Insomniacs, and people working grave shifts.
Or people in a different time zone.
Or insomniacs in a different time zone successfully procrastinating a half-hour long project for five hours and counting.
That said, I didn't hear "beautiful hapa babies" in the second video, which I always thought was the canonical answer.
Man, that second video is harsh. Bash fest on the poor femmy Asian dudes by their own women.
Having watched the second video, "smartness" is an odd answer given the stereotypes.
I'd only ever heard "hapa" used at a term for a Asian/white mix, but Google tells me that usage is dissing Hawaiians.
I learned it from this article last year, where it seems like it's gone from meaning "half-white" to meaning "part Asian."
While those videos made me sad, they didn't make me as sad as the fact that I spent twenty minutes watching them rather than doing real work.
6: I think she meant something more like "quick witted," or "ironic," eb. More of, oh, a "mental whateverness."
I feel like I should have some sort of deep, meaningful comment on this, but I don't.
My understanding is that "hapa" comes from the Hawaiian "hapa haole", or "half white". It's a very common usage in Hawaii, and to my knowledge it isn't considered derogatory (though it well might have been in the past, when miscegenation was taboo).
I think she meant something more like "quick witted," or "ironic," eb. More of, oh, a "mental whateverness."
I thought she meant that they had a connection.
I've known a lot of white guys who date Asian women way out of their league, and they often report that, especially abroad, Asian women will say stuff like, "Oh my God, you look just like Leonardo DiCaprio!" There are a lot of white male sex objects that women in other countries are familiar with, so white dudes benefit from the fact that Asian girls think they all look alike.
Obviously, the answer is that there need to be more sexy Asian male movie stars that white girls are familiar with. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Tony Leung, and he's more sexy by virtue of being a great actor than anything else.
...whereas, obviously, there are lots and lots of sexy Asian women in the American media. I blame the patriarchy.
There are a lot of white male sex objects that women in other countries are familiar with, so white dudes benefit from the fact that Asian girls think they all look alike.
Not just true of East Asia. I had a Turkish acquaintance who had a crush on me and thought I was a dead ringer for Chris O'Donnell in Scent of a Woman", which, as anyone who knows me can attest, is more than charitable.
Yeah, I was a movie star in Taiwan. The most fun thing, though, was that my girlfriend / fiance (5' 1") there ditched her Chinese boyfriend for me because he frightened her because he was too tall at 6'1".
This opens a can of worms, but in Taiwan I felt that Chinese women were hard to get next to (date) but had no doubts about men as such or relationships as such, ("relationships" meaning "marriages") -- whereas American women are easy to get next to but never stop asking themselves "Do I really want to get involved now?" and "Is this guy really right for me?" In any case, Taiwan was the only time I ever felt like a good match.
The no-relationship policy came when I realized that in that respect I myself was exactly like the American women who bedeviled me.
This deserves a post of its own, but: Becks-style to the peachy max.
white male sex objects that women in other countries are familiar with
According to my friend, Prison Break is hugely popular in Korea, and Wentworth Miller a national heartthrob of sorts. Weird.
Why are you researching this subject, ogged?
19: According to Wikipedia,
Miller's father "is African-American, Jamaican, English, German"[1] and part Cherokee and Jewish; his mother is Russian, French, Dutch, Syrian, and Lebanese.
That's impressive.
Surely at least a little bit of the particular horror of the war in Vietnam is explained by the fact that Vietnamese women are much more attractive by Western standards than Vietnamese men.
re: 14
re: Tony Leung? Really. He looks pretty damn handsome to me.
http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0338564/002.jpg
My wife reckons Andy Lau is pretty handsome too.
http://www-cinema.slife.cornell.edu/earlyspring07/images/infernalaffairs.jpg
A student of mine went to Beijing for spring break, and came back having immensely enjoyed the attention of many young women there. And by 'attention' I mean nothing more than appreciation, like suddenly being beautiful. He described the phenomenon as 'Western' and 'new' and 'forward-thinking' being in fashion, and so a young Western-looking man is about as fashionable as it can get.
Daniel Dae Kim is pretty hot, but he's the only Asian-American actor I can think of off the top of my head.
Yeah, Tony Leung is fucking hot, but so much more so because of his extremely delicious voice.
He described the phenomenon as 'Western' and 'new' and 'forward-thinking' being in fashion, and so a young Western-looking man is about as fashionable as it can get.
This brings up an interesting question: Does anyone here (Gaijin Biker?) know whether there was a similar appreciation for the physical features of Westerners in Japan during the Meiji Restoration? My guess is "no", given prevailing Japanese attitudes about racial superiority, notwithstanding the fact that the Japanese of the period assiduously copied many aspects of Western life, including dress.
Similarly, my recollection from John Dower's Embracing Defeat is that aesthetic appreciation for the American physique never took hold in postwar Japan.
Surely the Chinese are no less ethnically self-confident than the Japanese. What explains the difference? (Or am I wrong about Japan?) Is is the global cult of celebrity combined with globalized mass media?
Mary Douglas distinguishes between (endogomous) peoples which defend against the foreign, and (exogomous) people which absorb the foreign. China absorbs, but only on Chinese terms. (The dark side is that daughters are regarded as something of a nuisance, so marrying them out isn't a terrible loss).
In many respects Chinese culture is a hierarchy of proper behaviors. People who behave in a superior fashion by Chinese standards are mostly accepted "as Chinese" (though there are always lingering issues). My Chinese teacher in Taiwan said that her father told her that she could marry a PhD or M.D. of any ethnic, racial, or national background -- class and education trumped culture and race.
my girlfriend / fiance (5' 1") there ditched her Chinese boyfriend for me because he frightened her because he was too tall at 6'1".
Never had an Asian gf nor even a date, but I either heard directly or surmised that something like that was going with some of the non-asians I did date, contrary to what some people might think about the relative attractiveness of size in men. Also, personality expectations often go with any particular size that you might not fulfill.
"All is compensation," as the other Emerson said
I'm only going off the excited recollections of a couple students, but I wouldn't describe it as a lack of ethnic self-confidence. It's almost the other way. The Olympics is coming up, and China will prove that it has arrived, that it can be just as Western and new as all the other countries. It's definitely nationalistic pride. It's just that pride seems to mean 'we are going to show the world we can out-U.S. the U.S.'
Another young woman I know who works in China says that the in-house term for encouraging foreign investment translates as 'the blue-eyed project.' So I'm sure there's a little exoticism going on, too.
My mother, aunt, and sisters were/are all about 5'0" tall.
#14: I've known a lot of white guys who date Asian women way out of their league, and they often report that, especially abroad, Asian women will say stuff like, "Oh my God, you look just like Leonardo DiCaprio!"
That's not true. Those of us with dark hair look like Keanu Reeves. (Really, I used to get that all the time, especially when I was 50 pounds thinner.)
#26: Does anyone here (Gaijin Biker?) know whether there was a similar appreciation for the physical features of Westerners in Japan during the Meiji Restoration?
If you look at some of the first Japanese drawings of Commodore Perry and his crew, they make the Westerners look like deformed freaks. At the very least, these drawings suggest there was no innate physical attraction to these hairy, big-nosed foreign barbarians. My guess is hotness for Whitey was an acquired taste at first, no doubt helped along by the Meiji craze for all things Western as Japan modernized itself.
This brings up an interesting question: Does anyone here (Gaijin Biker?) know whether there was a similar appreciation for the physical features of Westerners in Japan during the Meiji Restoration? My guess is "no", given prevailing Japanese attitudes about racial superiority, notwithstanding the fact that the Japanese of the period assiduously copied many aspects of Western life, including dress.
Despite some study of the period, I don't know enough to answer either way. But one factoid: Western facial hair styles did become popular, at least in some circles. Look through photos of Japan's prime ministers and it's unmistakable.
I can't believe we've come this far in the thread and no one's mentioned MANDOM!!!
I'm thinking that anyone with insomnia bad enough to watch that video all the way through should probably seek medical attention.
But one factoid: Western facial hair styles did become popular, at least in some circles. Look through photos of Japan's prime ministers and it's unmistakable.
Interesting, and consistent with widespread adoption of Western fashions during the Meiji period. But as to whether Western physiognomy was considered teh hott, GB's Commodore Perry anecdote sounds closer to the mark.
34 comments in and no one's mentioned "small penises"?
That drawing of Cmdr. Perry does look more than a little like Charles Bronson.
36: Too obvious to mention. We are talking about a topic introduced by ogged, after all.
It's just that pride seems to mean 'we are going to show the world we can out-U.S. the U.S.'
It's close but not quite like that, Cala. It's more like being an economic and, to a lesser extent, diplomatic power on par with the US. With the obvious exception of Taiwan, I've never felt an imperialistic impulse too close to the American one.
You're absolutely right, though, about the nationalistic fervor over the Olympics. It's largely a pretty corny coming-out-party form of nationalism, though.
"Oh my God, you look just like Leonardo DiCaprio!"
That's not true.
right. i did a visit to tokyo once, and it was always danny devito or bob hoskins.
still, as evidence of the general thesis 'all westerners look alike', this is generally confirmatory.
With the obvious exception of Taiwan, I've never felt an imperialistic impulse too close to the American one.
Xinjiang? Tibet? The Spratly Islands? Singapore? Africa?
Not identical to the American imperial impulse, sure, but not that far from it either.
i did a visit to tokyo once, and it was always danny devito or bob hoskins
I am fervently hoping that it was the male kid bitzer who posted that.
Not identical to the American imperial impulse, sure, but not that far from it either.
I recall that the express purpose of China's failed invasion of Vietnam in 1979 was to "teach the Vietnamese a lesson."
What's that movie about the four Asian kids in California who have a dead body on their hands, and the movie is the backstory? The day after yestearday/tomorrow/today? Something like that. It's a really great movie.
42--
yeah, you'd hope that, wouldn't you?
but my point was, the reaction i got confirmed the thesis that to asians, 'all westerners look alike'.
Which is to say, when I lived there I saw quite a bit of virulent and potentially very ugly Chinese nationalism, including the not infrequent opinion among my students that Taiwan should be nuked if it didn't come into line. The (in many ways very understandable) antipathy towards the Japanese could also turn very ugly very quickly (for example).
It's more like being an economic and, to a lesser extent, diplomatic power on par with the US.
I found the sentiment that China had been undermined and kept down, cheated out of its rightful glorious place in history, but was now finally starting to get its due and coming into its own to be a very common one. This was often coupled with a sense that there were lots of old scores that should now be settled.
confirmed the thesis that to asians, 'all westerners look alike'.
A girl who used to date my cousin (she's fluent in Japanese) was once mistaken for Hilary Clinton. The fact that she was riding a municipal bus at the time did not seem to dissuade the Japanese person from the opinion.
Tibet and Xinjiang are old Chinese possessions, though old China was imperialist. Taiwan is the big sore point. There are various island groups claimed by China. (On Xinjiang, Tibet, and the island groups the Taiwan Kuomintang supported the mainland position, and they may even have included Mongolia in their claims.) I'm not sure how definitive the settlements with Russia and India are, in Chinese eyes.
Resentment of Japan is widespread in Asia, based on events still in living memory.
I'm not aware that Singapore has been claimed. Other very long stretches would be Korea, Vietnam, and Burma, but I don't think that these claims have been made at all. Chinese Africa policy is ordinary neo-imperialism, I suspect.
Some of the seeming non-imperialism is willingness of the Chinese to play a waiting game. Chinese language propaganda and public opinion, and some deeply hidden diplomatic communications, are more imperialist than the recent official statements.
I don't feel like you all are working hard enough to answer 43. Hop to it, please.
Google didn't help much, Heeb. Maybe you dreamed it. I say, write up the screenplay yourself and get rich. Leave the mathematical plantation behind you.
I found it. I remembered that Harold from Harold and Kumar was in it, and from there it was some simple sleuthing. I'm an everyday whiz. Thanks for nothing.
Anyway, it's a really good movie, go see it now, etc.
And by "Thanks for nothing" I mean, "hey thanks, halax! You are the best."
Vague movie-star resemblances aside, the appreciation of Western features is far from universal in Japan. When a Japanese person tells whitey 'your nose is big' &mdash and they do, fairly often &mdash it's ambiguous: it can mean that they think you're cute, or it can mean that they just think your nose is big.
I was told I looked like Tom Cruise. 'Areh! Tomu Kuruuzu! Tomu Kuruuzu! Toppu Gan!' I don't really look like him; maybe they know how short he really is.
Being a mathematical plantation slave isn't really that bad if you have faith in your heart and a positive mental attitude. Their music is joyful.
Stereotype alert, but Asians are really polite and in certain kinds of situations try to think up good things to say about you. "Your Chinese is really good!" is another one.
Contrary to the premise of this post, my in-laws are a mixed race Asian-man-white-woman couple. Oddly enough, they were telling me just the other day about going into the dry cleaners in my neighborhood and hearing the Korean proprietress lament that her sons remained unmarried because they only wanted to date Koreans. "I never tell them they have to. They just want Korean girls. Why they cannot be like you and find a white girl?"
I don't mean to generalize from this anecdote, I just thought it was funny that this happened, like, Saturday.
I take pleasure in the simple things, like when college students can't add fractions. I find that by helping my my students, I'm really helping myself.
Asians are really polite
So you're saying the "me Chinese, me make joke" story is apocryphal?
One of my good friends in Portland was a half-Japanese whose mother was OK with either an American or a Japanese husband for her daughter, but who used language about Koreans and Chinese that was too explicit for David Duke to use (in public at least).
So what's this business with negative numbers? I just don't see how you could have fewer than zero apples. Or oranges, either. Plums, pears, grapes, everything. Zero is the fewest I can imagine. Is there some other kind of fruit that I'm not familiar with?
57-
that's easy. just add all the numerators. then add all the denominators. and then add any bits that got left over. what's the problem?
60: That's easy. Just imagine a bijection from the integers onto a bi-infinite sequence of fruit.
61: Wait, I thought that little line between the numbers meant that you should subtract the bottom one from the top one first.
62:
and *this* is how you help your poor confused college students?
I just don't see how you could have fewer than zero apples.
A joke in Heebie's honor...
Three men are standing in front of the pharmacy when it opens in the morning. They watch as two customers walk in. A few minutes later, three customers walk out.
The first man, a physicist, says: "Hmmm. Two walked in, three came out. That's impossible. Must be a measurement error."
The second, a biologist, says: "Two walked in, three came out. It's obvious--they must have reproduced."
The third, a mathematician, says: "Two walked in, three came out.... I'm not sure what happened, but if someone else walks in, there won't be any customers left inside."
language about Koreans and Chinese that was too explicit for David Duke to use (in public at least)
Oh, yeah. The generic "Asian" in the film is a wobbly construct. My FIL is half Japanese, half Korean, and both of his parents were disowned by their respective families for the disgrace of their union.
Another joke for heebie (I may have told this one before):
An engineer, a physicist and a mathematician are all staying at the same hotel. During the night, the hotel catches fire and the flames reach the hallway outside of their rooms.
The engineer wakes up, sees what's happening, and tries to figure out what to do. He lights a match, sticks it under a running faucet, and sees that it goes out, so he grabs the trash can and starts filling it and throwing water on the flames until they are extinguished and he can run out into the hallway and escape.
The physicist wakes up, sees what's happening, and does the same experiment the engineer did with the match and the faucet. He then looks at the the flames in the hallway and calculates exactly how much water he would need to put them out, then measures out exactly that much water, pours it on the fire, and escapes into the hallway.
The mathematician wakes up, sees what's happening, and does the same experiment the engineer and physicist did. When he sees that water makes the match go out, he says "Aha! A solution exists!" and goes back to bed.
I mistrust abstraction, which can be misleading. I'd prefer to have separate solutions for each kind of fruit.
65: Thank, I hadn't heard that one before and I like it.
67: I'm sure that joke has been around for a long time, but I associate it with Raymond Smullyan. If you can find a copy of What Is The Name Of This Book I recommend it (within its genre, of course).
I just have to say that according to very limited number of data points, Asian cock is just as big as White cock even when the corresponding Asian guy is way, way more petit in general than the corresponding White Guys. The smooth skin is also rather nice in some respects and during certain procedures; the point about the butts made me laugh because it's kind of true. But I'm not white myself, so I can't speak for the white ladies. I do think it's a sort of cultural trend that has time variance; I know a lot of couples in the baby boomer generation or shortly thereafter who have Asian males and white females; far fewer in my (twenty-something) generation.
Also, Keanu Reeves is Hapa.
67: The alternate ending: the mathematician puts the match and the bucket besides the sink. Having reduced it to a previously solved problem, she goes to bed.
Watch Shanghai Kiss!
http://thepookguy.blogspot.com/2007/10/shanghai-kiss.html
