earlier this evening i tweeted a bunch of stuff about the diversity of asian races. that was sparked off when the trend of white people calling themselves asian because they have “chinky eyes” just floated into my mind while i was in a bad mood. those tweets weren’t quite coherent and i did make a few mistakes so let’s start over. im gonna try and use people i know from pop culture and stuff as examples so yall can understand it in this post so saddle up boys and girls and everybody in between, we’re gonna learn about asian people.
1. EAST ASIA
east asia consists of countries such as china, taiwan, japan, korea, hongkong, macau, as well as mongolia. east asian people are the ones typically (badly) represented in western media these days.
this is arden cho. she is korean.
this is lucy liu. she is chinese, and her parents were from different parts of china.
this is yoko ono, and she is japanese.
but wait, it doesn’t stop there. there are also many indigenous civilisations in china (particularly closer to the north), as well as taiwan. some of the descendants of these civilisations have dispersed around east asia in places such as hongkong.
2. WEST ASIA
west asia largely overlaps with what we call the middle east, and consists of more countries than east asia including israel, saudi arabia, iran, palestine, turkey and much much more. im sure you’re familiar with at least some of these countries.
i couldnt find any famous people from west asia (see, representation is important guys!!!) but y’know suleiman of the ottoman empire? yeah he was born in turkey if im not wrong and he’s west asian. pretty cool stuff.
**edit i was informed on a popular iranian actress, thanks mereditheo!
this is nasim pedrad and she’s iranian!
3. CENTRAL ASIA
central asia is basically the the five republics of the soviet union ie kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan. from what i’ve read though, central asia used to be largely populated by iranians a long time ago. also, some people consider parts of mongolia to be a part of central asia, but there’s no solid yes/no on that so yeah.
central asia is populated by people of a pretty big variety of skin tones and features and many of these ethnic groups do “look white”. whether or not they are actually considered to be white, im not entire sure. someone correct me if they know!
this is rita volk and she is from uzbekistan.
4. SOUTH ASIA
south asia consists of countries such as india, pakistan, nepal, sri lanka, bangladesh and many more, and also includes territories from china (like tibet) and afghanistan. the south asians that we see the most of in western media are indians (or rather, lazy stereotypes of them). there are so many different groups of indian people who speak different languages and have very different cultures btw.
like central asia, south asia has a pretty dang big range of races.
this is tina desai and she is indian.
this is dichen lachman. her mother is tibetan, and her father is german. she was born in nepal.
5. NORTH ASIA
north asia is basically russia. russia is big and scary and a lot of its politics are being watched by the world + i think we generally know a little on russia. im no expert on it though, so feel free to add onto my post if you deem necessary.
6. SOUTHEAST ASIA
southeast asia ah yes my home (im singaporean chinese!). southeast asia consists of malaysia, singapore, philippines, indonesia, vietnam, laos, cambodia, thailand, myanmar, and brunei (i hope i didnt miss anyone out). many of these countries also have a pretty high chinese and indian populations. i don’t really know how to explain southeast asia because so many of the people these countries have mixed around tbh but i’ll try.
vietnam, laos, cambodia, thailand, myanmar all lie on the same piece of land. their writing and language systems are similar in some ways and many of them are buddhist. many of these countries are developing pretty fast so watch out, world. again, not a lot of representation in western media so yeah.
malays are native to malaysia, singapore, indonesia, and brunei. they mostly speak different variations of malay. it should be noted that while malays are native to singapore, malays are now considered a minority race here along with indians. the largest population in singapore is the chinese one.
this is michelle yeoh, she is malaysian chinese (race is chinese, born and raised in malaysia)
the philippines is an interesting place, it’s quite different from the rest of southeast asia and doesnt really fit in with any particular group on countries in terms of language of ethnicity. their main language is tagalog and they were once colonised by spain.
this is manny pacquiao and he’s filipino,
this is bob morley and he’s half filipino and yes i know i already have manny but i just like bob too okay
SO YEAH asia and asian races and cultures are really fucking diverse and im kinda mad that im not knowledgable enough to go in-depth on every single culture and ethnicity tbh but if you still think asians are just chink eyes and yellow skin after this post then you’re a racist piece of shit.
feel free to correct me or add on to this post if i made any mistakes and i apologise for the vague-ness on some of the regions. i’ve written more about cultures i’ve lived with/experienced/known friends from those cultures plus like i said im no expert and i didnt want to overstep or make any assumptions so it’d be awesome if anyone who’s more knowledgable than i am added on to this post! anyway if you read this whole thing that’s hecka rad and i hope you learnt something!
also philippine culture is a combination of eastern and western cultures, which you can see by the names and last names of filipinos; the common use of the english language is an example of the american impact on the society and it has contributed to the ready acceptance and influence of american pop cultural trends. and since philippines was once colonized by spain make the country one of the two predominantly roman catholic countries in asia, that’s why doesn’t really fit with the other countries in terms of religion. the fact that philippines is archipelago it has so many ethnicities and languages. i can go on with other facts but that would be too long. (i made a research about it on junior high)
some representation:
lea salonga is a broadway star and she was the first asian actress to play the roles of éponine and fantine in les mis on broadway. she also was the voice of disney princess jasmine in aladdin and fa mulan in mulan.
shay mitchell is half filipino and we don’t need to write what she does bc we all do know.
darren criss is half filipino too and he doesnt need a description of what he does too bc we all do know
