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Asian-GAF: We're all the same, like Stormtroopers |OT| |AT|

C

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
So, apparently there is no Asian-GAF thread. This should be remedied. Asians; represent!

Doesn't matter where you're from; whether you're from Asia, Africa, America, adopted by an asian family, dating an asian, or just plain curious about asians. Everyone is welcome here.

Off-Topic and All-Topics, as it were.

Tell us about how many times your parents have called you to move home despite having your own family + kids 2000 miles away, or how despite writing a best-selling novel; they are still disappointed in you that you didn't become a doctor/lawyer/engineer/businessman. Also, we talk a lot about food. Be careful of this thread if you are hungry.

Or, as the title suggests, roll your eyes at how we're all apparently the same to all non-asians, even the South Asians and the East/Southeast Asians.


EDIT: Asian-GAF Yelp is now live. See this post for more details.
 
M

MrChowderClams

Member
Oh hello there. I'm Sang, and I too, am Asian (lol this is starting to sound like an AA meeting)

Born in Korea, but raised in Washington state. Studied comp sci in college and now I'm a product designer in san francisco.
 
C

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
I'm Krupal - raised in the middle of nowhere, IL (I have corn in my front lawn back home), now in the lovely Seattle, WA (moved out here after undergrad). Working as a systems engineer / analytics guy for a large aerospace company situated up here. :D I am basically the whitest asian you will meet.

Alas, I did not write a best-selling novel - had a friend from HS who went through that. Though I do end up editing my friends' writing a lot. I have no idea why they trust the engineer to do this. I'm terrible at English. OH WELL.

BSB - Midwesterners REPRESENT. My best friend in Seattle grew up in Red Wing, MN.
 
H

HisImperialMajesty

Member
Damn right this is relevant. We're 6% of the US population and growing the fastest.

My hopes for Asian America: A bigger voice on the national scale through a more active and influential polity. More Asians represented in the mainstream media. Less nagging from Tiger Moms.

Anyone read angryasianman.com?
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
White-washed
half-Filipino with a Taiwanese-American boyfriend, so I depend on him as my gateway in most cases. Culturally our household will probably end up leaning more Japanese though :lol
 
C

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
backslashbunny said:
I moved to California when I was like.. 2.. so I consider myself to be Californian haha.

But my cousins are in MN still.. and they are awesome. Also, very nice. You Midwesterners are very, incredibly nice people.

You should still link me your friend's novel.

Ooh, also, in the first post, you should totally add a section on "Model Minority," and how that stereotype hurts us, hurts other minorities, and is a way, imo, for white people to justify their racism.

Since you're the first post, and the thread creator, you get to do the whole fancy first post WHAT IS THIS COMMUNITY ABOUT thing :D.

(Also, other colors are welcome to post here, right?)



I thought Hispanics were growing the fastest?

Shouldn't be Asians, logically. We're the most educated, and that correlates with low birth rates and late birth rates. I could be wrong, though. I heard before it was Hispanics.

I do wish that we'd be a little bit more active politically and socially, but we are still a tiny minority, and the stereotypes about us being meek and quiet are based on the fact that "the chicken that sticks out its neck will get it chopped off." Remember that piece about that one Asian American female senator or politician in Kentucky, or something? Some politicians were like, SHE'S NOT EVEN AMERICAN.

Gross.

I noticed, though, in America... the squeaky wheel gets the grease. It's surprising.

I do not read that site, but I'll check it out.
Click to expand...

Got any good links about the model minority bit? After the thread that spawned this OT, not sure I have the patience to go into it.

I'll do a Welcome to the Community thing later tonight or tomorrow. Using a new laptop for the first time and the keyboard is finicky. Might need to get myself a bluetooth keyboard for this thing.
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
Hi hi o/

Was wondering for a long time where the AsianGAFs are at :>

Im Asian-Australian. I have a bad habit of gaffing from work :x where I am HR Manager with an Insurance company, in Melbourne.

I can totes relate to the pressure of coming home. My mom pester me about this daily, despite that my career and friends and house and everything are rooted here. Whee~

bunbunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnssssssssss <3
 
T

Toki767

Member
Chinese born in the Philippines here. Grew up and live in San Francisco though. You guys remember the azn pride days? Haha.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
backslashbunny said:
I thought Hispanics were growing the fastest?
Click to expand...

Ah ah ah! Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race!

<_<

Actually got into a big discussion about this at work today because the ethnicity and race data in a demo system we received contradicts the true definitions of the terms. And only allows white, Hispanic, or black for ethnicity :lol

Methinks we're gonna be fixing that when we start creating our own data.
 
H

HisImperialMajesty

Member
backslashbunny said:
I thought Hispanics were growing the fastest?

Shouldn't be Asians, logically. We're the most educated, and that correlates with low birth rates and late birth rates. I could be wrong, though. I heard before it was Hispanics.

I do wish that we'd be a little bit more active politically and socially, but we are still a tiny minority, and the stereotypes about us being meek and quiet are based on the fact that "the chicken that sticks out its neck will get it chopped off." Remember that piece about that one Asian American female senator or politician in Kentucky, or something? Some politicians were like, SHE'S NOT EVEN AMERICAN.

Gross.

I noticed, though, in America... the squeaky wheel gets the grease. It's surprising.

I do not read that site, but I'll check it out.
Click to expand...

Nope, Asians are growing faster than Hispanics. And yup, we have the highest rate of higher education, too. A big chunk of the growth is via immigration, though.
 
E

Esch

Banned
backslashbunny said:
United front :D
Click to expand...

Cybit said:
I'm south asian, so hellz yes.
Click to expand...

okay, we in here then. subscribed.

ibhwAcUz67sDzS.gif
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
backslashbunny said:
O.O. Out of total curiosity, how did that happen?
Click to expand...

It just happened to be the first common interest that we bonded on. We randomly converse in Japanese (well... I respond in English quite a bit), have many Japanese friends, and as a bonus his father is fluent in Japanese as well. He also doesn't feel comfortable going to Taiwan on his own (he speaks Taiwanese, not Mandarin), so we only ever go to Japan.

Doesn't help I would be hopeless in Chinese. Get laughed at every time I try to say "beef" :(
 
E

Esch

Banned
backslashbunny said:
(Can we also talk about how Asian men are emasculated in media? Or will that pop up eventually somewhere?)
.
Click to expand...

I never really realized this until I was in my preteens and read about how they edited out Jet Li kissing Aaliyah. It'll definitely come up in this thread a lot.

And yeah, I'm south asian. 3/4 a mix of different kinds of indian (gujurati and punjabi), and 1/4 gurkha. I'm from the midwest and have been here my whole life. I have a really, crazy family history but I actually have very little fam in asia nowadays. They're all in canada, fiji, africa, new zealand, australia and america.
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
backslashbunny said:
(Can we also talk about how Asian men are emasculated in media? Or will that pop up eventually somewhere?)

Just listing stuff we can maybe put in the OT?

It's kinda ironic that because of my parent's deep seated racism, I don't find Asian men unsexy and instead prefer them. So, I never even thought about Asian men differently from nonAsian men.

It wasn't until I got older that I realized how much Asian men are marginalized in love and romance, especially in the US' social landscape.
Click to expand...

My granma's first reaction when I had an Australian bf was "Proper MAN! YESH!"

cuz apparently our potential offspring will be an ~upgrade~ genetically

*rolls eyes*

she old, though. so pls forgive her.




Asian men are appealing to me as much as any other men, really. Anecdotally, the asian men that I've met are, in general, more polite and very well mannered.

But my Aussie bf was a rebel type. I love the bad boys ha ha



Asian men needs more appreciation dammit <3
 
E

Erheller

Member
4th generation Hakka Chinese living in Chicago here. My parents were born in other nations, though (my great-grandparents are the ones that moved away from China); my mom's from Mauritius and my dad was born in Singapore.

I can't speak any Chinese at all, which makes it awkward when I go to restaurants and they ask me stuff in Mandarin and I can't respond. Once in a while I'll say that I speak Hakka but it's bitten me in the ass a couple of times.
 
T

Toki767

Member
Erheller said:
4th generation Hakka Chinese living in Chicago here. My parents were born in other nations, though (my great-grandparents are the ones that moved away from China); my mom's from Mauritius and my dad was born in Singapore.

I can't speak any Chinese at all, which makes it awkward when I go to restaurants and they ask me stuff in Mandarin and I can't respond. Once in a while I'll say that I speak Hakka but it's bitten me in the ass a couple of times.
Click to expand...

Oh man...I love Hakka cuisine. Salt-baked chicken and duck stuffed with sticky rice. So good.
 
E

Esch

Banned
backslashbunny said:
Details? If you don't mind?
Click to expand...

In India in the 1800s my mom's family were basically
tricked because they were illiterate
convinced into signing dodgy contracts and became indentured slaves, harvesting sugar cane in Fiji for the UK (brutal stuff). They eventually completed their indenture and then went on to start schools, get government jobs
became alcoholics
etc. My dad's family went to Kenya as indentured slaves to build railroads. My dad and mom got scholarships to go to school in India, where they met. They then moved to America, lived on both coasts, married and had me and my siblings.

EDIT: I realize how depressing this shit is :lol :lol
 
T

Ties

Banned
Zoe said:
White-washed
half-Filipino with a Taiwanese-American boyfriend, so I depend on him as my gateway in most cases. Culturally our household will probably end up leaning more Japanese though :lol
Click to expand...
What's your other half?

I'm half-Filipino and half-Spanish.

Nice to meet you all!
 
T

Ties

Banned
I'm just happy that Asian Americans in general are finally speaking up after so many years of disenfranchisement. I'm not sure if I'm remembering the time correctly, but the entire #NotYourAsianSidekick thing really got my hopes up because we are finally becoming louder about the prejudice we face everyday. The affirmative action thread in general today really opened my eyes about how Asian Americans are expected to perform better than other races. Thanks again backslash.

Edit:

Also shouldn't this thread be in Off-Topic for a couple of weeks before getting moved to the Community section of the forum?
 
E

Esch

Banned
backslashbunny said:
Wow O_O

Yeah, it's depressing, but honestly, I'm glad you could share it. I had NO idea there were indentured servants in Kenya, building railroads there...

I didn't even know that was a thing, but thinking about it, makes sense-- lots of poor SE Asians working as servants/slaves in the Middle East, I hear..
Click to expand...

TBH, south asian americans in my experience don't think of themselves this way because we tend to be fairly wealthy and enterprising but we are globally pretty disenfranchised even these days. We have poor attitudes toward our own when it comes to labor, are still strugging with feudal class systems etc. It goes without saying that the situation in the middle east is pretty infuriating to me.


YesNOnoNOYes said:
you scare easy, joshjosh! >:O

asianfood = SUPERIOR FOOD
Click to expand...

This post is 100% so true man. To be honest I think people are just afraid of the type of shit you eat in traditional cuisines. Some of the stuff they'll serve you in Europe will make picky American eaters want to vomit too.

#eateverything
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Ties said:
What's your other half?

I'm half-Filipino and half-Spanish.

Nice to meet you all!
Click to expand...

American white.

My grandmother was actually supposed to be Spanish which would make me 3/4 white, but I never met her and my father sure looks full to me. Guess the pinoy is strong on my grandfather's side?
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
backslashbunny said:
I guess we could have started in OT? Too late now to move it, unless a mod does it.. I've already sent this thread to three of my friends who are on GAF and are Asian.

TBH, I didn't want to turn it into a "who has it worse" thread, because to be totally honest, I am happy that I don't need to worry about being shot to death by cops based on my skin color. Honestly, every time I see a police shooting, I think to myself, damn. I am so effing lucky.

That thread made me realize that a lot of people might not know when Asians ARE discriminated against, because we don't say anything. Because, yes, not getting into a better school than the one you're going to, doesn't really compare in the same way to a cop killing your brother. But, that doesn't make the discrimination any less real.

I'm also kinda annoyed how many people accused ME of being racist, or trying to "take away college spots from other minorities to give to Asians." What? No, I was just bitching that colleges discriminate against Asians, and also bitching about how "well-rounded" has been used AGAINST us.



/ties you down
/insets metal contraception in your mouth

Now you will eat ALL the food.
Click to expand...

wow bunbun!Dom *______*

XD XD




... with regards to who has it worse, i've been super duper lucky and i think my experience as an Asian would be to say that it has been VERY privileged.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
backslashbunny said:
The word for beef is pretty tough to pronounce. I'm conversationally fluent in Mandarin, but people make fun of my accent all the time too :p
Click to expand...

Aside from just an inability to form some of the sounds, I simply can't wrap my head around the romanization system. "What do you mean *** is <guttural sound>"????
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
backslashbunny said:
/ties you down
/insets metal contraception in your mouth

Now you will eat ALL the food.
Click to expand...

/arrives with dim sum carts

Shall we start with the chicken feet?

Or should we go off the deep end completely and go with something from my ethnic cuisine like balut?
 
E

Esch

Banned
Chicken feet are good though. I just think of them as really bony wings.

Sometimes i struggle with the organ meats in dim sum, like that stomach soup? I still eat it, but the texture isn't my favorite.
 
J

JoeFu

Banned
Hello fellow Asians.


Just had a nice bowl of shaved ice. I'm visiting Taiwan (where my parents are from) and it's pretty nice here. Will probably be my only post in here lol.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
JoeFu said:
Hello fellow Asians.


Just had a nice bowl of shaved ice. I'm visiting Taiwan (where my parents are from) and it's pretty nice here. Will probably be my only post in here lol.
Click to expand...

I could never get into the shaved ice toppings, but a snow ice place opened here not too long ago, and OMG.

xKFaTnu.jpg





(this thread needs more pictures)

Edit: oops :lol

backslashbunny said:
IMG_1156.jpg


So jealous.

Also, no.... come backkkkkk.

(My parents are from Taiwan too!)
Click to expand...
 
Y

y2dvd

Member
Half Chinese/half Cambodian, suck at math, 5'11", didn't care what my parents wanted me to be, actually look my age instead of looking younger, have been told I'm white washed, not a fan of Star Wars, and I date whatever race. Breaking dat mold yo!
 
S

suzu

Member
Chinese American here. I can't write or read any of it (other than my own name and some random words), but I speak a little bit of Cantonese and Taishanese.

I kinda dislike the terms white-washed, acting white, etc. lol
 
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