Yes, that’s what I meant. How they echo each other in a queasy way.
Ah. Thanks for clarification.
Coming back to this: I don’t think it’s everybody. I think it’s just that such voices unfortunately seem to be noticed more than the others.
I’ve actually seen far more preachy vegetarians than vegans. Not a ton of those either, I might add. But a very few that were dead-on stereotypical you’re-disgusting-for-eating-meat-in-my-presence sorts. I’ve never gotten anything like that from a genuine vegan. The thing is that all of those extreme people, without exception, were just basically unpleasant in general. If they hadn’t been vegetarians they would have had something else to annoy people with.
And I agree that I’ve also seen a lot more anti-vegetarianism/veganism preaching. Even from me in a mild way when I was a much younger and a slightly bigger idiot 
.
Even though I am a white guy, I speak fluent albiet non native Mandarin, and my Japanese was passable 30 years ago.
Over the years I have changed and usually ask if someone is a mandarin speaker or a Japanese speaker. And then switch into one of those languages if they are. That seems to be more neutral that just asking the race question.
Of course, it is very nuanced. Some Taiwanese can get really bent out of shape if you use the mainland term for Mandarin (普通话）versus the Taiwan term (国语). Chinese minority nationalities such as the Tibetans would use a term for the language of the Han Chinese (汉文), where as ethnic Chinese throughout SE Asia typically use （华语）。 Usually, folks are pretty happy to chat with me in Mandarin if it’s a mutual language.
@Didi44 I understand a fair amount of canto, and speak a little bit. I lived in HK for 5 years, but was a mandarin speaker the whole time and always found mandarin speakers, so never got to to any kind of spoken fluency.
I’m in the UK, where we have recently granted visas to a lot of people from Hong Kong. So, 9 times out of 10 if I see someone of east asian appearance, they will be from there.
And I have become hesitant to try out my Mandarin on them. Because, while we normally have a friendly enough exchange, I definitely get the feeling that they are not very comfortable speaking Mandarin, and I often will just switch to English.
And it’s not their speaking ability (not all Cantonese speakers can speak Mandarin well), I think it’s because of the association of that language with the mainland.
Getting off topic, but I find it interesting that native Mandarin speakers (i.e. Mainland China) will happily acknowledge someone like Chow Yun Faat as Zhou Run Fa, but Cantonese speakers would somewhat angrily correct me if a referred to Joey Wang Tsu Hsien as Wong Jyo Yin or Sally Yeh Chien Wen as Yip Sian Man. Saying “She’s Taiwanese!”, despite Joey gaining her fame in Hong Kong cinema and Sally being referred to as the Queen of Cantopop!
This isn’t a swipe at anyone. I just find it funny! LOL
As for native Cantonese speakers, speaking Mandarin and vice versa, I took a beginners Cantonese class once and two of the students were Taiwanese. I thought they’d have an easy time, but they struggled with the tones and had a distinct accent from those of use who speak no Chinese dialect at all!
I finally began to understand the jokes about Joey’s poor Cantonese, especially early in her career.
BTW, watch and play along with the link I gave above about the difference between Northern and Southern Mandarin. The Hong Kong’s speaker’s accent is super clear, even to non-Chinese dialect speakers.
Part of that is no doubt that there are simply a lot more of them – I mean there’s a whole subcontinent mainly populated by them – and there’s assholes in any demographic .Still, I know plenty of vegetarians and they are pretty much silent on the subject unless someone asks. I don’t know if anyone of my acquaintance is a vegan. Possibly my Pilates instructor.
Anyone under 50 from Hong Kong will at least understand Mandarin, and usually speak it reasonably well. Maybe with an accent.
In my experience, most seem to be fine with speaking “Chinese”, especially if you’re pretty fluent and their English isn’t as good. Of course, everyone is delighted if you can speak their dialect. I learned decades ago how to say in Cantonese “I don’t speak Cantonese but I do speak Mandarin”, and then follow whichever language they preferred from there.
Yeah, I’ve seen that a lot. My native Japanese ex-wife swore that she could absolutely tell exactly where someone was from but really was relying more on dress, makeup or hair style than anything else. She never did better than average with Asian Americans.
Hell, at the local night market back in our small city in Taiwan, you had a really good chance of correctly guessing the “locals” from the big city folks (an hour away) just by looking at their shoes, let alone their dress.
My Taiwanese wife is assumed to be Japanese by the natives of wherever we happen to be. Just last week, a Japanese man asked my wife where I was from and commenting on my Japanese. I asked him about her Japanese, and the look of confusion when he realized she may not be Japanese was classic.
In Korea, the locals assume she’s Korean and she’s also been thought to be Vietnamese in Vietnam (there are a lot of ethnic Chinese there).
I was in Bangkok with my Japanese then-wife and we adventured out to see the night life. Back in the hotel, we got on the elevator with a couple of fairly inebriated European guys who were bringing back some of the locals appropriately dressed for their profession. (And I’m not 100% sure which pronouns would apply to the escorts, but that’s something else.)
Anyway, despite the obvious difference in attire and makeup, etc., between their companions for the night and my wife, not to mention that East Asians generally do look different than Thai people, they drunkenly assumed I was enjoying the same activities and that should somehow be a cause for celebration. Thankfully the elevator ride was relatively short although the awkwardness seemed to last forever.
Okinawan stories.
My parents and I used to frequently visit a local Japanese department store (Daiei, now long gone). One of the cashiers we saw often was obviously to us, a Japan or Okinawa national due to her features and accent. We commented to each other about how attractive she was and were sure she wasn’t mixed blood. My Mom (who’s the Japanese part of my heritage) finally asked her where she was from and confirmed he was pure Okinawan from Okinawa.
My Dad (the Okinawan half of my heritage), was somewhat darker skinned and would often be mistaken for Filipino with native Filipinos sometimes striking up a conversation with him until he tells them he’s not Filipino!
I even had one woman, don’t remember her ethnicity, ask me “Where’s the nice looking Filipino man who comes with you?” When I told her he was my Dad and Okinawan, she was very embarassed and shocked!
When I tell people I’m Okinawan/Japanese, they look me head to toe and sometimes ask; “Why aren’t you hairy?” or “Where’s the hair on your arms?” or “Why aren’t you darker?” Ttypical traits of Okinawans.
For those wondering, I say Okinawan/Japanese, primarily out of respect for my father and the Okinawan pride that swelled in Hawaii in the '80’s. When the Hawaii Okinawa Center was opened in 1990, I joked with my parents that my Dad could go all the way in, I could only go half way and my Mom would have to stay outside!
And Yes, Okinawan’s are Japanese only by nationality after being annexed by Japan in 1609. The Ryukyu islands were their own kingdom, with their own language and culture, being ethnically closer to Koreans and Chinese than mainland Japanese.
Also Yes, I can usually tell who’s Okinawan, especially females, whom I find especially attractive.
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I enjoy learning about peoples’ cultures, ethnicities, religions, and where they grew up. I frequently ask people where they grew up, because IME that forms much of how they think and behave. I often ask for their culture/ethnicity/etc.
My ethnicity is Filipino-Russian-Polish, a strange mix. By my looks I’m often mistaken for either Hawaiian / Polynesian, or Alaskan / Eskimo. Anyway the point is that I am not white, and I am not black. But since I’m a minority I’ve found that it can be an advantage when talking to people of color. IME, lots of people of color are not comfortable talking to the White Man, but they are comfortable talking to other people of color. Me, I’m comfortable talking to all races and ethnicities.
Because I’m a minority I find that people are okay with me asking what their culture/ethnicity/etc is, whereas if I was white I’m afraid I’d come off as racist.
ETA — as for the OP’s question, I frequently try to guess at culture/ethnicity/etc.
Yes. “Guess the Asian” is a popular sport amongst us. I don’t really do it, not on purpose, but almost every other Asian I know loves to do it.
If you have access to surnames that can be either a dead giveaway or completely meaningless. “Nguyen” will almost always be Vietnamese with extremely few exceptions; so few I’ve never encountered or even heard of one. “Lee” OTOH can be almost anyone. Not even exclusive to Asians.
I know an East Asian woman named Carolyn Lee (not real first name). That’s her married name. Her husband is a Black American guy whose name is of English/Scots origin apparently. From the ancestors of his ancestor’s slaveholder.
Ironically her maiden name was something like Scott. She was adopted by an American (White) family as an infant from Korea.
So someone born in Korea was called “Carolyn Scott” until she got married to a Black American and became a Lee.
By coincidence, I was chatting last week to a colleague of Pakistani origin and he was curious to know if we (i.e. white Irish people) can tell the difference between Pakistani and Indian people by their appearance. This implied to me that some people from Pakistan and India do guess at each other’s nationality.
I know that it’s common for Japanese people to believe they can tell by visual appearance whether someone is Japanese, Korean or Chinese. I have read that “blind” tests (i.e. just pictures, absent other clues) have shown that these judgements are almost completely unreliable.
People in Pakistan think they are taller and fairer skinned than Indians, and generally more Central Asian/Iranian/Turkish looking.
I come from a minority community in Pakistan that is South Indian in origin and our darker skin and more “Dravidian” features is how we are distinguished by the Punjabis, Sindhis, Baluchis and Pathans.
Trivia. Lee 이, sometimes Yi, Rhee, Ri is pronounced Ee in Korean. If their surname is the Chinese 李, then it’s Lee/Li
Vietnamese Lê, though often pronounced Lee, is more like Lay.