This is a map of Asia. North Americans, you may notice this map is not solely comprised of Japan, Korea, China and Thailand. People in the UK, you may notice India is not a continent. That is, if those of you who generalize entire continents can even pinpoint India on a map.
Indians are Asian, gasp! And not all brown skinned people are Indian, also, gasp! There are an alarming amount of people, of all ages, from all backgrounds, who seem to be unable to process this.
I’m ethnically Asian. Since Asia is an extremely large continent, I could be from any number of countries. I am neither from India, China, Korea, Japan or Pakistan, yet not so surprisingly, I am still Asian.
Yes, there are commonalities across regions, through the conflation of cultures, colonialism, globalization, transnationalism and movement of diasporas. Sometimes these are all the same thing. Rickshaws, rice and curry can be found across the continent.
But let’s not overgeneralize. You can also find Buddhists, Catholics, Muslims and Hindus across Asia. Cantonese Speaking Chinese Muslims! English Speaking Indian Jews!
No, we are not all the same. Orientalism? (Please look up Edward Said for basic concepts) No thank you.
So let’s not use umbrella terms, regarding Asians as a monolith while simultaneously denying the regional identity of millions of people- and how about we also not engage in xenophobia?
Are you someone that thinks this way? Shame on you! You should perhaps invest in buying a map, and take a look at what countries are you know, where.
Geography, people. It’s important.
This pops up on my dash every so often. I reblog it again, not just because I wrote it, but because nothing has changed since I first posted this.
Can we just say Northeast Asian for “Eastern Asia” though? For me that’s what I identify as and secondly, it feels strange to have a Southeast Asia when there is no Northeast Asia and it feels like we’re putting the Northeastern countries as the center of Eastern Asia.
While this is very true and needs to be said, there is one issue with OPs initial argument: While India is not a continent, it is considered a sub-continent. While its people are culturally and ethnically considered Asian due to cultural similarities and association, the landmass itself is part of a different tectonic plate, one which is slowly colliding with its northern neighbor which has resulted in the expansive and expanding mountain range known as the Himalayas.