Forgot your own rule buddy

How about living in that Asian country for 15-20+ years. Married to an Asian. Divorced from an Asian. Living with Asian in-laws. Working in an Asian company. Mastering (reading and writing) that Asian language. Participating with your Asian family in the many rites of passage – birth, death, marriage, divorce….

Um, that could make a good start.

I take that back – There was some irony in the piece. You are trying to inform foreigners of who they are, and why they are bad for trying to inform Asians of who they are. And look, here I am trying to inform you of who you are! And so we come full circle.

First off, Japanese call people “gaijin” when the Japanese are tourists in a foreign country themselves. It has nothing to do with labeling a sub-culture of Japanophiles who think they know all about the culture. (This is also true of Koreans using “weiguk-in” – Why not add that to your list?)

Next, how ludicrous is it that you group such an abundance of Eastern cultures into the singular “Asian”. I don’t think Koreans would say that they have very much in common with Japanese, just like I don’t have very much in common with most other white people besides we’re, well, white. (Although I’m technically more of a minority in Western countries than Asians – I’m a Jew, and there are even less of us in the entire world [14,000,000] than even just the population of Korea alone [44,000,000])

People document their experiences in foreign countries not as be-all-end-all lectures, but as perspectives. Even this blog entry here, it’s a perspective, although not a very well thought out one. The writing itself has this underlying agenda that hints at some social injustice or revenge. You try to soften your opinion with phrases like “we appreciate, but…” and “we aren’t racist, but…” which is the same as the incredibly annoying, “I don’t mean to offend you, but [insert intentionally offensive comment].”

And that last bit about “responsible journalism” – Priceless! Isn’t that just the pot calling the kettle black.

Non-Asian looking foreigners in Japan tend to get a bit more priviledged treatment because face it, the average Japanese brain goes into the “foreigner” mode during those encounters. If they were to put themselves into the shoes of anyone Asian looking, the amount of leeway they would find themselves subjected to would be less favorable as they would for the most part be ignored.

Another thing I notice in Japan with many gaijins is how they tend not to acknowledge each other. Quite a difference if you’ve ever stayed in other countries where you often times bond with someone who is foreign to the country. You would think in general, there would be a little bit of instant comradery in Japan but what you often observe is the exact opposite. It’s like this odd territorial thing where they want to protect “their piece of Japan.” Foreigners often set their own hierarchy once they find out how many years one has been in the country as if it were a license which determines their knowledge level of the country. I bet some of these same people are the ones who blog online to impart their wisdom in authoritative fashion to their readership.

Being one of Japanese ancestry and upbringing, it is often humorous to have to read or watch videos of these people who think they can decipher some of the social and cultural nuances of why the natives think and do things the way they do in Japan.

The thing I found with many gaikokujin, despite the length of time in the county and their fluency of the language, is that a good majority are clueless about the details of the history of the country which often times, affects their ability to really understand the cultural aspects of the society they live in. For someone having grown up in constantly immersed in a particular culture, certain things become ingrained and second nature. How do you explain all these symbiotic relationships to someone who grew up in a completely different paradigm? One tiny example is sho-ga-nai. Drives many foreigners in Japan crazy to the point where they cannot grok the concept of how Japanese people can just shrug their shoulders and say “it can’t be helped.” Many gaijins make fun of “the Wa” when that particular aspect of group harmony is related to shoganai and tied deeply into Japanese history and culture which again, many foreigners tend to know very little about. And like you mentioned, there is the lost in translation aspect because again, the language also often times ties into the cultural context which results in a less than accurate interpretation of what was trying to be conveyed. Foreigners tend to look at this as an Asian being vague when part of that vagueness is because not everything needs to always be said directly. And that aspect also drives foreigners crazy in Japan. Many who have lived here for years think they know a lot but the reality is they are just scratching the surface.

I would suggest, though, that even those of us writing about our home countries need to take the same care – my experience of my home city is often surprising to others who grew up in Melbourne and similarly there are activities and places and attitudes which others from Melbourne might say are “esentially Melbournian” and yet I have never experienced them. I’m sure I slip up occasionally, as we all would, but it is important to remember we cannot truly know what is in anyone else’s heart, even if we grew up next door!

I do hope that when the “Asians” you speak of read posts/articles about Asia written by foreigners that they sometimes read them to discover what is an honest, personal experience of their country/region by a foreigner and don’t only read them looking for material to mock and jeer, assuming that the post will be “idiotic” purely because the author is not Asian. There are certainly a fair share of “ïdiots” in the blogosphere but many bloggers and travel reporters write in hopes of helping each other and making the world a smaller, friendlier and more understanding place.

Maybe it’s the excitement some people get when they learn something new which makes them so edger to share they forget about everything else.

But either way, it’s just good to remember we are not the best and we don’t know everything…nothing wrong with being humble, makes everyone else more forgiving when we make a slip-up…

As someone who writes about Japan I am very careful to quote my sources for information and always welcome corrections or clarifications. I also think that the attempt to learn more about a culture and to share it with others is very valuable.

The people that you describe as “trying to be more Asian that Asians” can be annoying to people of their own culture (speaking from my point of view as a Caucasian woman). It’s one thing to humbly share what you’ve learned vs. claiming to be an expert. I’ll take the humble version and go to the source if I want an expert as hard as that may be when I’m not fluent in the language.