Hi I am here to provide dose of Asian

Pompom, I can't view it now since I'm on a cellphone, but tell me something...are the Japanese really racist toward the Chinese?

Sometimes yes but it's no diffierent than racism towards black people in the US or whatever (i.e. you'll find certain pockets that are strongly racist, but most won't be although they and the mainstream culture will be aware of it)

Really? In this day and age, if I posted a sign on my establishment that said "no black people allowed," I wouldn't get any real repercussions?

So how come those restaurants and whatever in Japan that have "No Chinese" signs are allowed to stay in business?

Edit: Echoman beat me to it.

Because 1) Japan is (mostly) homogenous and thus there are very few citizens that would complain and start an action to get rid of those places, 2) Japan is (mostly) homogenous and thus the government will not face much outrage to compel them to act to get rid of those places, and 3) because Japan is (mostly) homogenous, most people (i.e. Japanese people) aren't affected and don't really care.

Like I said, there are pockets of places like that (the "Deep South pre-civil rights movement" of Japan) but most places will be aware of it but not really care either way / consider it a slight social taboo that isn't mentioned or discussed for the most part. The difference is that unlike the US was, there is no compelling reason for there to be a "civil rights" movement in Japan to change that.


[It's worth mentioning that interestingly, the amount of "active" dislike towards Japanese people by Chinese and Korean people in China and Korea is much stronger due to entrenched bitterness from the atrocities of WWII and such. In short, it's more accurate to say that Chinese/Korean people "hate" Japanese people, and Japanese people are just indifferent or want to act like it never happened (*cough* WWII and Pearl Harbor being taken out of Japanese textbooks *cough*). That's been my experience, at least, both in Asia and here -- I have a number of Korean friends who fit the description who were born and raised in the US. So it's definitely entrenched.]

Well, from I've seen, the younger generation is a bit more open and accepting. Atleast in places such as Korea. Mostly thanks to the part of more internationalism from such elements like the internet, sharing of media and the global economy.

But still...

Saying which side "hates" and which side just wants to become "indifferent" seems like going into semantics. No, I'm quite aware there is a shared pool of animosity toward each other.

Yeah I don't mean to make a blanket statement for all Chinese or Korean people by any means (I myself don't "hate" Japanese people, for one =_=) -- for every example of the above, I can probably think of an example of someone who is the opposite.


On another note, I was just suddenly reminded of this time when I was in Switzerland and, while walking down the street, was given dirty looks and (in hindsight) taunting/menacing(?) gestures from a group of four or five local teenagers. They shouted something, too, I think. It's a good thing I was rife with American arrogance and walked confidently on thinking if they dared follow me I could take all four of them on (to be fair, they were pretty skinny and punky looking >_>).

Since my original post has been thoroughly derailed, post stories of when you have encountered racism or xenophobia in a foreign land!


Well I dunno, 'hate' and 'indifferent' have fairly different meanings. What I mean by "hate" is active dislike and not being afraid or even yearning to speak out about it. What I mean by "indifferent" is, well, not caring personally and pretending that the people who do care (i.e. the "haters") don't exist.

I've never encountered racism toward myself anywhere. I even went to Africa once, it was full of Arabs though.

Well, yeah. But what I was getting at was that, when it comes to something like Korean-Japanese relations, it's somewhat fruitless to claim one side is acting in such a manner out of "hate" and the other out of a strong sense "indifference." I mean, one could argue that Japan's general society's feelings of supporting and allowing this "indifference" is essentially elementally similar to Korea's underlying attitude about Japanese people and culture.

btw if you have about 5-10 minutes to blow and are bored, skip to about 5:47 in this vid

http://www.imeem.com/neenie/video/yhWEjobv/sayonara_zetsubou_sensei_3_animation_video/

The show is a comedy/parody/social commentary on various aspects of Japanese mentality and life; this particular part is about a foreign girl that joins the class and both the Japanese idea of foreigners (caricatures/hyperbole, e.g. "Americans sue for everything!") and the Japanese idea of foreigners' idea of Japan (also caricatures/hyperbole), etc.

It's also pretty funny and the show itself is just awesome so yeah. The teacher constantly tries to kill himself because he's "in despair" (commentary on the disturbingly high suicide rate?) and it's a little twisted, a little dark, but still manages to be entertaining while being intelligent and allowing you think about what's being commented on (if you want to) at the same time.

Haha, I loved those Fanta commercials! I especially liked the Miss Soap Opera one.

I've faced rascism, and plenty of it.

But I've learned over time how to blend in with the population, and well, its hard to tell that I am an American anymore, of course, I can easily switch to my American personality and I surprise people, but thats different.