The Asian Rant over Banana

About a week ago, one of my good friends in US called me a banana.
Why a banana? Because it's yellow outside and white inside.

Just in case, you never see a banana before:

(note: I'm judging you right now if you never see a banana before.)

Okay. In this blog post...I will solely talk about bananas.

First of all, bananas are first cultivated in South East Asia.
ON YOUR FACE, homie. That statement proves that you can't be yellow outside-white inside when the whole thing is first cultivated in SE Asia. It doesn't make the white part of the banana, the yummy part of it as white/western. It's Asian. It's freaking Asian, inside and outside.

Just kidding.

I just feel that people often forget that Asia is a freaking big continent.
I recently realized that while I call people from SE Asia as those that actually understand me more than other Asians, we don't really have that many similarities.
Well, we were under Japanese occupation years ago, but before I read a book about SE Asia's history during last 2 weeks of school, I definitely won't know that Malaysia used to be part of Siam/Thailand.

I realize something.
I know nothing about other Asians.
Or I should say, I don't know much about other Asians.

Okay, we may have like similarity in Asian cultures: honor, respect, etc., etc.
However, it doesn't mean that each cultures in Asia are exactly the same.

I happen to live in a city called Jakarta which is if you live my life, you'll probably be somewhat westernized.
It's undeniable that my maternal grandpa was born and raised in Xiamen, China.
However, I was born and raised in a society where I was surrounded by Catholics (generally, yeah, in school, church, etc etc) and westernized Chinese (in school, and even church).
In my circle of friends, when I was in junior high school, Zac Efron is so much cooler than...let's say...idk Rain?
Well, that statement is debatable, Rain is so cool, so much cooler than Zac Efron combined with Robert Pattinson. But not as cool as Neil Patrick Harris.
But hey, in the circle of friends I grow up in, I always look up to stuff that accidentally white people like too, mostly the music and the tv shows.

Just because I don't hang out with Asians that much while I'm in US, it doesn't mean that I'm white inside.
Just because I don't generally watch Korean TV shows, it doesn't mean that I have fallen through the ranks of hardcore Asians.
Just because I don't go to ISA chapel, it doesn't mean that I'm not Asian.

I think, it's very superficial to determine the "Asianness" of a person just based on their behavior. (Well, didn't I just invent a new word there?)

And besides, my major happens to be an awkward major.
Piano performance.
The sole sophomore (well, junior now) piano performance major.
One of the only two Asians in the music department.
SJ, another piano performance major, is from China...butttt he has two majors, okay?
He doesn't hang out in the building that much.
And we have a number of half Asians...but they're practically white, outside and inside.

So, here I am, stuck with this kind of situation: growing up with people who love whiteness and hanging out with mostly white people.

But hey, if you know only know what my white friends often say to me: "You're so Asian."

0 comments:

Post a Comment

 

Meet The Author

Michelle Josephine Sulaiman
19, almost 20.
Stranded in Abilene, TX after a long flight from Jakarta, ID.
9723.78 miles.
Ad veritatem per caritatem '11.