askchapo

22987 readers

78 users here now

Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.

Rules:

Posts must ask a question.
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net

replaceable@hexbear.net

VILenin@hexbear.net

EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net

SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net

ZoomeristLeninist@hexbear.net

khizuo@hexbear.net

Sulv@hexbear.net

Sulvy@hexbear.net

How would you describe orientalism? I'm Asian and grew up in the US. I don't really get it, and maybe a lot of discomfort I've felt in my life would make more sense if I could identify when I see it. (hexbear.net)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by HexaSnoot@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net

37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Feel free to add common myths about the East that you'd like cleared up. Or how you've already cleared it up. It might help me or another reader.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] BeamBrain@hexbear.net 24 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

As I understand it, it comes down to overly simplistic, exaggerated, or just plain inaccurate perceptions and portrayals of people from Africa and South/East Asia. Stuff like

CW: Racism

acting like Japanese people are incomprehensible without understanding this strange foreign concept called "face" (which is really just a shorthand for the universal desire not to look like an asshole in public)
treating Japan, China, and (sometimes) Korea as if they were all interchangeable
basically any criticism libs make of China/the CPC
fixating on "exotic" foreign foods and acting like that's all they eat (see: "Chinese people eat dogs!", ignoring that they eat far more rice, soybeans, eggs, and chicken)
treating Muslim religious extremism as arising ex nihilo and proof of the inherent inferiority of Middle Eastern culture without any understanding of the history or material conditions that brought it about

[–] ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago

Speaking of eating dogs, that was apparently legal in the US until the 2018 farm bill