other groups came in after us and were served their meals before anyone came to take our order, I lost it. I had a very bad temper when I was younger, something I now work on all the time. I told my girlfriend and her friends to go outside. As they were leaving I up ended the table. I walked up to the hostess and told her to get the manager. As much as I wanted to hit him for what happened to us, I didn't. I just yelled at him and let him know how I felt. I was so angry that night, I punch some holes in the dry wall at the dorms.

I'm from Hawaii. On Kauai, I was with one of my older sisters one morning. We stopped by a McD's for breakfast. We sat down to eat, and she opened her coffee to stir cream into it. Before she put the cream in, she saw something funny. She put the mixing stick in and fished out a thick substance, which I felt very strongly was spit. I went ape sh*t. I ran behind the counter, but the filipino guy who did it saw me coming. He tried to run out the back door, and I caught him and started beating him, before an older Hawaiian man stopped me from doing worse. The manager gave us free meal coupons, and they never called the police.

I've lived in the mainland as a child because my dad was a military man. We lived in virginia when I was twelve. The schools there are enclosed structures, and there are so many students we had three different lunch periods. I have always had yellowish light skin and slant eyes, but I was always big for my age(probably the Hawaiian and Irish in me). One day after my lunch period, I was standing on a stack of books looking down the hall trying to see if I could see my friend walking into the cafeteria. A white stoner kid, everyone knew because he was kept back a few times, looked at me and said, "Damn you're the tallest chinc I ever did see." He laughed and walked away with his stoner friends. My best friend at that time was filipino. I told him what happened and how I was angry and a little scared. We saw that guy around the halls a few times, then one day my friend and I walked into a restroom and saw that stoner kid by himself. The two of us jumped him. It was the first time I really beat the crap out of some one. I never gave him the opportunity to catch me alone after that. I guess he felt ashamed for getting jumped by two twelve year olds, because he never told the principal who beat him. Everyone assumed it was one of the black kids. He lived in a completely different neighborhood, because we were both bussed into school. My filipino friend had an older brother kids called Bruce(Lee), because he was well known among the kids for his martial arts and his fighting ability. So the stoner kid never really messed around with him.

Racism is everywhere, and I'm sure everyone that comes here has a story of it. I just don't think we should fuel it or perpetuate it.

To be honest I have friends of all ethnicities, even white and black friends. A lot of people in Hawaii feel whites brought nothing but trouble to Hawaii. There is an undercurrent of racism against whites and blacks in Hawaii, mostly against whites. There is a lot of anger and hurt, much like the Native Americans. When I was in highschool, a friend and I were hanging out one night. I can't remember why, but we got ourselves all worked up about the haoles. We drove to a resort that had a popular night club among tourists. The first white guy I saw, I jumped out of the car, false cracked him, and he dropped. The guy must have been in his thirties. I just kept punching him, and screaming stuff about how the haoles killed our ancestors, stoled our land, and tried to kill our culture. The lady he was with started yelling hysterically. Some other locals in the parking lot saw me drop the guy, and started running over yelling at me to stop. My friend drove to the entrance of the parking lot and slowed down. I took off running, caught up to my friend, I dove into the window, and we took off. The guy wasn't too badly hurt, more shook up than anything else.

I'm not like that anymore.

Would it be the truth for the that man to say locals in Hawaii are barbaric and racist? It would be his truth.

But most people would find that majority of the people in Hawaii are very nice.

I'm married now to a wonderful woman from mainland China. We've travelled to other countries together. It was only when travelling with her that I realized how much asian cultures really treat chinese badly. I'm not saying the chinese don't treat others badly, because she is quick to point out there are good and bad people in any culture even in China. We shouldn't judge the whole from an encounter with one or a few.

I found Goldsea by accident two weeks ago. I was looking for some information about some friends of mine, and strangely enough some one posted something about athletes with their names in it. That posting lead to a hyperlink to Goldsea. I told myself I wouldn't post anything, because I really didn't want to get into it with anyone.

Just for the record. I've had some chinese people in Chinatown on Oahu, discriminate against me too. My cousin speaks manderin, and he said the people serving us were talking about us being too big to be chinese, we must be the offspring of a dog who found an american husband. The whole time smiling at us and serving us. I wouldn't have known if he didn't tell me. We are both chinese hawaiian. We are both over six feet, he being six six. I guess because we are part chinese, we just laughed it off, and never told them he knew what they were saying until we left the restaurant. He said something like "Uncle and Auntie the food was good and we enjoyed the service. Thank you. We are haka chinese if you were wondering." in manderin to them, and they got embarassed. We even bowed to them, and left.

Take care AZN Realist.
Sincerely

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Planky,

If you are living in america, then you would know first hand that history books don't reveal the whole truth. Most history books are eurocentric, and leave out a lot of contributions from other ethnicities.

I took a black history class in college, the teacher was great. He had us read books written by revisionist authors and some traditional eurocentric books. We had both white and black students who dropped the class because they didn't like it when the teacher, who was black, told them that neither set told the whole truth, and as human beings we were blessed with a mind that enables us to process information and judge for ourselves what is truth.

One example regarding information in books is the controversy over the recently approved history books in Japan. According to the Chinese and the Coreans, there is not enough truth about what happened to other asian countries at the hands of the Japanese army.

It's a good idea to read up on something, but keep in mind who wrote it and what influences the author was under. I think generally speaking asking people about their culture is more fruitful. Not to mention, it gives you a better sense of the person's mind set.

A hui hou.

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Many years ago an artist drew a picture and called it "Wife and Mother-in-Law". It is a very good example of perception.

If you type "Wife and Mother in law" into any search engine, I'm sure you'll find a link to a sample of it.

"Beauty is in the eyes of he beholder."

The true beauty is within, and awaits those who prove worthy of it.

Xie Xie Thursday, May 16, 2002 at 02:02:50 (PDT)

eddy what are you talking about no asian language, tagalog almost sounds like chinese to me

ji,

southern chinese are not malays, actually southern chinese dont even look like malays, ive heard alot of chinese say southern chinese are malays, that is very untrue.
white MAN observing Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 23:21:53 (PDT)

what about the theory that chinese have thick hair. my is pretty thick and puffy at times.
Mr. Hann Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 21:30:45 (PDT)

a Mutt:

this eyebrow thing also work for japanese and koreans i think.

Barry Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 18:52:56 (PDT)

I doubt the eyebrow test is even close to being accurate. It's just a test created for fun. It's just another chinese story.

Ok, my mom has curved eyebrows, and my dad the same. But my eyebrows are straight! So how did I become more Han then both of my parents? They, being the generation ahead of mine, should be more pure then i am.

It's false
Chinese Stories Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 18:31:14 (PDT)

a Mutt,

I can tell you are a guangdong person... We northerners always laughed at everyone south of us because of your flat noses and faces. The north chinese (mandarin) have longer faces, much longer than caucasians i have seen! And cantonese have long limbs? Hehe....

chacha Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 16:43:00 (PDT)

To, a mutt;

Hmmm, well in historical annals the Yueh has been described to have been beautiful and different. They weren't considered Han in anyway, and lived in the areas of where SouthEast China is today before they were invaded by the Han and moved down to where vietnam is today having the Kinh (viet) being their purest descendents. Many of the Yueh people stayed and possibly mixed with the Han, they should have been a majority (guessing here, but the Han could have been a majority) and if so their traits could have been passed down more powerfully. If this is true then the more prominent nose and more forward face could have been past down by these people. Even today many people say that the vietnamese look very similar to the people of SouthEastern China.

But also if this is true then the chinese there are more vietnamese then the vietnamese are more chinese (hmmm, this is getting a bit confusing now...hehehe). Oh well, well that's what i'm suggesting, as in the annals it has stated that the Yueh has lived in the areas of Southern and SouthEastern China and even being called native or aborigines to those areas, meaning they were there first. So it is possible that those traits were passed down by them. Also explains the stunning similarity, but slit difference. Similarities set by the common ancestor the Yueh, and differences set by the ancestor that set eachother apart the Han.

a travellers view Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 14:47:59 (PDT)

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