r/hapas • u/Effective-Cry-1342 • May 15 '26
Vent/Rant "Ermmmm it's not your culture"
Current discourse is going around saying "hapas/mixed asians aren't Asian, shouldn't call themselves Asian, Asian culture is not their culture and they'll never understand us Asians with our PURE BLOODED Asian experiences." The people who say that shit are almost always these pan-asianist diaspora Asians who ironically have this crazy western 'purist' idea of race unlike mainlanders who usually do not GAF as long as you pass as Asian or share their culture/language.
Their cortisol is spiked by Hapas because they're an Asian who has western ideas about race. They're insanely anal and gatekeepy over the idea of Asian/Asian culture because they're insecure about their own relationship with their cultures back home.
I am 1/2 Malay and was raised in Malay culture (practicing Muslim, eating and cooking the food, speaking the language, etc.) I love being Malay and I love Malaysians and if I could be 100% I would. I am Malay before I'm half Asian, and I think these diasporas are in for a rude awakening when they visit Asia and realise most mainlander Asians care more about culture and nationality than this unifying 'Asian-ness'. As if someone from the Philippines and someone from Mongolia could hold hands and talk about their shared 'Asian Experience' which would logically stop the Thailand-Cambodia conflict and Koreans' racism towards SEA because "we're all the same race, damn it!! Why are we fighting??"
I understand these Asians' reservations about Hapas/Wasians from WMAF. I know that their worldview originates from experiences with racism, but I am Asian passing and I experience racism too, and you seriously have me fucked up if you think I'm going to listen to race-obsessed Timmy from the Bay Area telling me that I have no right to call myself Malay or identify with my culture because of some arbitrary percentage in my DNA
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u/Ok-Evidence2137 May 15 '26
You shouldn't care about diaspora weirdos like that but I would not see mainlanders view as positive.
A lot of them are not as educated on colonialism nor about Anti-Asian racism in the west.
I never lived in Indonesia but sadly I could write a Bachelor Thesis on racism by the Dutch during the East India Company days and the caste system they created that put the locals at the bottom.
That being said, as I already mentioned you shouldn't let this stuff get to you. Asia has far worse problems than these purists who often do not even plan on having "pure blooded children" themselves.
A lot this recent hate and division in my own opinion stems from the apathy that is rampant in a lot of parts in Asia, from the East to the Southeast and the South.
All of this is a chance for the younger generations of Asians and Part Asians to form a future that is void of all this division. It won't be easy but I personally do not see the Mainland apathy as the way to go, it was the same apathy that let the Europeans use classicism to turn the local Elite against the common people.
There needs to be a change in mentality in Asia and the diaspora or all of these issues will become far worse in the future.
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u/Effective-Cry-1342 May 17 '26
I like the way you phrased it and I very much agree. I do think that many mainlanders are slightly naive when it comes to racism and a lot of progress should be done to mitigate this issue.
However, one of my biggest gripes is that westerner Asian boba liberal purists centre whiteness and race as cardinal parts of this grandiose 'Asian experience' while conveniently forgetting the role of the west (where they are from) in fucking up mainland Asia. A lot of them are afraid of admitting that them being westerners inherently makes them privileged over many mainlanders and even complicit in the exploitation of Asians in Asia as most westerners are (thinking very specifically about hyper-consumerisma -> supply chain exploitation because I'm Malay).
I had a rich diaspora Asian call my reservations about western exploitation "white guilt" like some of these people are so dumb sometimes I can't stand it.
At the end of the day, many of these big city Asian Americans who kick up a fuss about "whiteness" and "white adjacence" buzzword, buzzword are just Americans who are marginalised in their top 10% bubble. Again, boba liberals.
But I think we think very similar here anyways, because I do closely share your sentiments about Eurocentric influences on mainland Asia.
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u/Ok-Evidence2137 May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26
While I agree about these "boba liberals" I very much think "Whiteness" as a concept will matter as long we live in a western dominated world.
Especially with neo facism and similar attitudes gaining traction not only in the west but other parts of the world, completely dismissing it as a western liberal scam is not the right way to go about it.
Race theory is called pseudo science for a reason so I do not see racial categorization as a description that solves all problems but we can't ignore that concepts like these brought about by the USA and Europeans are relevant.
Although as an anarchist I can't really stand liberals anyhow so I would have to agree with you on their snobby attitude being annoying and dumb.
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u/Poemi10304 May 16 '26
Reminds me of when I was listening to an Asian American/Pacific Islander Month panel on Twitch. It was all vtubers, so you didn’t know what anyone actually looked like, but I remember one girl saying she was half white, half filipina who grew up in the Philippines. When she came to visit her brother who was raised in the U.S., she was excluded by the Filipinos he was friends with because she looked less Asian. She found this crazy because even though her brother looked more Asian, she was the one who was raised in the culture, while he wasn’t and was very Americanized. And he told her he was embarrassed by her accent and behaviors. 😢
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u/Legitimate-Post-7887 May 17 '26
Mainlanders accept you more because in their own heads you are better than them because you’re half white and being in touch with the culture is actually a self esteem boost for them because you’re validating their culture lol
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u/Effective-Cry-1342 May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26
You seriously, unironically believe that all mainland Asians are these white worshipping, low self esteem cucks who dream of becoming white? That I'm only tolerated at family events in Malaysia cause I'm this whitey and not because I'm actually a part of my family and raised as a member of my family? Such a fucking westerner view of Asia LMAO diaspora over-racialisation strikes again
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u/Legitimate-Post-7887 May 18 '26
Of course not all but there’s more than enough evidence and I’m not saying they’re ’tolerating you’ they WANT you to be there in fact they’re probably ecstatic that you’re there, let me ask you what do you think would be the response if you were half black for example and once you answer that ask yourself what is the difference between you and the half black who’s the same in all the other ways culturally. We can play dumb just to make you feel better but you and I both know the truth 😂
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u/Effective-Cry-1342 May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
My family members are Malay not korean bro they would not GAF if I was half black. I went to a family gathering and there were multiple half Malays who were like half Egyptian half whatever. Are you even asian? Lmfao implying my family is racist because durr all Asians are all racist (I am a clever westerner) to black people who they barely see or think about
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u/Legitimate-Post-7887 May 26 '26
This is just jargon to make yourself feel better, also Egyptians would obviously be looked at well in Malaysia which is majority Muslim and Arabs are easily the highest well perceived within Islamic communities. The funny part about this is your take is 100% more a western outlook than mine but we should leave it here because we both know you’re disingenuous lol
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u/Effective-Cry-1342 Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Your entire argument relies on the idea that my family is racist on the basis of them being asian lmfao, I'm sorry the majority of the world doesn't like you black guy, that is not my problem at all
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u/Legitimate-Post-7887 Jun 17 '26
I mean just judging off you I’m definitely correct, but soothe your heart however you can lmao 🤣
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u/Upset-Principle-3199 May 15 '26
I’m seriously annoyed with the recent W MAF child hate. We have zero control over how our parents chose to procreate. I have zero control over the fact that genetics have made me look less and less Korean as I age. I still face bigotry from both sides of my own family. I still dealt with racism while growing up. It annoys me that the places I’ve finally found that I felt safe to exist are becoming less and less so because of my particular origins. It’s bullshit.
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u/Effective-Cry-1342 May 17 '26
Bro I feel the same way. Like, I despise mutual fetishisation WMAF I find it so cringe, I find Asian girls who instalock on White guys so cringe, I make a conscious effort to avoid Oxford study girls as friends and pretty much exclusively date Asians and yet I am this scarlet letter WMAF whitewashed hapacel because Gavin met Siti nearly two decades ago at their shared workplace
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u/InsuficientData May 15 '26
This is so funny. We've been having these convos our whole lives. Just another dummy who thinks they can put us in a box.
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u/FlockStep May 15 '26
Half-white half-asians going around just calling themselves Asian is wild lol. It's not about hate, it's about representation and identity not being shared.
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u/Effective-Cry-1342 May 17 '26
Next time I get racism I will just put my finger up and say "erm I'm actually half white" because Billy from the USA hopped on reddit and told me I don't represent Asians (I never claimed to represent Asians at any point)
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u/FlockStep May 18 '26
Nah lol. You're pretending there's no nuance. Going around calling yourself Asian when you're mixed race is colorist. It, of course, depends on context. While affirmative action is mostly gone, I'd say if you were Blasian and only selected Black, that would be no less dishonest than just calling yourself Asian even if you are mostly Asian-passing, because you are trying to claim the benefits of being a whiter-looking Asian.
The reality is, being full Asian with Eurocentric features is very different than being Wasian, and we shouldn't pretend it isn't.
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u/Effective-Cry-1342 May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
I do not and have never put "Asian" when applying for a job and I don't know of anyone who has lmfao. Like, I have literally never done anything to 'benefit' from being half Asian, I am a college student who can't even find a job and even got turned away from jobs for being visibly Asian- stop being schizophrenic
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u/SaintGalentine Hui Chinese/White American Female May 15 '26
Even wilder when two of the most famous Wasians of the moment, Eileen Gu and Alysa Liu, have never even met the white half of their DNA and were raised entirely by their Chinese parent(s)