Why Asians are snobs to other Asians? (esp. East and Southeast)?

Question

I haven't met all Asians but this is about 80% of my experience. I get (and) friendly smiles and nods from whites, blacks, and hispanics but the Asians I meet are evasive. They glance at you and then look away, as in away. Like some women I encountered....I smiled at them but they turn away and don't smile back like they are unhappy to see me. Some give unfriendly looks. I am also Asian so I was expecting the other Asians would embrace me more. What's wrong? This is confusing.

Answer 1

i guess it goes back to culture. different asian nationalities have always been competing with one another and keep events that happen in the past to justify their hatred for another asian groups. example: japan invaded china in wwII and performed human expierments on the chinese so even to this day so many chinese are suspicious of the japanese. this korean girl i knew said she was happy when s. korea beat japan in a soccer game and the 2 groups are always trying to out-do one another like her saying koreans had a better economy. even if westerners say "i can't tell them apart" many asians keep their differences to heart.

Answer 2

This is just a generalization of how a group of people act, but in high school this actually happened to me once so....

...Yeeeah...if you give off this Asian American vibe, they won't talk to you because you're "not the same". Back in high school, classmates thought I didn't understand, so they talked about me and my other classmate in another language. Basically if you show that you know more english than that asian language, they tend to outcast you.

Answer 3

There are a lot of Asian people in my school but I don't even bother with most of them. They're usually not receptive to people who are not exactly like them. I do have some Asian friends but they're not "typically" Asian... they usually don't fit in with people of their own culture.

Answer 4

Not to single out any particular asian group, I think it's because of competitiveness and how they were treated by other races (i.e. white people or majority group).

The competitiveness and attitude/mentality are probably due to family upbringings and old fashioned traditional conservative values taught in the asian families.

I'm sure once these type of old generation families have caught up to current generation mentalities, then things would be different. Keep in mind that the asian community in America is still young in comparison to any other european race in America. So once the whole asian american community has assimilated to american's then this alienation would be dramatically lessened if not diminished.

Others have mentioned that it is also due to the defensive mechanisms from WW2 caused by the Japanese. Certainly, those old hatred feelings for what the Japanese has done in WW2 still lingers on in north eastern asian families, especially in families with old enough relatives to remember what happened in WW2. But let's not single out just these asian countries. Other parts of the world also have tensions with their neighboring countries or political enemies.

People just don't get along. Wars have been around for too long. It may be human nature, but I hope that it will not be in the future.

Some people would say that they are all asians, they are all of the same kind, so they should all get along. But that's just not true and frankly that's dismissive and ignorant. Within the continent of Asia, there are many many countries. There are bound to be conflicts and tensions since countries have their own cultures and identities. People in general don't welcome differences, for the most part. Foreignness is frightening, so people put on their defensiveness. So of course people from different countries within Asia don't get along. That is also the case in Britain, where there are strong distinctions among the english, welsh, scottish, irish. So these type of tensions and conflicts don't reside only in Asia but other parts of the world as well. It's only ignorant to label them as an asian thing or to dismiss it as not a problem, like what Americans tend to do (for anything foreign for that matter). Lack of understanding doesn't make it invalid.

In addition, asian americans have been picked on, ridiculed, made fun of, the comic reliefs, and so on in America since the beginning of asian immigration in America. It is true for any minority in a majority community. Just like majority whites would be picked on in Asia or Hawaii. And because asian settlement in America is still quite young compared to other nationalities, one would see more of lumping all of asian nationalities into one group, a continent name, the asians, just as whites would be seemed as all the same in Asia. Once majority of Americans are more educated and used to the distinctions among asians and their countries, asians would not be singled out. Or at the very least, they wouldn't lump all asians under one category, a continental term, or they wouldn't refer all as asians.

Because asian americans have been picked on for generations (be it in America for being perceived as immigrants instead of one of their own-an american; and/or be it in Asia from so many wars like WW2 and internal wars like in ancient china http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Dynasties_and_Ten_Kingdoms_Period , which is similar to that of roman empire), they become defensive. It is true for any race, or any person for that matter.

So when you smile at them, the first reaction is a defensive one and not a welcoming one.

Same thing could be said about eastern europeans and Russians too. When you go to Ukraine and smile at people you see as you walk on the streets, the locals would just give you a mean stare, thinking what's so good out there that's making him/her smile and be happy. These locals would think you, the person who's smiling at everyone, are being too arrogant and rude by smiling at them, as if you're taunting them with your good fortune. Now the funny thing is that, people who smile think that it's the locals, the ones giving the stares and disapproving the smiles are arrogant. So from an outside point of view, one can observe that it's both sides who think that their counter parts are the arrogant ones. What does that say about both sides? that they are both wrong. that they are both arrogant, insecure, defensive and in denial. that they both lack understanding of others. Although, I am not saying that everyone who gives smiles or who gets mad when receiving smiles is arrogant, just the ones who think the opposite side being arrogant are themselves arrogant probably in a naive sort of way.

Side note: when you smile, do you expect others to smile back at you? wouldn't that be fishing for reassurance? it would seem like it's an ulterior motive. if you're truly spreading the love and happiness for all, you wouldn't expect anything in return.

I think people (doesn't matter if you're asian or not, or if you're on the receiving end or the doing end) should make an effort to understand the other side, to understand the worlds outside of their own. At the very least, it is beneficial to the survival of humankind, if not selfish reasons.

Answer 5

hmmm. i work with this korean girl and she never has anything nice to say about the chinese and japanese people that come into the casino where we work...i'll have to ask her.

Answer 6

because we always compare ourselves with other. We look at each other, and try to see how we are better than you

Answer 7

maybe it was the way they were brought up
too proud maybe?

(no offense)