the ch!cktionary

    15 Sep 2011

    Dealbreaker: He's Got an Asian Fetish | GOOD

    As promised, here’s my essay for GOOD. An excerpt below:

    I was born in San Francisco and raised in Los Angeles. If you heard my voice without knowing what I looked like, you’d probably assume that I was a teenage white girl. My idea of fashion is a pair of skinny jeans, not a kimono. My parents are immigrants, but I am, for all intents and purposes, American through and through. Yet I wasn’t even out of high school when men began greeting me with “konichiwa, beautiful” on the street. (I am not Japanese). As I got older, the catcalls took a turn for the lewd: “Me love you long time!” “Sucky sucky!” I’ve lost track of the number of times a guy has gotten in my face and yelled the name of a random Asian country as a primitive courting strategy: “Hey, Korea!” “Vietnam?” “You Thai?” Even seemingly respectable men in respectable settings would introduce themselves and ask, “Where are you from?” only to frown and follow up with “No, really” when I responded with “California.”

    Tags: freelance. asian. race.
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    1. sylviac reblogged this from lenachen and added:
      dealbreaker. And it boggles...mind how many guys don’t recognize how racist it is
    2. telegraphic reblogged this from cmao
    3. heliste reblogged this from iaquariuschicken
    4. iaquariuschicken reblogged this from lenachen
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    10. bluepeets reblogged this from lalondes and added:
      Until I read where she had grown up, I attributed my growing up in the SF Bay Area to not being able to identify with...
    11. thesunshinekate reblogged this from ffeimo
    12. lalondes reblogged this from lenachen
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    16. ffeimo reblogged this from cocothinkshefancy
    17. nemracbackwards reblogged this from lenachen
    18. cmao reblogged this from herocountry and added:
      In that sense, the random dude on the street shouting “”Ching-chong! Ching-chong!” at every passing Asian gal is not so...
    19. adirotynd reblogged this from isayshewashighonexcitement
    20. cocothinkshefancy reblogged this from isayshewashighonexcitement
    21. isayshewashighonexcitement reblogged this from lenachen
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    25. wonderstorm reblogged this from lenachen and added:
      have also been subject to the awkwardness/offensiveness...yellow fever, although my...