exotic fuck you
I've become more aware of being constantly reminded of my ethnicity in North America. It is kind of disturbing the ideas the West has of China and Asia as a whole.
Anecdote 1:
I spent an entire train ride next to a man that seemed a little bit too eager to sit next to me and help me with my luggage. I spent 12 hours trying to explain to him where I was from and where my family was from. Though I generally hate talking about these things at length, I had a long train ride ahead of me and needed at some means of entertainment.
He seemed to ignore the fact that I was born in North America and continually insisted that it must be hard as an immigrant and learning the language and being in a new land. It was rather frustrating talking to him. He was a middle-aged man working in Finance in NY. I struggled to relate to him on any level since he spoke a lot of business Finance jargon. He kept on somehow exoticizing me, despite what I tell him. He then continued to talk about is ex-girlfriend who was Japanese and then about Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon/Memoirs of a Geisha. I mentioned that the Geisha was played by a Chinese girl and he didn't see anything wrong with it, instead he said it was better since Chinese girls are hotter regardless of what people say about the Japanese.
Again for the sake of my own entertainment, I went along with it as he bought me drinks and snacks for the ride. He even pulled out the movies above so that I could watch and make the ride shorter.
As we parted, he gave me his card and continually glanced back at me. His last remarks were along the lines of "It is not everyday that you get to sit next to a beautiful blue-eyed Geisha" .. WTF!?
Anecdote 2:
I needed time to sit and write so I went down to a local coffee shop and bought a drink. It was one of the first nice days out so I sat on the terrace admidst groups of people. I happened to sit next to a group of french-speaking middle-aged men who play chess at the spot every weekend. They are known to harass everyone around them, or at least try to talk to them. Again the topic of my ethinicity was the first on their list and again the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was pulled out on the spot and debated. This time, however, they understood that I was Canadian. They said I was not shy in the same way newly-landed Chinese are.
Despite my usual dislike of discussing topics of my ethnicity, I will be understanding of their curiosity and perhaps learn something about myself and people in the process.
It seems ideas of China fed to the public are horribly disjointed. Chinese people are exoticized, and eroticized. We are seen as docile, delicate, quiet, innocent creatures. Ha.
Anecdote 3:
A drunk half Cambodian on the streets at night with friends asks me if I'm Japanese. I get these questions a lot and I say I'm Canadian. He tries to rephrase his questions, and I continue to give him a hard time to get to the answer he's looking for. He takes offence and admits he's half-Asian and some of his friends are Asian as well, but are Canadian as well.
I guess I've learned to accept these questions as a part of being a visible minority. To strangers it is an obvious topic for discussion at the same time I don't want my ethnicity to be completely ignored, since (I hope) it is still a part of me.
Anecdote 1:
I spent an entire train ride next to a man that seemed a little bit too eager to sit next to me and help me with my luggage. I spent 12 hours trying to explain to him where I was from and where my family was from. Though I generally hate talking about these things at length, I had a long train ride ahead of me and needed at some means of entertainment.
He seemed to ignore the fact that I was born in North America and continually insisted that it must be hard as an immigrant and learning the language and being in a new land. It was rather frustrating talking to him. He was a middle-aged man working in Finance in NY. I struggled to relate to him on any level since he spoke a lot of business Finance jargon. He kept on somehow exoticizing me, despite what I tell him. He then continued to talk about is ex-girlfriend who was Japanese and then about Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon/Memoirs of a Geisha. I mentioned that the Geisha was played by a Chinese girl and he didn't see anything wrong with it, instead he said it was better since Chinese girls are hotter regardless of what people say about the Japanese.
Again for the sake of my own entertainment, I went along with it as he bought me drinks and snacks for the ride. He even pulled out the movies above so that I could watch and make the ride shorter.
As we parted, he gave me his card and continually glanced back at me. His last remarks were along the lines of "It is not everyday that you get to sit next to a beautiful blue-eyed Geisha" .. WTF!?
Anecdote 2:
I needed time to sit and write so I went down to a local coffee shop and bought a drink. It was one of the first nice days out so I sat on the terrace admidst groups of people. I happened to sit next to a group of french-speaking middle-aged men who play chess at the spot every weekend. They are known to harass everyone around them, or at least try to talk to them. Again the topic of my ethinicity was the first on their list and again the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was pulled out on the spot and debated. This time, however, they understood that I was Canadian. They said I was not shy in the same way newly-landed Chinese are.
Despite my usual dislike of discussing topics of my ethnicity, I will be understanding of their curiosity and perhaps learn something about myself and people in the process.
It seems ideas of China fed to the public are horribly disjointed. Chinese people are exoticized, and eroticized. We are seen as docile, delicate, quiet, innocent creatures. Ha.
Anecdote 3:
A drunk half Cambodian on the streets at night with friends asks me if I'm Japanese. I get these questions a lot and I say I'm Canadian. He tries to rephrase his questions, and I continue to give him a hard time to get to the answer he's looking for. He takes offence and admits he's half-Asian and some of his friends are Asian as well, but are Canadian as well.
I guess I've learned to accept these questions as a part of being a visible minority. To strangers it is an obvious topic for discussion at the same time I don't want my ethnicity to be completely ignored, since (I hope) it is still a part of me.
posted by elle est chiNoise at 12:09 PM
2 Comments:
The story of my life...Ignorant people. Or is it just men with yellow fever?
nicolas! add me!
ashley
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