When foreigners think they’re Asian (a controversial post)

It’s a common thing to find Asians who want to look like Caucasians, but it’s a whole other annoying thing when foreigners think they’re more Asian than the Asians themselves. That’s how they start earning names for themselves bestowed by the ‘real locals’ – orang putih, farang, gaijin, ang moh – just to name a few…

Now as uncharacteristic and rude of Asians to ‘label’ and ‘tag’ foreigners like that, there is a good reason for it. Asians don’t turn on their roots and suddenly become hostile to visitors, but I guess foreigners who wear out their welcome and overstep their boundaries by trying to ‘report about Asia‘ and dictating what IS ‘Asian’ when they haven’t even scratched the surface of it, are just asking for it.

Seriously, do you think that just because you ‘teach English/TESOL in Asia’ or you married/dated and Asian or lived in Asia that makes you Asian and able to represent/be a spokesperson for Asia? You must be delusional. We’re not racist here at EAF, but we just want to set things straight – Just as dying our hair blonde and going for rhinoplasty doesn’t make us any more Caucasian, neither does you a foreigner living/marrying/dating/teaching in Asia make you any more Asian.

Have you ever noticed that most sites about Asia are written by foreigners with ‘experience’ of Asia? Then have you ever noticed that almost half of the population who read them are Asians? Do you think it’s because we don’t know our own people, our own culture, our own history, our own country -that we turn to you for guidance? Certainly not! We’re there to see what utter inaccurate facts you have written about us and laugh at your idocracy. Depending on how inaccurate your statements are, you just might have earned yourself another nickname and an additional hiss from Asia.

Learning about other cultures is great, but when you come barging in and telling us what our culture is then obviously you can’t expect a standing ovation for your arrival. We appreciate you are trying to share what you have learnt from us, but know that there is likely more to what you have seen or heard so you’re not an expert. We don’t appreciate your foreign supremacy. It’s mutual respect and dictating on what you don’t know to the people who do know is not respectful.

If you’ve read this far, then you probably think that we hate foreigners, but contrary to that- Asians adore foreigners! You even get better treatment than the locals! Imagine how that biased treatment itself already annoys the locals.

So with your “privileged” experience, can you really accurately describe Asia? If you’re not even treated like a local Asian, what makes you think you know what it’s like to be Asian?

All your books about Asia or the Asian culture/history etc were sourced from Asians but did you stop to realise that perhaps some bits were lost in translation or misunderstood? You might not know everything because we can’t tell you everything – everything is a lot to tell! And we know this for a fact because like the websites, we too read your books and we see what you don’t – inaccurate representations.

We just don’t kick up a fuss about it because as unhappy as we are, we want to stay as polite possible. (name calling is already bad enough) But when your inaccurate facts paints stereotypes that weigh on us Asians and the continent of Asia, we know humility is something that you have forgotten.

EAF is not against the ang moh kui/farang/gaijin/orang putih/beruk. We apologise to even mention those names here but a fact is a fact and we just want you to know that you once came to us with respect…where is that respect now?

We do not support any form of supremacy, Asian or Caucasian… we just want everyone to practice responsible journalism/writings and remember to be humble – know humility when you enter a world that is not yours.