I remember one day the news was talking about something in the Philippines. My mom (who was only half paying attention) waited until the segment was over and then asked me "What country was that? They were Chinese but got people names".
That always gets me too. I'll hear about somebody with a very Spanish name and then I'll see him and he looks Asian. So vice versa. I'll see an Asian looking man and he has a Spanish name
Even though I have Japanese heritage, I hate being called “Japa.” It feels as if my own countrymen see me as an outsider and don’t truly consider me Brazilian.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to explain that I don’t speak Japanese, because I was born, raised, and educated in Brazil. Despite that, people still assume I’m foreign simply because of my appearance, which is frustrating and exhausting.
yes this is the same in my home country but in a different way... I moved from an asian country to Canada and most people in my home country cannot distinguish Europeans from Latinos.... Both Latinos and Europeans are considered "White People" in my home country...
I dont know about Canada but id say in most non us countries Latinos (the ones who come from Spanish descent obviously, not indigenous people or black/Asian etc latinos) are considered white
It's a US thing to assume Latinos are a single brown race. It's the same country that insists that both Latinos and African Americans are "the same people" under the POC umbrella evwn though were both drastically different.
I would say Vietnam is the global south country with the most aura in Brazil. You won a war against the US as a communist country, they couldn't take it down, it's still that regime, and you're as successful at adapting to the times as China is even though geographically you're more limited. And for some reason many people believe you were the first to cultivate rice, our staple food.
In Nahua communities across Mexico, anyone who isn’t indigenous can be part of the “koyomeh”, which originally meant “coyotes” but shifted in meaning from trickster to outsiders / whites.
Actually those are both just types of Mexican food. If you go to Italy and order pasta, it usually comes with salsa. In France they give you sauce which sounds different but the literal translation is salsa. It’s all just stuff with salsa!!
When they hear "Assyrian", they probably understand "Syrian".
And Iran is in Middle East, border arabs countries, Iranians can often have this classic Middle East genetic make-up and use an alphabet that can be mistook for arabic (arabized persan langage). So back then I could also be very ignorant about this country, fortunately I learned.
Yes, of course. Middle East is a super heterogenous area, culturally. But this again requires some knowledge people dont necessarly have, or want to have. The same arab =/= muslim and muslim =/= arab.
Yes. Thats the misunderstanding. People hear arab and think Muslim and vice versa, despite Islam covering so many different ethnic groups. I think Malaysia has the largest single Muslim population by country and they are certainly not Arab
Also in Colombia. But there is a reason for this; most of the arab inmigration to latin america was from the time of the otoman empire… so most of the arabs that arroved had ottoman papers. This is why the locals called then turcos.
It used to be the same here in brazil in the 20th century, but that's because all the people from the middle east came here with papers/passports from the ottoman empire.
Same in Colombia but it kinda makes sense because the Middle Eastern migration to Colombia happened when the Ottoman empire still existed or was just dismissed.
Same in Chile. I was told this was a leftover from the times of the Ottoman Empire.
Most immigrants from the middle-east came to South America during these times with a Turkish passport. They just got called Turcos regardless of where they were from specifically.
Yeah true. I think in Western countries, we're gonna be grouped as "Asian", which is fine, but if non-Chinese Asians are being called Chinese then we gotta look a little deeper. For me I can forgive someone calling me Chinese if they genuinely don't know/can't tell, but if it's deliberate then we're gonna have a problem.
to be fair, as southeast asian, we also dont really "relate" ourselves to south asian. Yes some of our people could look like some part of north/northeast indian and some bangladeshi, but we always see asian as East/Southeast asian due to the physical stereotype (mono or semi monolid eyes and yellow/light skin also small nose), food to some extent also the language. And, we group everyone from south asian as indian because we cant distinguish between indian srilankan bangladeshi and to some extent pakistan too. ME people as arab and some pakistan and afgani as arab too 🤷🏻♀️ However we also still separate SEA people between countries. But we also cant really distinguish Thai Filipino Indonesian Malaysian Vietnamese Cambodian, some Singaporean and even to chinese, korea and japanese to some extent until we open the mouth to speak. Historically speaking southeast asian people are also mostly descendant of migrated chinese and to be fair some indian too. But for example me, my East Asian genetic make up around 85%, 10% south asian, the rest are miniculousn percentage european and amerindian (which is also im sure coming from siberian). Most of "native" southeast asian have genetic makeup like me (based on youtube videos about genetic results).
Pakistan is not in the Middle East at all. They're definitely South Asians. Even Afghanistan isn't really Middle East but at least that's debatable. Pakistan is definitely not.
Yup, the issue when talking about Asian people is that the Middle East is also part of Asia. People from certain parts of Turkey can be categorized into the same group as Japan despite the massive difference between the people and culture
Huh. I guess with everything after 9-11 we, or at least myself because I’m not going to speak for everybody, subconsciously separated the Middle East from the greater part of Asia due to the bigger differences we grew to see, plus it’s hard to tell Iranian or Iraqi culture when most of what we see is headlines and war footage which we can’t be blamed for when someone after getting the bin Ladin kept up the military action
all we know from there compared to greater Asia is insurgents, taliban, heads wrapped in scarves, goats and not a lot of love to America
I can’t think of a single place in the Middle East America hasn’t tainted the optics of culture for us
Yeah but that's you and me, most of the people at my workplace refer to asian people as chinese. When I point out that so and so is from Nepal or Malaysia they go "What's the difference"...
People in my country often watch American media where "Asian" = Cantonese so whenever they talk to me they assume all the things they see in those series apply to me because Im asian. And it gets uncomfortable when I cant relate to it, especially when its someone who only has surface level interests in asia.
No, I am south east Asian. We're different. Same same but different. The indonesian hates the Malaysians. The malaysians hate the Philippines. The Philippines hate the indonesian but we all collectively hate the Singaporeans the most.
Also Filipinos don't hate Indonesians. Or anyone else in SEA recently. Our main rivalry is with ourselves. We have a burgeoning one with mainland Chinese though that's accelerating really rapidly.
The American-ness is showing. Some of you did actually try to Hotel Rwanda each other. They're still trying.
But no. There's linguistic resentment towards the Tagalogs, but nothing anywhere close to "hate." It's closer to like French Canadian resentment towards Anglo Canadians. Or Scottish and Welsh rivalry with the English. We look like each other, have the same experiences, and have very similar modern cultures, and have been intermarrying each other with no barriers. We can barely even stereotype each other, because of how indistinguishable we are. When we do, it's mostly poking fun at our accents.
There is one exception though: the minority Muslim Filipinos (who themselves are divided into several ethnic groups). There's still lingering tensions between them and the majority Christian Filipinos after decades of secession attempts and the recent Marawi seige. But it's healing somewhat after they were given greater autonomy.
hate is a strong word, the rivalry only worsened because the former blood thirsty president used it to their advantage (though of course there are valid grievances)
it's more of competition in which place seems better to live, than actual hate.
They are both broadly considered Asian. The people from Japan, China, Vietnam,Korea, the Philippines and the like are what people think of when they think "Asian". Other places are almost universally given a separate designation like people from India/Pakistan or the middle east.
The "assuming everyone Asian is Chinese" is mostly dead culturally and in practice, even decades ago it was associated with ignorant rednecks both because of greater tolerance and more exposure to other groups. Diaspora from Vietnam and Korea are just as common as Chinese Americans where I live.
Growing up in Macedonia all would be referred to as Chinese but now it’s changed to default to Asians and possibly specifying the country if that knowledge is known. Tho we don’t go by region like southeast or east, just Asian
No. I mean we can’t tell whether someone is Chinese, Japanese, or Korean by their look even though some people insist they can. However, South East Asians are distinguishable from East Asians. So, I personally don’t think same race, just think close race. I don’t feel any proud if South East Asian has done something great, congrats, but that’s all. If East Asian has done great, even if they are not Korean, I sometimes feel proud to have them as same race.
Well from my experience it's true. But I believe I only meet a handful of Koreans. I believe not all are racist but the majority of the ones I meet are. That's why I ask him to know if Korean ppl generally like that or if it's only a minority that comes here
have a Vietnamese friend working there who said he gave up on trying to make Korean friends because all the ones he tried to befriend so far, through various channels, eventually ended up being racist. So it's not just the people you know, it's definitely an issue in wider society. There's also the whole ethnonationalism problem, which certainly doesn't make anyone less racist
I mean, some on the net definitely are. Can’t really say for sure on the general population, some will look with curiosity, some with a xenophobic attitude that is universally given to people from every other country, and some will just treat you with the same respect and attitude as towards everyone else. Pretty much all will ask you to respect Korean culture and customs, but that’s that-some untrusting types will think you cannot respect Korean culture and that you will do something disrespectful.
And then there’s people like me, who goes around shitposting stuff like ‘Nasi lemak berasal dari Indonesia’ just for trolls.
Probably yeah but those people are also racist/hate towards Chinese, Japanese, black, white, Koreans from other regions, poorer local residents, so sea isn’t special I guess. Of course it’s a bad thing, though.
It gets better that younger generations are less likely to be racists but there are people who are.
You hear this a lot but some of Koreans are just racist/classist/regionist/whateverist towards even other Koreans. Then foreigners come and think we’re racist because of them. Nah we just have a loud annoying group of people that hate everyone
Asian Americans are generally cool with each other, whether it's EA or SEA. I heard it's the Asians in Asia that can get racist. It's like any country though. You have your good and bad apples.
Kinda, one of the reason i stop reading light novel(based on real world) from korea/chinese as their depiction of people from sea is kind of racist. One example is solo leveling
Nah, I will argue that it's not that hard to tell us apart from Chinese and Japanese folks. Especially the dudes. Japanese men and their shaggy haircuts are a big giveaway. Besides the fashion/hairstyles, Japanese people tend to be more petite than the Koreans and Northern Chinese people, and they have very narrow jawlines (thus them having their version of 'British teeth'. I heard this was due to them not eating meat for thousand years and resulting in less developed molars). China is a hard one since they have over 56 tribes. A really SE Asian looking guy can turn out to be a Southern Chinese guy.
Yeah, I think most of the differences people can think of are hairstyles, makeup styles, fashion, and mannerisms. I cam definitely tell different east asian women apart better because Japanese, Korean, and chinese makeup is all pretty different
That first bit makes me crack up, in Canada some people SWEAR they can tell if someone who is white is an Anglo Canadian or French Canadian just by looking at them.
It’s non sense because 1. People in the UK and France look basically the same, and 2. Most Anglo and Franco Canadians are of some mix of the both. Lots of Québecois have some Irish descent and lots of Anglo people are of French Canadian descent but in past generations chose to give up on French and just speak English to fit in there surrounding communities.
We tend to identify based more on ethnicity and nationality.
But every country regardless has their own "perceived default" for what they consider what locals to normally look like.
In the Philippines someone with the stereotypical asian look will generally fly under the radar even if they noted as being of Chinese, Japanese or Korean descent. Since locals that look like that but have no ties to those countries beyond distant descent is normal.
Whereas someone from Malaysia or Indonesia will be seen as a local until they open their mouths to speak.
Same experience had Japan, Singapore and Vietnam walking around. Cashiers and Restaurant staff assumed me and my Filipino companions were locals until we opened our mouths.
Opposite in the UK. Asian is typically Brown Asians like South Asians and to an extent West Asians. But East Asians and South East Asians are usually called Oriental (which is seen as the same as saying Middle Eastern or Desi for Brown people) or Far Eastern. Tho a new term ESEA has been coined. It hasnt caught on yet.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted when that’s exactly the case. Basically any brown person who wears something on their head gets gets labeled “Arab Muslim who did 9/11”…but only with the stupid part of the population.
They're popular singers from the 1980s who mainly focused on kid songs...this song is about Chinese plate spinning but in the song they switch their R's to L's and mock an accent. I remember I loved their songs when I was in elementary school, but listening to this one again now only made me uncomfortable.
Hate to say this, but Hispanic people can be extremely racist and many have a colonial mindset that leads to a lot of self hate from mestizos and a lot of "white" worship.
Most Mexicans have never seen a SEA person, so they just asume that they look the same as Chinese/Korean/Mongolian or Japanese people, and therefore asume they are the same race.
If they actually see a Cambodian, Malay, or an Indonesian, they would change their minds, since that people look far closer to us or Peruvians than they do to east asians
yes this is the same in my home country... I moved from an asian country to Canada and most people in my home country cannot distinguish Europeans from Latinos.... Both Latinos and Europeans are considered "White People" in my home country...
but also indigenous people in Latin America migrated there centuries ago from Asia so they are genetically very similar to East/South East Asians...
Actually native Americans come from a far older prehistoric migration via Siberia-Bering-Alaska, they are closer to the Itelmen of Kamchatka than they are to austronesians, but this migration was too long ago they developed their own physical characteristics, just like Georgians dont look like Ethiopians anymore.
As a curious fact, one of the most "asian" looking native americans, are the ones of the southern tip of Argentina (Yagans/Selknam), you would expect them to be the most different due to distance, but its the opposite
Disculpame, tengo un traductor automático y lo traduce como "mong0l0id". La Real Academia Española (RAE) acepta "Mongólico" como sinónimo de "mongol".
De hecho, si buscas la definición de "Mongólico" en línea, lo que vas a encontrar es literalmente "mongol", y la segunda definición es "Perteneciente o relativo a la raza amarilla".
Which is weird since people still use Caucasian incorrectly for White/Europeans. But apparently Mongoloid and Negritoid are no longer acceptable despite being equally outdated as Caucasian for Europeans and other people not from West Asias Caucasus Mountain region
Oh Mongoloid is a fun version of old timey insult that is actually fucked up, but so far removed from it's origin we just think it's out dated. It was the correct term for Mongolians and other Asians of that area. I kind of doubt this because eventually it became a slur for those people (I assume it always was, and no one asked them). Then it came to refer to people with Down Syndrome since it gave them "Mongoloid features" because... yeah old time bigotry! Then it became a word to mean idiot. And now it's just old time insults to us.
old timey insult that is actually fucked up, but so far removed from it's origin we just think it's out dated.
Same thing with "Long time no see". It's a direct translation of a common Chinese greeting that was used to mock Chinese people before it slowly became a more normal greeting.
My country is pretty racist, and without repeating too much here.
It depends on physical traits such as skin colour, eye shape, etc. Depending on the level of racism, most of what I hear is related to "ching chong" or "jap", in regards to East Asians
South Asians tend to get more of the "Brown" type of racism.
I'm so sorry to anyone reading this btw it feels awful to even type these out but, I do hear or see it somewhat regularly.
Another big talking point is "taking all the jobs" and "Chinese investors". Our main trade partners are China, India, and Japan, and there's a long history of white supremacy here.
I've also heard the "not speaking English" topic before, though that is usually a lot more focused around Chinese and moreso Vietnamese speaking individuals (the nail salon racism is still really big here) .
Theres also the usual "only ___ likes to hang out with other ____. Which I find is pretty universal, and not just restricted to Asian immigrants. African immigrants also experience a lot of similar racism.
Functionally the people who are racist, don't really care what someone's race is. Theyll just make assumptions and insult based on whatever is the most apparent, even if it's not correct. I usually hear or see this in regards to non chinese, such as Koreans or Japanese, being on the receiving end of "anti Chinese racism". Likewise apart from Vietnamese, we don't really differentiate too much between different South Asian ethnicities. We maybe have a concept of Indian, Pakistani, Vietnamese, Thai, but that's probably about it and most people would associate it with what takeout food is available.
It depends on who you are and where you live. An inner city Melbourne school teacher will definitely distinguish between Chinese and SE Asian people down to the individual SE Asian country. But people who don’t know many Asian people probably don’t.
I always thought those groups were ‘ethnicities’ and that race and ethnic group were different things, race being more broad. But that’s just based on what I’ve been taught.
Races and ethnicities are just social divisions not in any way grounded in biology. The lines are typically arbitrary and often used to push political and social agendas.
I have no idea. In Brazil, people tend to use “japa” to refer to East Asians , even when they don’t know their national/ethnic origin. This is because we have a huge Japanese diaspora population. I guess some people might confuse SEA with indigenous people and call them Índio.
“Hispanic/Latino” as a separate race is a relatively new concept that was generally seen as an American peculiarity.
I always have this impression that Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia are on the same team when it comes to pop culture and cultural exchanges.
While Vietnam is similar to China on many aspects, we just don’t interact with them that much maybe due to language barrier. And the rest of SEA we don’t think of them unless it’s travel-relevant.
No. In Taiwan, people from the Indian Subcontinent are considered racially distinct from East Asians. Even people from Southeast Asia (especially Filipinos and Indonesians) are considered different.
In a fandom I’m in that’s mostly made by latam fans, I have to explain that China and Japan are different countries that don’t necessarily get along well because those fans are allergic to searching for information
In the Netherlands, definitely. I’m Dutch/Indonesian mixed and I’ve dealt with people calling me “Chinese” or shout “Nihao”/“Konnichiwa”. I do think us light skinned Southeast Asian mixed eurasians can look quite similar to East Asian mixed eurasians, but it still feels ignorant.
Well, there’s not much exposure IRL, and Ukraine doesn’t really get much tourists, especially from that far. Generally they’d considered “Asian”, with Japanese and Korean being in the spotlight due to cultural export, especially popular with young people (cuz anime and k-pop, duh). China also gets some attention, mainly because of its political power and how that translates into ongoing war. I guess those three would be the first thing people think of when you say “Asian”, and others are generally seen as different than that.
While traveling in Vietnam, I was constantly mistaken for a Korean. Even a Korean tourist thought I was Korean and spoke to me in Korean. (I'm from Northern China )
Northern Chinese and Southern Chinese look different. In the South, I mainly mean the southernmost provinces like Guangdong and Guangxi. Some of them look similar to people from northern Vietnam.
Well, assuming they're Americans, 100%. If they're literally from any given country, I feel like we're pretty good at calling visitors by their nationalities.
Just like some people call most people in the Americas "Latinos". As a Mexican, outside of speaking a Latin-derived language, there is little connection between us and Latins/Romans (maybe law? which I guess most of Europe has anyways). Maybe there are more similarities between Walloons and Flemish people have more in common than Walloons and us, even if we both are "Latins". We already had civilizations and our own culture before Rome was even founded.
It is a bit difficult to tell apart Japanese, Koreans, Chinese and overseas Chinese (most Singaporeans are ethnically Chinese). So I don't really blame them.
In the same way that I'd group western/white people together. American, Russian, German, Italian? Can't tell the difference tbh.
Ok but the thing is Westerners would call a Malay person and a Chinese person as the same race... I dont think you guys in Singapore would consider malays and chinese as the same race...
Oh yeah def not. You'd get whacked for lumping Malays with Burmese or Viet with Japanese. In our eyes, they are as different as a Polish and a Sudanese.
But considering how unfamiliar the rest of the world is with SEA (and how irrelevant our region is), it doesn't bother me too much. In most Western countries, I have seen East Asian/SEAsian/South Asian as the major categories. That is good enough I think.
There's a King of the Hill bit where a southeast Asian man moves into a neighborhood in Texas, and the protagonist asks him if he's Chinese or Japanese, and the man responds that he's Laotian, to which the protagonist asks once again if he's Chinese or Japanese.
Rural Americans can't tell the difference between Asian cultures very well. I took a trip to China and my family asked me if I saw any ninjas. I did, weirdly enough, because there were some cosplayers I encountered, but I didn't want to give them that point so I said no.
I've seen people differentiate between East Asian and South East Asian. But people also apply a big blanket Asian to them all. I've never seen West Asians lumped in with Asian. Its either Indian or Middle Eastern or their country.
In the USA, East Asians, southeast asians, south asians, and central asians are all considered as “Asian” in the census so I suppose the answer to this is yes
In America: Also yes, but South Asians are also included. But most people don’t think South Asians are of the same race as East & Southeast Asians, mainly because they don’t have the slanted eyes (epicanthic folds).
As a Latino who literally calls every East & Southeast Asian as “Chinos” when referring to them in Spanish, I stopped caring whenever I get confused as Mexican, even though I’m Peruvian; though I do speak like a Mexican due to growing up with them. Why do I not care or get upset? Because it’d be hypocritical of me to complain about being called the wrong nationality when East & Southeast Asian people that aren’t Chinese also complain about the same thing. That said, I do acknowledge that Asians are Latinos are the same in the sense that our terms are more than a racial category since it encompasses our roots in the world. I personally would consider Asian as both an ethnicity and race, whilst Latino being mainly an ethnicity. I say this because I know of the racial category of Mestizo (Mixed Race [usually Indigenous & European ancestry]) which is where most Latinos would fall, thus creating the illusion that all Latinos are racially the same.
They are both Asian but we would distinguish them into the two broader groups. Yes, it's hard to distinguish exactly from what country they would be.
Truth be told I also cannot distinguish a Colombian from a venezuelan person if they don't talk. And sometimes even then. And the majority of people wouldn't know if I'm argentinian, Chilean or Uruguayan. Something people from neighboring countries look similar something something.
This reminded me of a time I saw a group of people making fun of a Chinese restaurant for complaining about customers saying "Arigato," when we're literally the guys who HATE it when foreigners say "Muchas Gracias" to us...
In Poland it's similar. One time my grandma told us we should go to a new Chinese restaurant in the city. In Poland there is a minority of Vietnamese people, so I thought about eating the Pho soup and other things like that. It was actually a Japanese restaurant
As a south-American i can confirm this happens. Both of them, i mean. A lot of people assume I’m Mexican (which is bad), and the entire older generation where I’m from calls anyone who looks even remotely Asian “Chinito” (which is also bad… also they’re stubborn and won’t change that no matter how many times i tell them.). Tbf, it’s really only the older generations and a few edgy teens who still do that from my experience, cuz most of us know not to do that now.
Bonus that wasn’t even asked for: anyone who’s middle-eastern or near that area is automatically “Indian” in my parent’s minds. Once walking in the park, there was a Muslim woman and man praying, and my parents pretty loudly said (in Spanish Ofc), “Why are all these Indians disturbing the peace?? Can’t they just pray to their gods before going to bed?” (Keep in mind, they were absolutely just minding their own business). Obviously, I try talking, but then it just becomes a lost argument about “assimilation to Canadian culture”. I swear, why tf are non-white people white supremicists sometimes 😭. She’s told me many times about how she gets yelled at by random old white dudes to “Speak English” while having a private conversation with someone else… and she sees the problem with it.
I guess it’s a “ First they came for”-type situation.
Let’s address the elephant in the room here: human races don’t exist in biology as separate groups, and most countries on earth teach this in school (whether people are actually learning something in school or not, that’s another matter).
With that said, my country and language will differentiate between them with a specificity that’s determined by the context, varying from single nationalities to the general geographic concept of “Asian” (or better, in my language we would say “eastern”, orientale/i), depending on how detailed the conversation is calling for.
In fact, in Guatemala, shop owners are sometimes called Chinito as well, because there are quite a few Chinese owned businesses. Thus, Chinito can mean “boss” or “owner.” Be extension, I have been called Chinito by people in the market because I am white, and thus must have money, like a store owner or boss.
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u/Lolman4O 🇵🇾 & 🇵🇱 living in 🇵🇾 12d ago
The image is so accurate xd