Stereotypes can be dreadful things. Although harmless in theory, they often become a crude, hurtful way of simplifying a group of people into something others can more readily understand. By assuming that every Asian you meet is going to carry a "Hello, Kitty" purse, work hard and drive terribly, you are at best trying to use your "prior" knowledge to relate Asian people you meet to something you already know. But in doing so, you are often robbing that person of their unique individuality. In addition, we often tend to focus on the negative stereotypes much longer than those few positive stereotypes we manage to come up with.
Having said all that, we are still going to talk about stereotypes today. It's absolutely astonishing that we've manged to classify an entire continent's worth of countries into one "Asian stereotype", but this broad category is what we'll be operating under (even if this area of the world lies slightly on the outer edges of this range). This blog post is going to focus on the less hurtful stereotypes and we hope that everyone reading this sees it as the light-hearted attempt to discuss a difficult topic that it is. We mean no harm, and all claims made are are from our personal experiences and thoughts so far.
All Asians look the same.
Of all the stereotypes out there, this one is by far the most ridiculously untrue. Anyone who has spent any kind of time in any country in Asia can tell you this. We've been taken aback by how diverse looks are here. Not only between different countries either. Yes, Malays look different from Thais and it has definitely been possible to distinguish Thai from Chinese, but even in each group you can get very different results. Malays especially showed an incredible diverse array of skin color, some looking like very dark Indians while others almost as fair skinned as the Chinese. Among Chinese populations here we've seen how different Chinese people often look and confirmed that all the different shapes and sizes found elsewhere can be found here too. With over half of the people of the entire world living on the Asian continent (and mostly along the eastern coast), it is extremely difficult to understand how this stereotype ever came to be).
Asians are terrible drivers
This is another stereotype we think false. And a bit insulting. As of our month and a half here we have only seen one accident, and that was actually the fault of a tourist driving and not the fault of any locals. Clearly there aren't a lot of bad drivers. Quite on the contrary, people here might even be better drivers than in America. You see, people don't have to just deal with cars here: there are also a significant number of bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles that weave crazily between traffic everywhere you go. Traffic is often very heavy, and we've been on many a road that weaves so much we thought we were going to be sick. Drivers here handle all of these obstacles fairly well, and we're convinced that roads here are filled with just as many competent and incompetent drivers as most roads of the world are. Parking on the other hand could still use some work...
Asians love old people.
While worded rather terribly, this is one stereotype that is based in fact. Many of the cultures in Asia have vehement respect for the elderly, and generally tend to show deference to anyone older than they are. While the lengths cultures here will go to do so vary in degree from country to country, it seems to be a common trait. The elderly are given the best seats on the public buses and trains, are assisted whenever they need help, and are otherwise treated with absolute respect. It is something we've only been able to catch glimpses of here and there, but it is something that has definitely warmed my heart whenever it happens.
Asians love the peace sign.
At this point, we've decided to tactfully say the evidence is "inconclusive". We decline to deny or agree with this one. While we have indeed noticed a large number of Chinese tourists taking pictures this way (evidence on the right), it would be preposterous to claim that that every single tourist does so. I think this is one where further statistical analysis will need to be done by someone who cares a lot about such a trivial thing. Do we have any volunteers? We certainly don't have the time. We spend too much of our days lounging on beaches like the one below to really care.
Having said all that, we are still going to talk about stereotypes today. It's absolutely astonishing that we've manged to classify an entire continent's worth of countries into one "Asian stereotype", but this broad category is what we'll be operating under (even if this area of the world lies slightly on the outer edges of this range). This blog post is going to focus on the less hurtful stereotypes and we hope that everyone reading this sees it as the light-hearted attempt to discuss a difficult topic that it is. We mean no harm, and all claims made are are from our personal experiences and thoughts so far.
All Asians look the same.
Of all the stereotypes out there, this one is by far the most ridiculously untrue. Anyone who has spent any kind of time in any country in Asia can tell you this. We've been taken aback by how diverse looks are here. Not only between different countries either. Yes, Malays look different from Thais and it has definitely been possible to distinguish Thai from Chinese, but even in each group you can get very different results. Malays especially showed an incredible diverse array of skin color, some looking like very dark Indians while others almost as fair skinned as the Chinese. Among Chinese populations here we've seen how different Chinese people often look and confirmed that all the different shapes and sizes found elsewhere can be found here too. With over half of the people of the entire world living on the Asian continent (and mostly along the eastern coast), it is extremely difficult to understand how this stereotype ever came to be).
Asians are terrible driversThis is another stereotype we think false. And a bit insulting. As of our month and a half here we have only seen one accident, and that was actually the fault of a tourist driving and not the fault of any locals. Clearly there aren't a lot of bad drivers. Quite on the contrary, people here might even be better drivers than in America. You see, people don't have to just deal with cars here: there are also a significant number of bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles that weave crazily between traffic everywhere you go. Traffic is often very heavy, and we've been on many a road that weaves so much we thought we were going to be sick. Drivers here handle all of these obstacles fairly well, and we're convinced that roads here are filled with just as many competent and incompetent drivers as most roads of the world are. Parking on the other hand could still use some work...
Asians love old people.
While worded rather terribly, this is one stereotype that is based in fact. Many of the cultures in Asia have vehement respect for the elderly, and generally tend to show deference to anyone older than they are. While the lengths cultures here will go to do so vary in degree from country to country, it seems to be a common trait. The elderly are given the best seats on the public buses and trains, are assisted whenever they need help, and are otherwise treated with absolute respect. It is something we've only been able to catch glimpses of here and there, but it is something that has definitely warmed my heart whenever it happens.
Asians love the peace sign.
At this point, we've decided to tactfully say the evidence is "inconclusive". We decline to deny or agree with this one. While we have indeed noticed a large number of Chinese tourists taking pictures this way (evidence on the right), it would be preposterous to claim that that every single tourist does so. I think this is one where further statistical analysis will need to be done by someone who cares a lot about such a trivial thing. Do we have any volunteers? We certainly don't have the time. We spend too much of our days lounging on beaches like the one below to really care.
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