Non-Asians born in Asia

[pikachupacabra]

I'm curious about people's experiences with people who are ethnically non-east-asian (let's say...russian, or those people in Western China who are really dark and sometimes muslim, can't remember...) but are born, raised, and native to an East-Asian country.

To make an example; In Japan, there are a lot of people of Russian descent. I ran into a lot who were born, and raised there and couldn't speak anything but Japanese and Russian. They physically looked Caucasian, but dressed very "Japanese", had "Japanese" facial expressions, mannerisms, and such. I have to admit it totally weirded me out. It almost looked kind of cosplay-ish (since that's what I see in the US), but these people did it perfectly, naturally, and, of course, that's how they were raised.


Still, I found it kind of odd.


Anyone else have similar experiences, thoughts, opinions?

[SunWuKong]

i used to work with a Brit guy that was raised in HK. he could speak Cantonese, but with an accent and his vocabulary is not fluent. but he would regularly get Chinese herbal drinks at those herbal drink shops, and he once said he didn't want dimsum because it was 熱氣.

but for the most part, expats that were born/raised in HK stick with the expat community because basically they can afford to. there is enough cultural commodity that are accessed through English for them to do this.

the South Asians in HK is a different story. most are poor and go to local schools with the rest of the locals. many if not most can pull off fluent Cantonese without a hint of an accent.

[AngryABCGirl]

Funny you mention it the Russians. I've met a lot of Russians from China (bunch in Harbin) and from Japan. It's really trippy because they've inherited so many habits for their adopted countries, food, language, etc.

What about ethnic minorities in Asia that are "un-Asian" in their countries, like Cham in Vietnam or Uighurs in China? Do they count?

[pikachupacabra]

I don't see why they wouldn't count. They don't look traditionally "local" but have all the local mannerisms, so it's kind of a trip.

[SunWuKong]

I don't see why they wouldn't count. They don't look traditionally "local" but have all the local mannerisms, so it's kind of a trip.

no more a trip than Asian Americans, if you think about it. i said to a friend of mine in HK that i found it weird to hear a westerner speak fluent Chinese, and he said that he found it weird to hear a Chinese person speak fluent English.

[kyopojin]

Great topic !

My 9th grade Math teacher @ Sunnyvale High School ( in S'vale,Calif ) was a China-born ( Harbin city in Heilongjiang province ) White-Russian whose parents escaped Bolshevik Revolution in the early 20th century.Mr Ephraimoff could speak some Mandarin with funny accent,but his English was fluently native strangely though.

Russians have long history of intermingle with East Asian folks,they're the only European ethnicity comfortably adapt Oriental culture naturally.For this reason,many W/E European kins regard them MORE " Asiatic " than Western.

[kyopojin]

A side note,small percentage of Russians presently reside in Japan is of Siberian-origin NOT Slavic-stock.