# Asian ethnicity identification at a glance **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2014, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552 "2014-12-18T05:12:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/41 "2014-12-19T18:37:45Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Chinese? Like the wife of the other poster here, my wife is casually interested in what language/dialect/accent you speak, but deciding that someone is ‘Chinese’ is like deciding that someone is European… > > … I picked you as European! Let me try my high-school Armenian on you!.. Armenia is in Asia. 😃 I’ve spent a lot of time in Korea, Japan and Taiwan and I’d say you’d have a better chance of guessing the ethnicity by the way they dress, rather than the way they look (assuming you did not hear them talk). ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/42 "2014-12-19T19:45:26Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > That can’t possibly be right. “Kim” is a much more prevalent Korean surname. Mis-transposed, you’re right. Park is are huge but respectable 8.5%. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/43 "2014-12-19T20:23:41Z")
Just greet every Asian person you see with “Habari gani?” and be done with it. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/44 "2014-12-19T21:21:32Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > I remember during my apartment management days, I once had a package for someone that I casually described as “for someone with a Russian-sounding name.” Good Lord, the lecture I got on how Ukrainians are not Russian! > > (Which I know… but let’s be real here, Ukraine is ultimately a Russian word itself, and Ukrainian names _sound_ Russian. Damn, now I have to change identities and move to another state again…) I thought Ukrainians and Russians were mostly the same race, they are politically distinct, a similar difference between mainland Chinese and Taiwanese. > [@](#): > > And another gaffe in which one resident thought another might be Chinese earned a lecture on the evils of the Chinese and the saintliness, superpowers and heightened intelligence of Koreans. At least I was just a spectator on that one. Ah yes, South Korea, the only modern country I know of that got rich whilst still having mainstream bigotry and ethnochauvanism. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/45 "2014-12-20T00:50:54Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Ah yes, South Korea, the only modern country I know of that got rich whilst still having mainstream bigotry and ethnochauvanism. Don’t forget Singapore! ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/46 "2014-12-20T01:12:56Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Don’t forget Singapore! Singapore? Okay, they aren’t the most PC, but they have a multi-ethnic government, racial equality in education and career opportunities and most people don’t stigmatise interracial/international friendships and relationships. Many Singaporeans stereotype people from Indonesia and the Phillipeans but that’s more based on poverty then race. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/47 "2014-12-20T01:19:29Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Chinese? Like the wife of the other poster here, my wife is casually interested in what language/dialect/accent you speak, but deciding that someone is ‘Chinese’ is like deciding that someone is European… > > … I picked you as European! Let me try my high-school Armenian on you!.. Inch bes es! Armenia is in Asia though. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2014, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/48 "2014-12-20T01:28:37Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Singapore? Okay, they aren’t the most PC, but they have a multi-ethnic government, racial equality in education and career opportunities and most people don’t stigmatise interracial/international friendships and relationships. > > Many Singaporeans stereotype people from Indonesia and the Phillipeans but that’s more based on poverty then race. True to some extent. But I know an ethnic-Malay Singaporean here in Bangkok, and she’s not shy about giving people an earful about Singapore. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2014, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/49 "2014-12-20T01:31:25Z")
A couple dozen years back, there was some media attention paid to this. Then a university gathered a representative sample of Asian people who claimed to be sure they could tell the differences and showed them video clips of all sorts of different Asians. The people who were \*sure they could tell \*scored no better than the people who were _sure they couldn’t tell_. Even my mother and I figured we _could just tell_ and would often guess correctly at UPAC (Union of Pan Asian Communities) meetings. But I bet we wouldn’t have scored well on one of those tests, either. I thought it was quite amusing when I\* was standing in an outdoor market in Seoul, browsing some leather jackets and trying to ignore the shopkeeper. The shop owner approached me and said, “Hello, Welcome!” in Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, and finally English – at which point I snapped, “I’m just browsing, leave me alone!” > [@Namkcalb](#): > > Ah yes, South Korea, the only modern country I know of that got rich whilst still having mainstream bigotry and ethnochauvanism. Sorry, but I’m embarrassed to say Japan precedes South Korea on that one (largely because the Occupation forces were using Japan as a stopover/R&R base during the Korean War, literally pumping in the money to make Japan richer. And Japanese racism is World (War II) Famous. ☹ As for retail interactions, just be as polite with anyone as you would be if you were in a transaction with your boss – because basically you are. Do NOT, however, refer to us/them as “Oriental” as the term is a Western European invention used to refer to things from “The East” and carries with it some old built-in cultural biases. Furthermore, since we’re now well-aware that the world is round, we’re also well-aware that every place is East of another place 🆒 –G! \*I’m Half Chinese and half Japanese. I bear generic Asian features – imagine that! ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/50 "2014-12-20T01:58:57Z")
> [@Grestarian](#): > > Sorry, but I’m embarrassed to say Japan precedes South Korea on that one (largely because the Occupation forces were using Japan as a stopover/R&R base during the Korean War, literally pumping in the money to make Japan richer. And Japanese racism is World (War II) Famous. ☹ People in Japan is less likely to be overtly racist (nowadays) it seems than some others. It’s just not polite! In WWII the Chinese were… not treated kindly of course. > [@](#): > > As for retail interactions, just be as polite with > anyone as you would be if you were in a transaction with your boss – because basically you are. Do NOT, however, refer to us/them as “Oriental” as the term is a Western European invention used to refer to things from “The East” and carries with it some old built-in cultural biases. Furthermore, since we’re now well-aware that the world is round, we’re also well-aware that every place is East of another place 🆒 The word “Asia” is a European, or possibly Middle Eastern word. Many of us don’t say Oriental because it is as dated a term as “you bet your sweet bippy” and not because it is particularly offensive, even if some insist so. There are racial terms that have a lot more baggage out there. And it’s usage is more common outside North America. In other words it’s a bit like saying negro or colored - maybe not intended to offend but boy are you out of touch. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2014, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/51 "2014-12-20T09:47:46Z")
[quote=“thelurkinghorror, post:15, topic:707552”] Never met a Rhee and can’t name one besides Syngman. It’s usually Romanized as “Lee” which can denote a number of ethnicities as you note.QUOTE] Dae Han and Tommy in the movie Best of the Best are Rhees, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2014, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/52 "2014-12-20T12:00:24Z")
Just because this is cool–we have 11 kids classified as “Asian” in the junior class of the school I teach in. Within those 11 kids, we have at least one kid who is at most one generation removed from each of these: China Taiwan Japan South Korea Vietnam Mongolia India Nepal Thailand And yeah, I’d love to hand anyone that list and pictures of those kids and see if they could get it right. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/53 "2014-12-21T05:24:27Z")
[quote=“John\_Mace, post:41, topic:707552”] Armenia is in Asia. 😃 QUOTE] Yes. (or Eurasia) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/54 "2014-12-21T05:42:43Z")
I’m curious why anyone would care or want to identify their customer’s country of origin? It just seems to easy to offend or annoy I’d avoid it altogether, with no upside. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552/55 "2014-12-21T06:06:10Z")
Has the OP thought of just asking in conversation, “So, where are you guys from?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-ethnicity-identification-at-a-glance/707552.md?page=2)