Intra-Asian Heirarchies

[Barbs]

i'd like to think that we are all mature adults so i'd like to tackle a topic that may be a bit "touchy": intra-asian heirarchies.

i'm sure everyone knows what i'm talking about. it's that sensitive topic that asians do not discuss amongst each other except to those of the same ethnicity. it's almost as if it were taboo to discuss outside of your own ethnicity.

koreans think they are superior to everyone else. chinese people think they are superior to everyone else. chinese and koreans in particular think that about each other. taiwanese people think they're superior to chinese people. i know that a lot of intra-racial asian discrimination goes on. chinese people think they are superior to vietnamese. i'm not all sure what vietnamese people think of other asians, etc. etc. etc. i know i'm generalizing but this is out there in some form or another.

why does this exist? is it a throwback to ancient asian civilization and the north-south dichotomy? is it a skin color thing? is it related to wealth?


commentary anyone?

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by Barbs@Aug 11 2002, 05:30 AM
i'd like to think that we are all mature adults so i'd like to tackle a topic that may be a bit "touchy": intra-asian heirarchies.

i'm sure everyone knows what i'm talking about. it's that sensitive topic that asians do not discuss amongst each other except to those of the same ethnicity. it's almost as if it were taboo to discuss outside of your own ethnicity.

koreans think they are superior to everyone else. chinese people think they are superior to everyone else. chinese and koreans in particular think that about each other. taiwanese people think they're superior to chinese people. i know that a lot of intra-racial asian discrimination goes on. chinese people think they are superior to vietnamese. i'm not all sure what vietnamese people think of other asians, etc. etc. etc. i know i'm generalizing but this is out there in some form or another.

why does this exist? is it a throwback to ancient asian civilization and the north-south dichotomy? is it a skin color thing? is it related to wealth?


commentary anyone?
honestly, i haven't experienced too much (if any) of this in my personal life. many people have pre-conceived notions of other ethnicities of Asian people, but I haven't known anybody that actually think that one ethnicity is plain superior to another.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by Barbs@Aug 11 2002, 09:30 AM
why does this exist? is it a throwback to ancient asian civilization and the north-south dichotomy? is it a skin color thing? is it related to wealth?

ya mean in the US or back in Asia?

A lot of it could be traced to economic roots. for example, in Malaysia people will look down on other SE Asians such as Filipinos and Indonesians, and on subcontinentals (especially Bangladeshis) because they come from poor countries, and so are willing to come to M'sia (and to other regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan) to perform degrading work at low pay.

similarly, korea and japan have had the trouble of people from third countries (mostly China) overstaying their visas or entering illegally. add that to the fact that korean and japanese pop culture set many trends all across Asia, whereas Chinese pop culture is far less popular except among overseas Chinese, and so koreans and japanese might come to consider themselves superior to chinese people.

but i don't notice that Chinese people (except maybe some ABCs) consider themselves superior to Koreans or Japanese. in northeast China there are millions of ethnic Koreans --- for the most part they have very friendly relations with the Chinese people around them, and everyone has a lot of respect for them because they are hard-working and prosperous.

i should add that Chinese people tend to look down more on each other than anything else, based on dialect and accent.



<!--EDIT|AliBabaIncorporated|Aug 11 2002, 10:29 PM-->

[wylin]

ya i experienced this alot growing up in socal, bak in highschool we'd (us taiwanese/ chinese friends) make jokes bout koreans and vietnamese. Kind of like they were lower then us...but still chill w/ em. Lotsa dumb comments i remember my friends saying were like "oh man dam vietnamese they just always have to say their 1/2 chinese or sum thing, one part a "viet" ur f-in vietnamese fo life", "dumb koreans", etc...stupid kids stuff. where i grew up it seemed like koreans were top of the roost and anyone else in torrance who wasnt korean or a Korean-washed wannabe korean wasnt too cool.

Then i went to college at uci and noticed people seemed to branch off based on ethnic groups even more so then torrance we had loads of taiwanese, mainland chinese, and cantonese and they even tho they were sumwhat chinese background not really intermingle... taiwan people would compare cantonese to vietnamese and how they were lower. Everyone dissed on red chinese in the taiwanese and cantonese community. etc koreans were deposed into their own KASA/ KSA clubs and just thought of as clubbers etc...lotsa segregation and fallacies about other nationalities. least from my perspective everyone thought their group was better.

shesh.

[Barbs]

i've noticed the utter lack of cohesion and unity amongst chinese people. total disarray!! i sort of envy the koreans their total and utter sense of unity.

[wylin]

Originally posted by Barbs@Aug 12 2002, 03:29 AM
i've noticed the utter lack of cohesion and unity amongst chinese people. &nbsp;total disarray!! i sort of envy the koreans their total and utter sense of unity.
um i guess their divided country dont count huh? also koreans are a smaller group w/ internal differences and heiarchies, theres more then just one type of korean dilect and such. AB can elaborate on that.

Chinese there are over 100 different dilects and over 50 ethnicities in china/taiwan/ singapore *chinese area's* no counting the indo-chinese, chui chou, macao chinese, etc. ur asking 1.3 billion ppl be homogenious. not possible. pretty much like asking 1/5 the world be unified and have one goal and ideology.

i also think the very divergent social and economic status of different chinese peoples, causes distrust. same w/ different languages...like cantonese to me it sounds like vietnamese, and mandrin to them sounds like arabic. kinda hard to find sumthing in common w/ sumone u cant understand.



<!--EDIT|wylin|Aug 12 2002, 04:06 AM-->

[Barbs]

Originally posted by wylin@Aug 12 2002, 04:03 AM
Originally posted by Barbs@Aug 12 2002, 03:29 AM
i've noticed the utter lack of cohesion and unity amongst chinese people. total disarray!! i sort of envy the koreans their total and utter sense of unity.
um i guess their divided country dont count huh?
oh yeah....that north-south divide. had almost forgotten about that. i was actually referring more tho to the koreans in the u.s.

u know what i have never understood? in college, i'd get koreans who'd come up to me and say without any of the preliminary niceties, "are you korean?" to which i would respond no. upon hearing that, they'd just walk off. what is that all about????

within the chinese ethnicity there are a lot of steretypes and preconceptions that abound.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by wylin@Aug 12 2002, 04:03 AM
i also think the very divergent social and economic status of different chinese peoples, causes distrust. same w/ different languages...like cantonese to me it sounds like vietnamese, and mandrin to them sounds like arabic. kinda hard to find sumthing in common w/ sumone u cant understand.
i don't think there's so much of a language or regional divide though. at least in the young generation, you have to look at 2nd and 3rd-generation kids raised overseas, Hong Kongers, the less-integrated ethnic minorities, or kids who have spent all their lives on the farm, before you find someone who speaks dialect or a minority language fluently but can't really talk in Mandarin.

in China it looks to me like the divisions between different groups have pretty much broken down, at least in the cities. Wherever you go there's so many migrants from all the provinces, as well as ethnic minorities. So they all gotta use Mandarin to talk with each other, and they're used to hearing accents from all over the place. people speaking the same language only feel divisions where they're separated by borders which make it harder for people from one side to go settle and raise a family on the other side. so the big divide that remains is HK vs Taiwan vs China, which is primarily the result of those political borders causing their cultures to evolve in 3 different directions for the past 50 years.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by AliBabaIncorporated@Aug 12 2002, 12:07 AM
i don't think there's so much of a language or regional divide though. at least in the young generation, you have to look at 2nd and 3rd-generation kids raised overseas, Hong Kongers, the less-integrated ethnic minorities, or kids who have spent all their lives on the farm, before you find someone who speaks dialect or a minority language fluently but can't really talk in Mandarin.

in China it looks to me like the divisions between different groups have pretty much broken down, at least in the cities. Wherever you go there's so many migrants from all the provinces, as well as ethnic minorities. So they all gotta use Mandarin to talk with each other, and they're used to hearing accents from all over the place. people speaking the same language only feel divisions where they're separated by borders which make it harder for people from one side to go settle and raise a family on the other side. so the big divide that remains is HK vs Taiwan vs China, which is primarily the result of those political borders causing their cultures to evolve in 3 different directions for the past 50 years.
don't forget singaporean chinese! :) singaporean culture is definitely distinct.

but i think there is a great division within mainland china now, which is that of the urban city dwellers and the rural peasants who are more often than not very poor. most city dwellers are completely modern-minded people and enjoy a very good living, while many rural peasants still live in an environment that hasn't changed much at all in the past century. while the rural peasants have no idea what life is like in the city, many city dwellers now were born and raised in the city and have no idea what life is like in rural areas.

and don't forget that there are actually 30 million overseas chinese people all over the world (which includes people in TW, HK, and SG). there are major differences between overseas chinese people in SE Asia and those in western countries.

[thaite]

We all know Thais are the best.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Aug 12 2002, 02:17 PM
but i think there is a great division within mainland china now, which is that of the urban city dwellers and the rural peasants who are more often than not very poor. most city dwellers are completely modern-minded people and enjoy a very good living, while many rural peasants still live in an environment that hasn't changed much at all in the past century. while the rural peasants have no idea what life is like in the city, many city dwellers now were born and raised in the city and have no idea what life is like in rural areas.

and don't forget that there are actually 30 million overseas chinese people all over the world (which includes people in TW, HK, and SG). there are major differences between overseas chinese people in SE Asia and those in western countries.
how often does the divide between rural and urban mainland Chinese actually show up in the US? i get the sense the mainland population over here is overwhelmingly urban. if US gets stricter on illegal immigration like signs are showing, it's gonna trend even more urban.

30 million overseas Chinese including Singapore, HK, and Taiwan? That seems quite on the low side ... Singapore has 3 million, HK 7 million, and Taiwan 23 million. Not to mention Malaysia has a population a bit bigger than Taiwan and 28% of that are Chinese people. USA has another 2 million also. Thailand also has plenty, not sure of the exact figure. i remember reading a figure pointing out that if you took us as a nation, the total GDP of overseas Chinese people + Taiwan and HK is equal to the GDP of China.

and believe me I've noticed the major differences between overseas Chinese in SE Asia and Chinese-Americans/Canadians/Australians. I'm not sure I understand it too well, even though I grew up here for more than 2/3 of my life now. But I think most ABCs don't understand this divide too well either, they assume their lack of knowledge about Chinese culture and language is a natural consequence of living in a multicultural society.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by AliBabaIncorporated@Aug 12 2002, 06:20 PM
30 million overseas Chinese including Singapore, HK, and Taiwan? That seems quite on the low side ... Singapore has 3 million, HK 7 million, and Taiwan 23 million. Not to mention Malaysia has a population a bit bigger than Taiwan and 28% of that are Chinese people. USA has another 2 million also. Thailand also has plenty, not sure of the exact figure. i remember reading a figure pointing out that if you took us as a nation, the total GDP of overseas Chinese people + Taiwan and HK is equal to the GDP of China.

and believe me I've noticed the major differences between overseas Chinese in SE Asia and Chinese-Americans/Canadians/Australians. I'm not sure I understand it too well, even though I grew up here for more than 2/3 of my life now. But I think most ABCs don't understand this divide too well either, they assume their lack of knowledge about Chinese culture and language is a natural consequence of living in a multicultural society.
hmmm... yeah that does seem quite low. i got that number from Lynn Pan's Sons of the Yellow Emperor, which talks about overseas Chinese world-wide. maybe she wasn't including Taiwan in that number.

basically the chinese in SE Asian tends to be more affluent in their countries than those in western countries. chinese people also had a very long and influential history in SE Asian countries, and they can afford to educate and raise their children in an environment surrounded by chinese culture even though they're not in china. however, this is not the case in western countries, where chinese people found that they must assimilate into mainstream society in order to survive. the most notable difference is that the overseas chinese in western countries will most often than not identify themselves as chinese american, chinese canadian, british chinese, australian chinese, etc etc, whereas those in SE Asian countries just identify themselves as chinese.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Aug 13 2002, 02:49 AM
basically the chinese in SE Asian tends to be more affluent in their countries than those in western countries. chinese people also had a very long and influential history in SE Asian countries, and they can afford to educate and raise their children in an environment surrounded by chinese culture even though they're not in china. however, this is not the case in western countries, where chinese people found that they must assimilate into mainstream society in order to survive. the most notable difference is that the overseas chinese in western countries will most often than not identify themselves as chinese american, chinese canadian, british chinese, australian chinese, etc etc, whereas those in SE Asian countries just identify themselves as chinese.
Assimilation isn't really so much about money as it is about the lack of community institutions, especially schools. Dirt-poor French Canadian farmers in New England and indentured Chinese laborers in Thailand both managed to set up their own school systems (usually with help from religious associations), and were effective enough at resisting societal attempts to force them to forget their language and culture that the government had to intervene by temporarily outlawing teaching in their languages and forcing their kids to go to public schools.

Besides Chinese in America are now rich enough to raise their children with a lot more exposure to Chinese culture than most presently get, if they really wanted. (shameless plug: i've speculated on whether Chinese people would try setting up their own school system in the US, and what its effects would be if it did. old weblog entries one (http://mixedasian.blogspot.com/2002_07_21_mixedasian_archive.html#79336341),two (http://mixedasian.blogspot.com/2002_07_21_mixedasian_archive.html#79431284), and
three (http://mixedasian.blogspot.com/2002_07_28_mixedasian_archive.html#79717473))

[artsfartsyjanet]

My family is Chinese but most of them were born and grew up in Vietnam. I know just from my family's dialogue that there's tension between the Chinese and Vietnamese, especially among SE Asians. Of course, my family's a bit more tolerant to accept the Vietnamese because a lot of my relatives are Vietnamese. I am very glad that the student organization I ran consists of a combination of Koreans, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan, Chinese, Indian, and Taiwanese students. I think it's been a real blessing to have that kind of experience and unity.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by AliBabaIncorporated@Aug 13 2002, 04:21 AM
Originally posted by SunWuKung@Aug 13 2002, 02:49 AM
basically the chinese in SE Asian tends to be more affluent in their countries than those in western countries. chinese people also had a very long and influential history in SE Asian countries, and they can afford to educate and raise their children in an environment surrounded by chinese culture even though they're not in china. however, this is not the case in western countries, where chinese people found that they must assimilate into mainstream society in order to survive. the most notable difference is that the overseas chinese in western countries will most often than not identify themselves as chinese american, chinese canadian, british chinese, australian chinese, etc etc, whereas those in SE Asian countries just identify themselves as chinese.
Assimilation isn't really so much about money as it is about the lack of community institutions, especially schools. Dirt-poor French Canadian farmers in New England and indentured Chinese laborers in Thailand both managed to set up their own school systems (usually with help from religious associations), and were effective enough at resisting societal attempts to force them to forget their language and culture that the government had to intervene by temporarily outlawing teaching in their languages and forcing their kids to go to public schools.

Besides Chinese in America are now rich enough to raise their children with a lot more exposure to Chinese culture than most presently get, if they really wanted. (shameless plug: i've speculated on whether Chinese people would try setting up their own school system in the US, and what its effects would be if it did. old weblog entries one (http://mixedasian.blogspot.com/2002_07_21_mixedasian_archive.html#79336341),two (http://mixedasian.blogspot.com/2002_07_21_mixedasian_archive.html#79431284), and
three (http://mixedasian.blogspot.com/2002_07_28_mixedasian_archive.html#79717473))
but i don't think you can deny that being relatively rich in their host countries in SE Asian countries afforded chinese communities to build their own institutions. this is not to say that every chinese person that lived in SE Asian countries were richer, but many chinese people in SE Asian countries built fortunes on export-import businesses. i suspect also that it had to do with racism in western countries, especially racist laws, that led chinese people to assimilate in western countries. but another thing to note is that before WW2, most of the chinese diaspora went to SE Asian countries rather than western countries. after WW2, the flow shifted. so you can also say that chinese people actually have not been in western countries long enough to be able to build an identity there as just chinese instead of chinese-_________.

hey nice commenting on chinese educational institutions. by the way, there are tons of chinese stars that have found fame in the chinese speaking world who were from the states or canada. amongst them daniel wu, edison chen, peggy hsu, karena lam, christy chung, and even maggie cheung, etc etc. it's like everytime i turn around, i find out that some other chinese star is from a western country. and then there's michelle yeoh and lee sin-jie (angelica lee) from malaysia. B)

also, a note on chinese in thailand. the thailand monarchy has historically made it very favorable for chinese people to assimilate. some have even been given titles of royalty. i think thailand is a special case in SE Asia and definitely warrants studying by itself.



<!--EDIT|SunWuKung|Aug 13 2002, 11:15 AM-->

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Aug 13 2002, 04:07 PM
i suspect also that it had to do with racism in western countries, especially racist laws, that led chinese people to assimilate in western countries.
I'm really not sure about this one. At least from what I've seen racism is inversely related to assimilation. The more racism, the more you want to hold on to your culture.

We've had 30 years of affirmative action for ethnic Malays. This is not just like the informal agreement among Ivy Leagues in the first half of the 20th century that they wouldn't admit Jews (which Columbia broke, at great advantage to itself and the prestige of its academic departments). There are laws and statutes governing percentage of Malays in government positions, in universities, on corporate boards of directors, ownership of stock in new IPOs, etc. Malays are effectively allowed to bypass university entrance exams through this bullshit system known as "matriculation classes" which Chinese and Indians are not permitted to enter. They claim this system will end soon, making great concessions such as giving us 10% of the seats in matriculation classes and public junior colleges (Chinese and Indians together form about 45% of Malaysia's population), but who knows what other tricks they'll pull after that?

The government refuses to recognize many professional certifications from Taiwan, which is richer than Malaysia, considering them only on a university-by-university basis, while accepting some from countries which are poorer than Malaysia and have lower educational standards. (Imagine if the US civil service hired college graduates from Russia and Albania while claiming that degree-holders from Japan aren't up to the educational standards required for the jobs). They drag their feet on building permits for new Chinese schools.

Politicians regularly make anti-Chinese comments without public uproar. The head of a major political party stated about two years ago that "Problems such as drinking, gambling, and other vices would be solved if the Chinese converted to Islam." (Imagine if a US congressman stated that "The terrorist problem would be solved if Arab-Americans converted to Christianity." How long do you think he'd last before being forced to resign?)

Malaysia's constitution specifically states that the head of state must be Malay (and not Chinese or Indian). This is part of the core text of the constitution enshrined at independence. There is no beating around the bush with expressions like "persons not otherwise enumerated" in the US constitution - the text of this section directly mentions race.

Under Internal Security Act you can be arrested for questioning any of the above. It is officially illegal to discuss these matters on the floor of the legislature.

With this kind of blatant discrimination, maintaining our culture isn't based on any higher aspirations of honoring our ancestors or participating in the worldwide fellowship of overseas Chinese - it's a sheer necessity of life, because we know that not sticking together is like bending over and inviting society to pull down our trousers and have some fun. It requires an incredible stretch of the imagination to say that the US has been anywhere near this bad in the same timeframe.

[Ch8Li179]

It would depend on if you are talking about the Asians in America. Because when the Chinese immigrated to the U.S.A. in the early 1900s, they were poor and uneducated and they were looking for a way out of the poor starving village back in China.
While when the Japanese immigrated to the U.S.A. within that time period they tend to have money and were very well educated. They had degrees and even spoke english.

[DaBestSpoona]

from what I've observed:

-southeast asians get looked down upon by chinese, japanese, koreans
-south koreans hate everyone, and they got love hate thing with north korea
-young japaneses are pretty indifferent, older japanese hate koreans, hate mainland chinese, but different when it comes to hong kong, singaporean, american chinese.
-Chinese hate each other, taiwanese people hate being labeled chinese even though they're ethnically chinese.


but its not just asians its the whole world

-jews hate palestineans
-irish hate brits
-germans hate belgiums

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by DaBestSpoona@Aug 16 2002, 08:56 AM
-Chinese hate each other, taiwanese people hate being labeled chinese even though they're ethnically chinese.
i don't know if you can go so far as to say that chinese people "hate" each other. but yeah there are plenty of negative pre-conceptions across different groups of chinese people.

and many, if not most, taiwanese people actually consider themselves chinese also. a talk show in taiwan 2 years ago polled its viewers on whether or not they agree that "taiwanese are also chinese". Of 5070 viewers who called in, 4399 or 87% agreed, 632 or 12% disagreed, and 39 or 1% were not sure.

http://www.antiwar.com/chu/c100200.html



<!--EDIT|SunWuKung|Aug 16 2002, 01:00 PM-->

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by DaBestSpoona@Aug 16 2002, 01:56 PM
-older japanese hate koreans, hate mainland chinese, but different when it comes to hong kong, singaporean, american chinese.
most older Japanese are indifferent to mainland Chinese and Koreans. the only things they know are what they read in the paper and what they hear from other older people who lived in Manchukuo or Korea in the 30s, which are mostly pleasant colonialist memories (at least from the Japanese perspective). as for when they meet mainland Chinese and Koreans in person in Japan, it has a tendency to short circuit their brain, cuz of the ultra-conformist and homogenous society - they're looking at an East Asian face, and so expecting the owner of that face to act precisely like any other Japanese person.

[boycott]

The intra asian hierarchy exists mainly among Asians just like the intra white hierarch exists among Whites. Similarly, white Americans have learned to omit that hierarchy in the states just as Asian Americans are learning to omit our hierarchy here as well. That's a day I hope I live to see when all Asian Americans of all etnicities can unite and be strong like the whites and blacks. Can't wait for Asian American Cable Channel, Movie Studios, Movies, Music Superstars,etc....!!!

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by boycott@Aug 21 2002, 06:34 PM
Similarly, white Americans have learned to omit that hierarchy in the states
Well, not entirely. Ask Greek people, for example.

That's a day I hope I live to see when all Asian Americans of all etnicities can unite and be strong like the whites and blacks.

huh? blacks, having completely eliminated prejudice based on their national origins, still have plenty of internal divisions based on skin color hierarchy, good hair, the "talented tenth" vs. the masses, etc, as well as social problems in poverty and violence. but hey, at least they get respect from the white people, which is what we all aspire to, right?

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by AliBabaIncorporated@Aug 21 2002, 04:44 PM
That's a day I hope I live to see when all Asian Americans of all etnicities can unite and be strong like the whites and blacks.

huh? blacks, having completely eliminated prejudice based on their national origins, still have plenty of internal divisions based on skin color hierarchy, good hair, the "talented tenth" vs. the masses, etc, as well as social problems in poverty and violence. but hey, at least they get respect from the white people, which is what we all aspire to, right?
i think he's just talking about uniting across ethnic lines because... well... blacks in america today have no ethnic differences (however, they do differentiate those who are from the islands). that's something i definitely don't wish to see of asians in america.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Aug 21 2002, 10:34 PM
i think he's just talking about uniting across ethnic lines because... well... blacks in america today have no ethnic differences (however, they do differentiate those who are from the islands). that's something i definitely don't wish to see of asians in america.
that reminds me, here is a Washington Post article about divisions between blacks, Africans, and Caribbeans:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A...anguage=printer (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57951-2002Feb23?language=printer)

[boycott]

wow, thanks for the link. I admit this is the second time here reading the link and the first time out of ignorant reluctance I had no wish to follow the link and read what it reported. Now, I'm glad I did, goes to show how similar ppl are to others. Still unaffected are my feelings for black americans that they are victims of their own actions. I'd rather choose a black friend from Africa or any other country than an African American any day. Most of them speak two or more languages and have a lot of respect for others and work quite hard unlike their american counterparts. You don't have to agree. We all have our own opinions.

[Dei Wong]

This is not a question of liking you better than someone else. I most certainly don't consider myself a racist but I like my race better than anyother. I am very proud to be who I am but at the sametime I don't feel that everyone else in beneath me. I like to think I view others as equals and not follow the trend that number of people from my own and other races who believe otherwise. Does anyone here feel they are better in some way than the other races?

[Player 0]

Well i do feel i'm superior to white Australians.

[Hiroshi2]

I'm superior to everybody, period.

[yoMAMA]

I'm superior to everybody, period.

LOL

me 2

[returntosender]

Eh?

Not really. It's weird though. Recently I found out that E. Asians-Chinese, Korean, Japanese-think that I am inferior because I'm South East Asian. Never occured to me until now. I have had Korean friends and Chinese friends, but the attitude surfaced when i went into Korean, Chinese, and Japanese forums.

[Dei Wong]

Eh?

Not really. It's weird though. Recently I found out that E. Asians-Chinese, Korean, Japanese-think that I am inferior because I'm South East Asian. Never occured to me until now. I have had Korean friends and Chinese friends, but the attitude surfaced when i went into Korean, Chinese, and Japanese forums.

Wow. Would you mine elaborating I would like to hear your opinion.

[Banana]

That's no surprise. Just like I said that the Japanese think they're superior to all Asians, Chinese and Koreans tend to believe they're above any type of Southeast Asian or Indian.

[VV o n g B a]

That's no surprise. Just like I said that the Japanese think they're superior to all Asians, Chinese and Koreans tend to believe they're above any type of Southeast Asian or Indian.i've heard of se asians feeling superior to other se asians. like thais feeling superior to cambodians or even north vietnamese feeling south vietnamese are inferior. they only mention this when drunk tho.

[kimpossible]

There used to be a long thread about intra-Asian hierarchies and the perception of each ethnicity to be superior to all others. I think a bit of it is natural. Even though my husband and I are very culturally American, we rib each other over Japanese/Chinese superiority sometimes. Mostly it's a joke but I also think there's belief behind it and most Asians know about it, whether or not they subscribe to it or abhor it is a different story.

mod note: Found the old thread, ressurected out of archive and merged this thread with it.