Comments on: “Aliens amongst the Asians”

By: JadeDragon

JadeDragon — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 08:18:32 +0000

Bwahaha, couldn’t resist joining now, could you? Welcome!

By: PhantomS

PhantomS — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:09:02 +0000

Being Bruneian (hi Jade Dragon :P ) I eat anywhere in any kind of place. I guess in South East Asia’s equatorial belt (meaning not Indochina or Burma/Myanmar)people just mix very casually to the point where no one is really surprised. The only way people get stares is if they’re at a restaurant not agreeable to their supposed faith, but otherwise seeing a Chinese guy wolf down a Roti Prata next to a Malay guy eating a dim sum is not as shocking to us.

There’s an Indian place in Brunei called Popular which serves only Indian food, but is frequented by Chinese more than Indians.

By: DONKEY

DONKEY — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 04:22:31 +0000

I can’t comment on Flushing since I have only been there once. But almost every Malaysian I know who visits or settles in the u.s. is surprised by the kind of segregation we have here.

By: nightshade

nightshade — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:55:49 +0000

I had no idea this was the case, but then I guess I’ve never eaten at any non-Chinese places out in Flushing and I’m not a native New Yorker.

I went to Singapore Day in New York (OK, I admit it, I pretended to be Singaporean so I could go and everyone just assumed that I went to boarding school or moved to the US as a kid) and I realized that I didn’t know very much about Singaporean culture at all. All the Singaporeans I know are Chinese.

Anyhow, the food served at Singapore Day really reflected that fact that we don’t know shit about fusion or multiculturalism in North America. Though I have to say, Korean Japanese food kicks ass.

By: Vahz

Vahz — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:03:32 +0000

This story sounds about right.

As others have already stated, Asians tend to seperate themselves on culture in New York. It makes me glad that I attended a high school in New Jersey which was 50% Asians and you were either Asian or you’re not.

Asians had beef with other ethnicities but never with each other. To this day, I’ve never seen such a better example of Asians who aren’t divided by their own particular culture.

By: Scowl

Scowl — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 02:00:32 +0000

It kind of makes sense, though, doesn’t it? Flushing is mostly made up of immigrants who come from homogenous societies. Even among the Chinese there’s a division between Taiwanese and mainlanders, although it’s not a huge one. The younger generation always tends to mix more, but they never stick around.

Southeast Asian nations tend to be more multicultural in the truest sense of the term, don’t they? I don’t think you really have that with East Asians.

As for never being Chinese Chinese, I think that’s mostly true for any overseas Chinese population.

By: ellencho

ellencho — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:51:02 +0000

Yep, that’s pretty much how Flushing is. It’s changing a bit now, with the younger generations now, especially the ones who are 2nd generation kids and up. You’ll see mixed groups of kids hanging out every now and then, but the majority of the adult population keeps to their own ethnicity and don’t really seem to have an interest in learning about new cultures.