Post by Keith on May 25, 2007 18:23:05 GMT -8
Again, I don't like using the term of "racism." The more correct term is hate and prejudice. In Asia, it's a pretty interesting application. My family immigrated from Vietnam after the Vietnam War which is also dubbed as the Second Indochina War. So basically my mom knows a good amount of Vietnamese history and class dynamics. To start out, "racism" in Vietnam is not uncommon. There are three groups Vietnamese: the North, the Central, and the South. The Central and the South don't think much of the North Vietnamese due to differences in customs.
My mother is South Vietnamese with a bit of Chinese. She explained to all the customs of various regions of Vietnam. Which I learned my mother's reasons for her disdain towards the North Vietnamese. The North Vietnamese tend to treat people like garbage. The South Vietnamese tend to treat people like family. For example, if you're working as a maid or servant for a North Vietnamese household, you're just treated like a maid or a servant. In a South Vietnamese household, the mains and servants are treated as part of the family. The Central Vietnamese aren't going to treat you like family unless they benefit in some way or another.
One of my ancestors started a business in North Vietnam. Most of the North Vietnamese wanted to work for him. Reason being that he was from South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese usually tend to be more genuine and caring versus the North Vietnamese whom only treat workers as just workers. They left their North Vietnamese bosses to work for my ancestor. So "racism" in Vietnam is a pretty tricky and complex thing to deal with. It's mainly associated with customs. A good number of North Vietnamese customs can be deemed very degrading to other people. If a Westerner got wind of at least a few of the North Vietnamese customs, that person would probably be apalled. So one factor that drives racism in Vietnam is a conflict of customs.
The other factor is religion. Yes, there's plenty of religious persecution between Buddhists and Catholics. My family is part of one of the three riches families of Vietnam: the Tran family. We still own plenty of land out in Vietnam. However, the land cannot be claimed because there's a Catholic church built on the grounds. Basically you try to expel the church, it's goes along the grounds of religious persecution. I really have nothing against the Catholic Church as a whole nor any other religious faith as a whole. But playing the persecution card does nothing but help fuel racism. This applies to just about any country.
Even Vietnam isn't invulnerable to racism.
Another aspect of racism is regional racism. A few examples take place in both China and Hong Kong. A good amount of China is basically country sides with the deserts being further west. I constantly talk to this one girl who's Japanese and Chinese named Mona. And Mona is a Canadian-born Chinese. She has a degree in biochemistry and is currently teaching English in Shanghai and prefers this city over Nanjing where she used to live. The stories Mona told me about Nanjing were pretty interesting. She thought Nanjing was a very filthy city from what she told me. Mona even told me she found a woman picking her nose and eating her boogers. The thought of it made me want to gag and vomit.
I have another friend that I talk to also from China in the Tianjin area. I told him what Mona told me what she saw. My friend replied that sadly it's not uncommon. Due to Mona's personal experiences, she doesn't think much about most of the Chinse. And their height was a major turnoff for Mona as well.
There's plenty of territorial racism. Like being racist against a group of Chinese from another area or city. There's also religious persecution at play as well. Since the Communists took over China after World War II, religious persecution has definitely been in play.
I also keep in touch constantly with this one girl named Yuan-Yuan who's currently living in Germany. She's originally from Shanghai. We were talking a good lot about Asian culture and history. I told her about my friend in NYC named Lily who's an ABC (American Born Chinese), who moved to Beijing sometime around last year to be with her fiance. Yuan-Yuan was pretty prejudicial towards people from Beijing. Out of curiousity, I asked her reasons. She simply answered that Beijing was full of "Maoists." In a sense it's pretty understandable. It showed me that racism can also be driven by political differences.
Another interesting aspect is that Taiwan and Hong Kong are populated by Chinese as well. Hong Kong has just returned to Chinese ownership after a lease from Great Britain. What I see on the news is that both Taiwan and Hong Kong are completely different from China. I read further and learned that they're pretty prejudicial from the mainland Chinese.
What really got me is that I read that a good number of Hong Kong residents didn't think much of the Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and were pretty prejudicial to her. Mainly because she was born in mainland China. To them, Zhang Ziyi was nothing more than a "country bumpkin." So racism is definitely present in Hong Kong.
One of the countries in Asia that racism is most present is in Japan. The Japanese has a strict "honor" code. Meaning if you date someone let alone marry someone who isn't Japanese, it's automatic "dishonor." This has been in play for quite a number of centuries. Such as a samurai is dishonored for marrying a Western barbarian for example. Homosexuality in Japan seems to be a complete no-no at this day and age. Ironically before Christianity came to Japan, homosexuality was widely accepted especially amongst the samurai castes.
Homosexuality was deemed to be more pure and noble than heterosexuality.
If you're not full-blooded Japanese, you're prone to being persecuted too. Like if you're part-Chinese or part-Korean, you're subject to persecution. Though I find it pretty stupid. Nothing I can do about it. Doesn't change the fact that they'll be persecuted.
However, the racism in Japan happens to be more subtle and lowkey. It's mainly in the form of videogames and anime/manga. I myself happen to be a fan of fighting/battle-action fighting games and Japanese anime/manga. But over the years, I've been seeing a pattern. It's how Blacks and Latinos are portrayed. One of my favorite fighting game series happens to be the Street Fighter series. Don't get me wrong, it's one of the best series that I had ever played in my life and I have a bunch of Street Fighter titles.
The pattern that I had noticed where how Blacks were portrayed and it carried onto other fighting games. Blacks were usually portrayed as brainless boxers and wrestlers. To add a bit of diversity there were Blacks portrayed as kickboxers and capioerists. But that got pretty old after awhile, yet the Japanese still continued to portray Blacks in that fashion. That was how they stereotyped Blacks. Keep in mind, stereotyping will always be a negative anywhere in the world. The same also applied to Latinos. If not the former, they would be portrayed as brainless thugs and henchmen.
That harsh stereotype had even carried onto Japanese anime titles.
Racism in Asia are driven by these possible factors: territory/location, religious faith, stereotypes, and politics.
Religious racism is pretty rampant in parts of Southeast Asia like in Thailand between Buddhists and radical Muslims. There was a report of a group of radical Muslims storming a Buddhist temple in Thailand where they had murdered all of the monks. In the Philippines, there's persecution between Muslims and Catholics. Just examples on how racism in Southeast Asia is driven by differences in religious faiths.
Politically driven racism is present in tensions between China and Japan. Around 2005, there was a conflict between China and Japan over one big issue on the Japanese history books. In the Japanese history books, it was said that the Japanese invasion of China was justified. That did not bode well with the Chinese. In retaliation, student protestors threw rocks and bottles at the Japanese embassy. Though that incident is over, the tension is still there.
These are major examples to show that racism is indeed present in Asia. After seeing the news, Asia can definitely use a lot of "bridge" building.
www.helium.com/tm/263970/again-using-racism-correct
My mother is South Vietnamese with a bit of Chinese. She explained to all the customs of various regions of Vietnam. Which I learned my mother's reasons for her disdain towards the North Vietnamese. The North Vietnamese tend to treat people like garbage. The South Vietnamese tend to treat people like family. For example, if you're working as a maid or servant for a North Vietnamese household, you're just treated like a maid or a servant. In a South Vietnamese household, the mains and servants are treated as part of the family. The Central Vietnamese aren't going to treat you like family unless they benefit in some way or another.
One of my ancestors started a business in North Vietnam. Most of the North Vietnamese wanted to work for him. Reason being that he was from South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese usually tend to be more genuine and caring versus the North Vietnamese whom only treat workers as just workers. They left their North Vietnamese bosses to work for my ancestor. So "racism" in Vietnam is a pretty tricky and complex thing to deal with. It's mainly associated with customs. A good number of North Vietnamese customs can be deemed very degrading to other people. If a Westerner got wind of at least a few of the North Vietnamese customs, that person would probably be apalled. So one factor that drives racism in Vietnam is a conflict of customs.
The other factor is religion. Yes, there's plenty of religious persecution between Buddhists and Catholics. My family is part of one of the three riches families of Vietnam: the Tran family. We still own plenty of land out in Vietnam. However, the land cannot be claimed because there's a Catholic church built on the grounds. Basically you try to expel the church, it's goes along the grounds of religious persecution. I really have nothing against the Catholic Church as a whole nor any other religious faith as a whole. But playing the persecution card does nothing but help fuel racism. This applies to just about any country.
Even Vietnam isn't invulnerable to racism.
Another aspect of racism is regional racism. A few examples take place in both China and Hong Kong. A good amount of China is basically country sides with the deserts being further west. I constantly talk to this one girl who's Japanese and Chinese named Mona. And Mona is a Canadian-born Chinese. She has a degree in biochemistry and is currently teaching English in Shanghai and prefers this city over Nanjing where she used to live. The stories Mona told me about Nanjing were pretty interesting. She thought Nanjing was a very filthy city from what she told me. Mona even told me she found a woman picking her nose and eating her boogers. The thought of it made me want to gag and vomit.
I have another friend that I talk to also from China in the Tianjin area. I told him what Mona told me what she saw. My friend replied that sadly it's not uncommon. Due to Mona's personal experiences, she doesn't think much about most of the Chinse. And their height was a major turnoff for Mona as well.
There's plenty of territorial racism. Like being racist against a group of Chinese from another area or city. There's also religious persecution at play as well. Since the Communists took over China after World War II, religious persecution has definitely been in play.
I also keep in touch constantly with this one girl named Yuan-Yuan who's currently living in Germany. She's originally from Shanghai. We were talking a good lot about Asian culture and history. I told her about my friend in NYC named Lily who's an ABC (American Born Chinese), who moved to Beijing sometime around last year to be with her fiance. Yuan-Yuan was pretty prejudicial towards people from Beijing. Out of curiousity, I asked her reasons. She simply answered that Beijing was full of "Maoists." In a sense it's pretty understandable. It showed me that racism can also be driven by political differences.
Another interesting aspect is that Taiwan and Hong Kong are populated by Chinese as well. Hong Kong has just returned to Chinese ownership after a lease from Great Britain. What I see on the news is that both Taiwan and Hong Kong are completely different from China. I read further and learned that they're pretty prejudicial from the mainland Chinese.
What really got me is that I read that a good number of Hong Kong residents didn't think much of the Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and were pretty prejudicial to her. Mainly because she was born in mainland China. To them, Zhang Ziyi was nothing more than a "country bumpkin." So racism is definitely present in Hong Kong.
One of the countries in Asia that racism is most present is in Japan. The Japanese has a strict "honor" code. Meaning if you date someone let alone marry someone who isn't Japanese, it's automatic "dishonor." This has been in play for quite a number of centuries. Such as a samurai is dishonored for marrying a Western barbarian for example. Homosexuality in Japan seems to be a complete no-no at this day and age. Ironically before Christianity came to Japan, homosexuality was widely accepted especially amongst the samurai castes.
Homosexuality was deemed to be more pure and noble than heterosexuality.
If you're not full-blooded Japanese, you're prone to being persecuted too. Like if you're part-Chinese or part-Korean, you're subject to persecution. Though I find it pretty stupid. Nothing I can do about it. Doesn't change the fact that they'll be persecuted.
However, the racism in Japan happens to be more subtle and lowkey. It's mainly in the form of videogames and anime/manga. I myself happen to be a fan of fighting/battle-action fighting games and Japanese anime/manga. But over the years, I've been seeing a pattern. It's how Blacks and Latinos are portrayed. One of my favorite fighting game series happens to be the Street Fighter series. Don't get me wrong, it's one of the best series that I had ever played in my life and I have a bunch of Street Fighter titles.
The pattern that I had noticed where how Blacks were portrayed and it carried onto other fighting games. Blacks were usually portrayed as brainless boxers and wrestlers. To add a bit of diversity there were Blacks portrayed as kickboxers and capioerists. But that got pretty old after awhile, yet the Japanese still continued to portray Blacks in that fashion. That was how they stereotyped Blacks. Keep in mind, stereotyping will always be a negative anywhere in the world. The same also applied to Latinos. If not the former, they would be portrayed as brainless thugs and henchmen.
That harsh stereotype had even carried onto Japanese anime titles.
Racism in Asia are driven by these possible factors: territory/location, religious faith, stereotypes, and politics.
Religious racism is pretty rampant in parts of Southeast Asia like in Thailand between Buddhists and radical Muslims. There was a report of a group of radical Muslims storming a Buddhist temple in Thailand where they had murdered all of the monks. In the Philippines, there's persecution between Muslims and Catholics. Just examples on how racism in Southeast Asia is driven by differences in religious faiths.
Politically driven racism is present in tensions between China and Japan. Around 2005, there was a conflict between China and Japan over one big issue on the Japanese history books. In the Japanese history books, it was said that the Japanese invasion of China was justified. That did not bode well with the Chinese. In retaliation, student protestors threw rocks and bottles at the Japanese embassy. Though that incident is over, the tension is still there.
These are major examples to show that racism is indeed present in Asia. After seeing the news, Asia can definitely use a lot of "bridge" building.
www.helium.com/tm/263970/again-using-racism-correct