I am always amazed to see how Westerners never seem to make the difference between Asian people.
I never really understood that. But here I was, in Beijing’s airport, waving at my parents who had just landed from France for their very first trip on asian ground. And I was about to witness the process of not telling Asian people apart right in front of my eyes.
My dear Korean better half (and not Chinese) was on my side, and even though I was still a bit nervous to introduce them (it was the first time my parents would meet one of my boyfriends), I was confident in the power of the little gifts we had purchased earlier in order to welcome them, and in the wine bottles my parents had brought from France in order to still feel a bit home when on the other side of the world. All of those should lighten the mood and make everything go smoothly on that first encounter.
After the first introductions, my parents asked me where we could change some currency. Leading them to the first counter, while showing off a little bit in front of them by speaking chinese, I suddenly had the idea to have my better half show my parents his Korean passport, so that they could see the difference between chinese characters and Korean alphabet.
While waiting at the counter, my parents religiously looked at this brand new writings they had in front of their eyes. Then, commenting the picture of my dear, my mother closed the passport and handed it over to…. the poor Japanese young man also waiting in line behind us!! He had no idea what was happening to him and obviously was embarrassed to have in his hand a Korean passport of an unknown man in his hand. He blushed like a schoolboy and gave it back to us.
Of course we didn’t miss the occasion to laugh and joke at what had just happened and to tell my mother that, no, her daughter doesn’t date every men in this airport but just the one standing right next to her! You see, the one with the short hair, tanned skin, baby face and not the skinny, pale skin with angular face Japanese behind you!
I know they all have black hair, but what happened to looking at the faces? Are the Westerners the only one to display differences in their facial features just because they have different color of hair?
A bit annoyed by the cliché of white people in asia my mother was embodying, but reassured by my boyfriend’s reaction, we all left the airport in a good mood, leaving the poor Japanese man still under shock but gradually breathing again. We had avoided a third world war between Korea and Japan.
Few years later, in Korea as I was talking with some asian friends, I understood a very important thing. Them too, can’t tell white people apart. Apparently, we all look alike to them!! And in Korea, we, the foreigners, are often separated in 3 distincts groups:
- If you are very tall or a bit fat=American
- If you have black hair and a brown skin=Indian or Phillipino
- If you are blond or very VERY white=Russian
And inside those different groups, nope, they also don’t tell us apart!
Well, as soon as people get outside of their comfort zone, they seem to get blinded. Why can’t we see the particularities of those who don’t look like us? Why do we have so many troubles seeing them as individuals and not a group of clones?
When I see all those efforts we make trying to look alike, with means like plastic surgery or fashion, I am thinking that soon, nobody will be able to make the difference between each other, even inside their own ethnic group. So, I guess, handing the passport to the wrong man won’t be a problem and quite understandable!
Meanwhile, let’s just open our eyes and enjoy all those little details in people that make so interesting and pleasant getting out of our borders and travel to the other side of the world!