Hip Hop Class

I started going to a Hip Hop class and I was surprised to find that most people in the class were Asian. Weird, huh?

I find that I'm not as cool as I thought I'd be dancing hip hop.

Man on the street

I noticed that every time I get approached on the street in terms of people asking for directions, it's always somebody Asian. Do you think it's because Asians just generally gravitate towards other Asians? Or because I'm Asian, they think I'd understand where they are going?

Karaoke

Asians love karaoke. Why? I don't know. I always thought I liked it because I enjoy singing but it turns out, I like it because I'm Asian. My dad loves it because he likes the attention and he thinks he's really good. Maybe it's a vanity thing, although I can't really say Asians are vain. There must be some sort of cultural sociological study on this phenomenon.

Think it's a stereotype that Asians love karaoke? Want proof? Go here:

Amazing.

Foot Binding

I still can't get over that the Chinese use to bind the feet of their women. They would start the process when the girls are young, and then once they grow up, women would have these horribly small and deformed feet that were suppose to have some sort of erotic/docile appeal. If you've seen pictures, you know how painful they look. I'm so glad we have progressed beyond that but it still haunts me to know we use to do that for such demeaning reasons. The bound feet was sexually alluring because of the fact that it was covered, and also the fact that it made women walk a certain way. But the most alarming reason for the bound feet was that it limited a women's mobility- it represented docility, and how she can't be independent and thus is limited to her family and husbands needs.

My dad use to say my feet was too big and half jokingly threatened to tie a rope around them to make them smaller. No wonder I hate feet.

Dear Prudence...

Umm. Wow. I came across this and just had to post it because it relates to my other post about Asian fetishes:

Dear Prudence,

My husband has a thing for Asian women (we are both Caucasian), and I don't know how to handle it. Whenever we are out in public or watching TV and he sees Asian girls/women, he can't take his eyes off them. It makes me uncomfortable and really throws a damper on any outing. From the time he spots one, he is distracted. I had a good friend who is Chinese, but the friendship fizzled after I found out (from him) that he came on to her once when he'd been drinking. He developed a crush on a co-worker of his who is Japanese, but fortunately they no longer work together. I don't believe either of these women encouraged him in any way. I had never felt prejudice against Asians until I realized that my husband is fascinated by the women. Now his obsession has turned into my obsession. My stomach is in knots every time we are in the presence of an attractive Asian woman. In my husband's rise up the corporate ladder, he may inherit a secretary who is Asian, and it has become one of my biggest fears. I really don't think I will be able to handle it. This isn't far-fetched because we live in an area with a higher-than-average Asian population. I have talked to my husband very honestly about my feelings. He denies that he is obsessed, but denial is standard operating procedure where he is concerned. I know I can't change what type of women my husband is attracted to, but how can I learn to live with this?

—No Asian Vacations

Dear No,
Well, now you are both obsessed with Asian women. Their attraction for American men is nothing new; they can be exotic-looking, along with having the cultural stereotype of a docile, man-pleasing submissiveness. This, of course, is not necessarily the reality. As for the electricity these women hold for your husband, there is nothing you can do except put in some time with a therapist—and maybe take your husband with you—to talk about your fears and try to come away with a way to manage them. No offense, but one wonders why your mate did not marry one of these women in the first place. Your response to the situation may be extreme, but it is evident that you did not manufacture this problem out of thin air. And you must resolve this insecurity if you are to have any peace of mind. Get thee to a shrink.

Boston's Chinatown

ON THIS DAY...

...in 1870, a train arrived in North Adams with 75 young men from China
hired to replace striking shoe workers. Over 2,000 people watched as the men
walked to the factory under police escort. The crowd was hostile, but there
was no violence. The Chinese proved to be both cheaper and more efficient
than the union shoe workers they replaced. But a Chinese community did not
take root in Berkshire County. Within a decade, only five Chinese men
remained in North Adams. Small numbers of Chinese could be found living in
other Bay State cities, but Boston was the only place in Massachusetts to
develop a real Chinatown. For over half a century, the population of
Chinatown was almost entirely male.

Source: http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=191

Asian Fetish?

I decided to do some research about the so called "Asian fetish"- so I started googling every keyword combination I could to help me piece together the possible background to its meaning.

I found two links:

1. Exotic Asian Women

This site half infuriates me and half amuses me. Okay, so fine, men can order Asian women "pen pals" from other countries, which doesn't bother me as long as the women are freely volunteering to do this, but it's the word "EXOTIC" that really bugs me. Why can't you just say "Asian Women", why add the word EXOTIC? So typical. And sketchy.

2. An Economist Solves the Mysteries of Dating

This study concludes that there is no such thing as an "Asian Fetish" with white men:

"We found no evidence of the stereotype of a white male preference for East Asian women. However, we also found that East Asian women did not discriminate against white men (only against black and Hispanic men). As a result, the white man-Asian woman pairing was the most common form of interracial dating—but because of the women's neutrality, not the men's pronounced preference. We also found that regional differences mattered. Daters of both sexes from south of the Mason-Dixon Line revealed much stronger same-race preferences than Northern daters."

The interesting thing about the two links is that the first one clearly sends a message that there are people out there who have some sort of an Asian women preference and therefore find the need to buy email lists to write to Asian women...but then the second link says the opposite. It's because of women's "neutrality?" What does that mean? Does that mean that the reason why Asian women date white men is because the women are indifferent to the idea?