Is calling all Asian people Chinese racist or is it just ignorant?

Question

This isn't something i say but i've hear lots of people generalize all Asians as Chinese.

The samething goes for Latin people too, i hear alot of people calling Latin or Hispanic people mexicans in the US.

Answer 1

It's just ignorance. If someone doesn't know their origin, it would be proper to just refer to them as Asian...if it's necessary to address their ethnic origin at all.

Answer 2

When someone says that all asians are Chinese (for example, All Asians look alike, or call people from a different country Chinese), I think racism and ignorance are involved. Basically what you have here is a stereotype (and stereotypes are generalizations based on ignorance): since Chinese are (supposed to be) flat faced, and here is a flat-faced person, so this person is Chinese, so the reasoning based on this stereotype may go. If this someone makes an effort to learn about Asian peoples, they will learn to do away with the stereotype and treat people as individuals. There is, however, some truth to the idea, for (1) Korea was once a colony of China, and there is commonality there; (2) Many filipinos are of Malaysian stock, so there is a connection with Malaysia, and through them the Chinese.

One thing to note is that Chinese do not all look alike, even though most of the 1.4 billion of them in China belong to the largest single tribe in history--the Han people. Many Chinese look exactly like Europeans in facial features. Chinese in the south of China say that they are the "real" Chinese and that the Chinese from the north are only johnny-come-latelies.

Answer 3

I am Asian and also Chinese. I don't think that labeling all Asians as Chinese is racist technically its just inaccurate. Everything is intention and action. The odds are actually in your favour as China has 1.3 billion people and counting.

However keep in mind that racism stems from ignorance so if you know that you do not have all the facts but still make generalizations you may not be racist but that's getting reallllll close.

Answer 4

Ignorant

Answer 5

Ignorant. It's so ignorant that it's funny. It’s stupid, could you imagine some dude asking an Asian “so, what kind of Chinese are you?”? But surprisingly, a lot of people think that Chinese=Asian. Weird.

Answer 6

absolutely wrong to call all Asians as Chinese racists. The oldest human civilization of the region is Indus Valley and it is from India.

Answer 7

Ignorant, but understandable. Many people are confused in telling the asians apart from the other.

Answer 8

Ignorant but then racism is ignorant. It is not difficult to know the difference between the Asian nationalities so stupidity is also involved.

Answer 9

Well, sometimes it's hard to tell if they are Chinese, Japanese, Thaiwanese, Siamese or Korean so I think some people just generalize...kinda like Cubans, Mexicans or Spaniards.

Answer 10

I wouldn't say racist because some people cannot distinguish between Chinese, Vietnamese, or Philippine... etc I would just say that's ignorant.

Answer 11

I usually use the term "East Asian" to refer to those of all countries/nations on the eastern fringe of Asia (ie East China, Japan, the Phillipines, Korean Peninsula, etc)