this is orientalism.

blog documenting orientalism against ALL asians banner: unofficial proposed pan-asian flag, creator unknown

[this-is-orientalism]

what is orientalism?

orientalism refers to racism against asian cultures or races. this includes but is not limited to caricatures, stereotypes, fetishism, portrayal of asians as 'exotic', and so on.

please feel free to submit experiences of orientalism in the ask box- that's what it's for. all are welcome

mods

mod sun - taiwanese american, he/him

mod pearl - half chinese wasian, they/it

other

-all asians are valid here, including west asians, south asians, mixed asians, and southeast asians.

-inspired by blogs such as @this-is-transandrophobia and @this-is-exorsexism

-this is not a discourse blog. ask about discourse and you will be blocked. that said, we will not be answering asks about transrace/transasians.

[this-is-orientalism]

This isn’t specific to Asians but I wish people would stop using spelling or grammatical errors as a measure of intelligence. Every time I see anyone make fun of someone for using the wrong “your” I just think man. That’s totally a mistake my Japanese mom would make. English isn’t her first language. And it makes me sad because I don’t like that people would look down on her for something she can’t help. This isn’t the only scenario where it applies too. People can have dyslexia and whatnot. Shitting on someone for such a simple and inconsequential mistake is so unnecessary but I see it everywhere.

this is commonly racism and ableism.

[this-is-orientalism]

To me the K-Pop Demon Hunters spoof scene in Scary Movie 6 feels kind of racist - like the punchline of the scene is that one of the characters has a threesome with some Korean women and gets an STD. I know the Scary Movie franchise does a lot of "offensive" humor, but there's no joke, just "haha East Asian women are sex objects and also gross."

this is orientalism.

[this-is-orientalism]

does the whole “chinamaxxing”/“you met me at a very chinese time of my life” feel like cultural appropriation to anyone…? because it does to me.

I've gotten an ask about this before and what the user said really stuck with me: "I see it and sit there like “you’ll never meet me at a non-Chinese time in my life. Because I’m Chinese.""

other post I remember reblogging about it + aforementioned previous ask

[this-is-orientalism]

Japan is an imperialist nation that commits orientalism against its neighbors. It is not itself a victim of orientalism, even if you stretch orientalism to apply to east asia (which you shouldn't, orientalism has always been restricted to MENA nations.)

orientalism is literally a term for the patronizing, stereotypical, and romanticized ways in which the Western world often represents Eastern cultures. of course japan and east asian countries have been subject to this.

racist dipshits when they find out asian countries fight each other commonly just like countries in any continent

[cattreats4humans]

its fascinating when people are just. wrong.

Orientalism, like OP said, is a western way of defining 'The Orient' as something competely separate from the west, through means such as feminizing, infantalizing, exoticizing (just to name a few). Orientalism is not another word for violence or power or structural benefits. Orientalism is about how all of Asia is perceived, minimized, and violated. Japan cannot "commit Orientalism" against another Asian country, simply because the Japanese government does not have that power (and Japanese people aren't a monolith). I guess, if I really really wanted to prove anon right, i could say that a Japanese individual could view a person from a different country as how the west sees that country, but thats not what anon was talking about.

The Japanese government has committed horrible actions that I do not intend to minimize, yes, and the Japanese diaspora experience racism, yes, but Orientalism is a separate concept from imperialism, and while it does relate to racism, it is still not the exact same thing.

I have read Orientalism by Edward Said but you legit don't need to in order to understand this. Orientalism is about how the west views, and thus, how it treats, the East. Not that complicated.

[this-is-orientalism]

followed some blogs that post traditional japanese clothing for artwork references, and now tumblr keeps recommending me blogs that see east asian women as sex objects :(

this is orientalism and fetishization.

[this-is-orientalism]

the lack of central asian community. or anything for central asians... 🧍

are we missing something?

this is orientalism.

[this-is-orientalism]

Sinophobia is when one assumes malice and/or governmental intervention when the subject of the matter is Chinese by citizenship or birth, even if this doesn’t extend to other Asian people or Chinese diaspora.

this is orientalism.

[this-is-orientalism]

I’m Filipino

I really experienced the 123 of orientalism while out at a restaurant today

First some guys at the table next to us were talking about how trumps gonna take over Asia by “ landing troops in Taiwan”

Then a group of white women went into the restaurant doing Japanese accents

Then two middle aged straight couples passing by one of the women said “do you know what Turkish food is? Is that like Greek? Or Egyptian? Where’s Turkland?”

this is orientalism.

[this-is-orientalism]

not sure if this is orientalism or just deeply upsetting, but seeing the tumblr "#asian" tag on a definitely porn video (the girl in the video was Asian) that surprisingly showed up on my dash felt. weird as fuck. like yeah she's Asian but sexual content of white girls doesn't get tagged as hashtag white does it

this is orientalism.

[this-is-orientalism]

even tho im not Japanese, i really hate it when people in artist spheres say shit like "Woag!!! that Japanese got to xyz" or "When a Japanese artist draws ur faav ship alot!!11!!" idk why it annoys the fuck outta me

this is orientalism.

[this-is-orientalism]

i had a teacher who got fired for anti asian racism (i dont know more specifics than that unfortunately) but i heard her complaining to someone and saying "how can i be racist against asians? my wife is asian!" 🫩

this is orientalism.

[this-is-orientalism]

Am South Asian,

went to a conference of sorts where a person said, “you must be used to elephants, because you ride them to school everyday” or something of that nature.

It was clearly meant as a joke, but it’s still not… it isn’t great.

this is orientalism.

[this-is-orientalism]

The anon learning Chinese:

Just to be sure, I want to make it super clear that it's not me who is a victim in those situations. I wanted to express how normalized it is, how common it is and how fucked up it is.

^^

original post

[this-is-orientalism]

I just watched a video by ahlianlia about white people using Chinese as a party trick and for a shock value, and this is so so real.

I'm a white European studying Mandarin Chinese and Chinese culture. When I say that, I instantly get “say something in Chinese!” from other white people. Nearly every time. People studying German, French or English don't get that reaction, I wonder why /sarc

this is orientalism.

[this-is-orientalism]

I do get miffed at the lack of proper/palatable representation of West Asians aboard i.e in the US/Japan but it would be hypocritical of me to not call out the lack of proper representations of South and South East Asians in Gulf country's media.

It's obvious why because of the serve racism they deal in those countries (including my own which is KSA) and hiring discrimination. Like they don't have main roles and you would be """"""" lucky""""""" to find anyone in a role unless its a town/city shot or a worker role

The only film I've seen that had a main character that wasn't arab is The Goat Life by Blessy which focuses on the violent racism dealt in KSA

this is orientalism.

[this-is-orientalism]

3 of my high school teachers were married to a former student of theirs, all East Asian women. and my high school had multiple predators on staff who really liked targeting East Asian girls. one particular teacher was so weirdly nice to the East Asian girls and so weirdly mean to the East Asian boys that there were jokes about him seeing the boys as "competition". I thankfully was never targeted, but I know several survivors personally. I guess that's what happens in a school district located in a majority-white primarily conservative area :/ racist shithole of a childhood hometown, I'm so glad I moved out for college

this is orientalism and fetishization.