question for (non chinese) old-timers

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Forum
41

people can be prejudiced and not even be aware of it.
which intrinsically links prejudice with ignorance. lol.

not everyone is prejudiced based on physical features or cultural background.

My grandma used to use the term “japs” all the time and it kind of made all of us raise our eyebrows. We loved her, but thought she was a whacko for holding all that haterd in her for no good reason.

My grandfather was the same way although less vocal about his views.

My parents however were extremely concious of any behaviours that were negative and ignorant and they were certain to point things out about themselves or situations so that my brother and I could learn from them.

I also grew up in Canada, and the group of friends i found myself in was invariably culturally diverse and ethnically diverse. Frankly, we didn’t realy pay attention to that kind of stuff and were quick to get on anyone who would disparage our friends.

Nowadays, I think this is even more true. Young kids hand out with each other and do not hold to the views of the older generations.

It depends on so many factors and also that regionally, one group is gonna grow and learn faster tahn another region.

so, are their idiots in the world? Yes. Are some of them proficient in Kungfu? Decidely so.

This only prooves that martial arts knowledge and skill doesn’t really have a lot to do with intelligence or character. lol

cheers

42

I’m sure it exists everywhere. My grandmother hates the Japanese because my grandfather fought in WWII against them.

Another story - I spent many years in Austria a while back and there was an old lady in the next small farming village who’d lived there for 60 yrs, widowed to a local man but who originally came from the Netherlands. She was never considered a local by her peers. OTOH I was accepted as a local for 6 years by many of the young to middle aged generation in my first village. Later I moved to a different village, St Anton. Relies very heavily on tourism, but the things I heard said about the tourists there would make me blush. I loved to go up to people afterwards and make some remark to them in the local dialect, just to let them know I understood their crude comments. That was a place you’d never be a local. I’d order food, talk to people, etc in local dialect and they’d answer me in English solely due to me being with international friends. And my language skills were extremely good. Indistinguishable from locals - I could fool anyone. I once spent a week doing a course with a guy from another region of western Austria and he never realised I was from Australia. At the end it came out I wasn’t local and he refused to believe me.

43

Cultural or ethnic stereotyping is widespread. True. Not necessary R***ism. Stereotyping is both positive and negative.

Some examples:

  1. If you see a big Japanese, you say he must be a Sumo wrestler. After talking for a while, you would know he has pituitary gland disorder and arthritis. And he actually likes Chinese food and not Sushi.

  2. If you see a tall black guy, you say oooh, he must be an NBA basketball player. All Africans are good Olympic athletes and basket ball players. There are plenty of Sha O"neil, A Ja B "Laker fans in Taiwan. After talking, he only works with the airline.

  3. If you see a white American, he must be smart, a professor, a pilot, engineer, doctor, lawyer, business owner, or good soldier or missionary, helping or teaching locals in Taiwan. After talking, you find out he is just a tourist.

  4. If you are Mogolian Chinese, you must be good on horse, archery and Shuai Jiao.

  5. If you are Moslem Chinese, you must be good at Ba zi, and Tang Twei.

  6. If you are local, you must know White Crane, Tiger and Southern Shaolin in Fu Jian.

  7. If you are from Shan Dong, you must be a Praying Mantis practitioner.

  8. If you are from Shan Xi, you must be good at Xing Yi.

  9. If you are from Hong Kong, you must be a Wing Chun, Ving Tsun or Wing Tsuner and automatically a fan of Huang Fei Hong and Ten Tigers of Canton.

  10. If you are from Bangkok, ooooh a kickboxer.

11, If you are from Okinawa, oooh a karate kid.

  1. If you are from Korea, oooh a TKDer.

  2. If you see a student from a good linage, you say oooh he must be good. After talking, he is only a student’s student’s student. He’d never seen the said teacher.

How much truth in there?

Culture or regional stereotyping is common.

Get to know the individual is more important.

Peace.

44

My GF just called me into read something in Engrish for her that she found on a Chinese discussion board:

http://club.goabroad.sohu.com/learningmain.php?c=79&b=gobroadwrite&a=5855&c=79

i wantto say something

×÷Õß pangtt0512 êdzÆ:pangtt0512 (2004-06-21 11:17:37)

hello <everyone :

I SAW so many girl want to find a foreign or to be her husband ,but i donot know why ?the thing i wantt o tell the girl s is that foreign have different back ground with us , so you and him have different life style , let me give you an example :a chinese husband when his doctor told him he got cancer,mightbe died soon ,so he will insurance for give his property to his wife and children ,but if foreignor ,they might say good bye to you ,for he need his own happyiness,all foreignor is egoism ,so when you decided to married to a foreignor ,you must bear this in heart .

of course ,some girl may have different aims,that is she want to go abroad ,get certificate ,but the situation is that china is developing fasterand faster,and chinese in goreign country go back china ,but the best place in the world is CHINA now ,so we must take care of this ,marriage is important in our whole life ,so donot joke at it ,or you will the punishment from it !

it is my advice ,hope you can understand ~!!

Just some friendly local advice to girls like my GF who happen to date foreigners like me! :slight_smile:

Notice the friendly well meaning tone. Not an attack on us and not even directed at us as the board is basically all in Chinese but speaking in English has become fasionable in certain circles.

45

Interesting

46

International

This discussion has strayed a little from the original question and that’s okay. It’s an important issue. A very important issue.

Racism exists everywhere, always has and always will. It’s just the magnitude of it that has changed. Also, it is displayed in various manners depending on the culture and of course the individual.

1a) I was once in SF Chinatown (the tourist one, near the harbor) and wanted to buy some herbs. I went to a shop where the owner, a man in his 70s, was talking to his friends. I stood by the door for about 15 minutes (I knew he had noticed me when I walked in). 15 minutes can be a long time to wait for someone to ask you what you want. I was also wearing my Choy Lee Fut track suit. So, he comes up to me and I start smiling ang greet him the usual Chinese way. He then proceeds to take my hand, turns me around and pushes me toward the door. All this time he is saying something in Chinese sounding very negative.

1b) I can name at least two Grandmasters of authentic Chinese Kung Fu who have taken at least one Caucasian as a Tudi.
Also, while in the US, my circle of friends consisted almost solely of Malaysian Chinese (and a few Indians and Americans, too).

2a) My Malaysian friends also told me the old generation in their country is very racist, in their opinion.

2b) I was working as a pizza delivery guy in the US while going to school there. I had a flat tire in front of a bad housing complex (not bad enough that we weren’t allowed to deliver there, but bad enough that the cops frequented that place). I didn’t have my tire iron with me, so I called the store and just waited. Then this car (a big old beat-up Lincoln) pulls in, a black guy steps out, clearly a little intoxicated. I can see a white girlfriend in the passenger seat. The guy asks me about the situation and I tell him. He then takes a tire iron from his trunk and changes the tire for me. He then starts walking to his car. I stop him and ask him how I could pay him. He laughs and tells me not to worry about it. He then drives to his apartment (so, he lives in this very bad neighborhood).

You never can tell, and for every sad story there is at least one good story.

With the world opening up and more and more people both getting educated and traveling (and talking to people across oceans in chatrooms and boards like this), things are changing rapidly. There are about 6,476.935.580 people in this world of ours. Not everyone is going to be open-minded just yet. But you just wait…:wink:

My reflection is this: think racism as the norm. Whenever you don’t encounter it, that’s positive. That way there will be no disappointments, either :slight_smile:

It’s the olde half-empty, half-full again…:wink:

Mika

47

"My reflection is this: think racism as the norm. Whenever you don’t encounter it, that’s positive. That way there will be no disappointments, either "

unfortunately I think you’re correct.

When I left school and ‘entered the world’ I was quite surprised sometimes by how much casual racism there is about.