Americans see Asians and why. Did you know that to most Americans all Asians are the same? They can’t tell the difference between Asia’s different peoples. Americans have learned about Asia through movies and TV, just as Taiwanese have learned about the US. The image of Asians has been stereotyped for so long in Hollywood, that Americans think all Asians can do Kung Fu, they all are gangsters, and they all must have a ‘foreign’ accent. To Americans all Asians are still ‘foreigners’ no matter how many generations their families have been US citizens. Americans don’t know, and for the most part, don’t care to know the differences.
The friendly discussion of how Americans see Asians as ‘all the same’ led inevitably to the typical Taiwanese comment that all foreigners (Caucasians) also look the same. However, in Taiwan it’s just a lack of experience causing the confusion. But truthfully, even Americans can’t tell the difference between French, American, Spanish, or others by just appearances, because all Americans (except First Nation peoples) are from some other country originally. We also discussed the differences in Taiwanese born and raised here from ABCs (American Born Chinese- btw- shouldn’t it be ABTs!!??) in the US. How can you tell that a Taiwanese person has been raised in the US? Can you tell the difference without hearing them speak?
When you walk down the street and see a Taiwanese girl with a foreigner, what do you think? Who do you look at? Do foreigners always have not-so-good-looking girlfriends? There seemed to be a consensus that what foreigners consider ‘beautiful’ and what Taiwanese consider ‘beautiful’ are quite different. Take Hollywood’s choice of Lucy Liu as a typical Asian beauty, for example… What’s up with that?
by Charles
The friendly discussion of how Americans see Asians as ‘all the same’ led inevitably to the typical Taiwanese comment that all foreigners (Caucasians) also look the same. However, in Taiwan it’s just a lack of experience causing the confusion. But truthfully, even Americans can’t tell the difference between French, American, Spanish, or others by just appearances, because all Americans (except First Nation peoples) are from some other country originally. We also discussed the differences in Taiwanese born and raised here from ABCs (American Born Chinese- btw- shouldn’t it be ABTs!!??) in the US. How can you tell that a Taiwanese person has been raised in the US? Can you tell the difference without hearing them speak?
When you walk down the street and see a Taiwanese girl with a foreigner, what do you think? Who do you look at? Do foreigners always have not-so-good-looking girlfriends? There seemed to be a consensus that what foreigners consider ‘beautiful’ and what Taiwanese consider ‘beautiful’ are quite different. Take Hollywood’s choice of Lucy Liu as a typical Asian beauty, for example… What’s up with that?
by Charles
1 comment:
This is great info to know.
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