Probably the worst thread title I can think of, but I started thinking after reading James Fallow's blog. Fallows has spent the last 4 years in China writing for The Atlantic, and in that time he has constantly heard that he looks like George Bush. Here is a picture of James Fallows.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchinadigitaltimes.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2008%2F06%2Ffallows.jpg&hash=f43ff187d3a5d2aea922b59aebf10f84edce2169)
I don't think anyone on this board would ever think that he really resembles, let alone is the spitting image, of George Bush, but the vast majority of Chinese People will go for a lot of their lives seeing only a couple of honest-to-god Caucasians, and maybe a few more on TV. How are they supposed to tell the difference?
So here's a two part question.
Firstly, do any general group of people (say, Vietnamese, or maybe even East Asians, or maybe Native Americans and Mexicans) look a like to you? Could you confuse a random Mexican person for, say, a Sioux Indian? Or various African groups? Does a person look "Korean", "Japanese", "Mongolian" or "Siberian" to you or just "Hairy Asian", or maybe just generic "East Asian"?
Maybe he has similar mannerisms/voice inflection/etc. Sometimes those things are just as telling as facial features.
He looks a little like George sr.
In dim lighting and from a bit above or below, I could see there being some resemblance. Also, our facial recognition tends to be a bit primitive, so with a low sample in Caucasians, you might be onto something.
I and the other teachers had a lot trouble identifying a trio of Chinese girls at the school I student taught at. They wore their hair the same length, and wore similar styles which made it really difficult.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 16, 2009, 07:35:11 PM
I and the other teachers had a lot trouble identifying a trio of Chinese girls at the school I student taught at. They wore their hair the same length, and wore similar styles which made it really difficult.
Racist!
Quote from: HVC on June 16, 2009, 07:39:23 PM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 16, 2009, 07:35:11 PM
I and the other teachers had a lot trouble identifying a trio of Chinese girls at the school I student taught at. They wore their hair the same length, and wore similar styles which made it really difficult.
Racist!
Not being CdM I hadn't had daily interactions with teenage Asian girls before this.
Or with girls of any ethnicity, for that matter.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 16, 2009, 07:45:40 PM
Quote from: HVC on June 16, 2009, 07:39:23 PM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 16, 2009, 07:35:11 PM
I and the other teachers had a lot trouble identifying a trio of Chinese girls at the school I student taught at. They wore their hair the same length, and wore similar styles which made it really difficult.
Racist!
Not being CdM I hadn't had daily interactions with teenage Asian girls before this.
Great, now all asian girls are whore. keep digging!
:p I don't think i ever met a group who i thought all looked a like. Sure, i can't tell if someone is vietnamese or chinese, but i can tell individuals apart.
Quote from: PDH on June 16, 2009, 07:50:50 PM
Or with girls of any ethnicity, for that matter.
:pinchL
Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 16, 2009, 07:45:40 PM
Not being CdM I hadn't had daily interactions with teenage Asian girls before this.
Hood rats, Tim. Seedy's MO is
hood rats. :contract:
Quote from: HVC on June 16, 2009, 07:51:32 PM
:pinchL
It was coming in over the middle of the plate, I HAD to hit it.
Asian women... I think If one came over introduced herself, and then blended back into a crowd of Asian women her age... I couldn't find her again.
Other than that, no.
:lol: ...and yet Tim calls me a raciss.
Quote from: Queequeg on June 16, 2009, 05:50:42 PM
I don't think anyone on this board would ever think that he really resembles,
I can see it.
I think the most generic-looking group of people is probably Hollywood starlets. Flaws add variety.
Quote from: Caliga on June 16, 2009, 08:18:48 PM
:lol: ...and yet Tim calls me a raciss.
I just haven't been around many Asian people, it's simply a matter of experience. :mellow:
Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 16, 2009, 10:12:07 PM
Quote from: Caliga on June 16, 2009, 08:18:48 PM
:lol: ...and yet Tim calls me a raciss.
I just haven't been around many Asian people
that's no surprise, seeing how you're racist against our asian bretheren :rolleyes::P
I sometimes find it hard to tell red necks apart. They wear the same flannel shirts, jeans with their ass cracks showing, and shit kickers. The only distinguishing feature seems to be the color of their mullets but that maybe related to their mating season, I am not quite sure yet.
Quote from: Strix on June 17, 2009, 06:39:39 PM
I sometimes find it hard to tell red necks apart. They wear the same flannel shirts, jeans with their ass cracks showing, and shit kickers. The only distinguishing feature seems to be the color of their mullets but that maybe related to their mating season, I am not quite sure yet.
How tragic not to recognize your own people. :cry:
ZING!
Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 17, 2009, 07:15:34 PM
How tragic not to recognize your own people. :cry:
I know. I have trouble telling my relatives apart.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on June 17, 2009, 07:18:22 PM
I know. I have trouble telling my relatives apart.
Which side of the family? Both? In that case, you are royally fucked.
Quote from: PDH on June 17, 2009, 07:22:06 PM
Which side of the family? Both? In that case, you are royally fucked.
Just the chinaman side.
Quote from: Strix on June 17, 2009, 06:39:39 PM
I sometimes find it hard to tell red necks apart. They wear the same flannel shirts, jeans with their ass cracks showing, and shit kickers. The only distinguishing feature seems to be the color of their mullets but that maybe related to their mating season, I am not quite sure yet.
Try using the tats as your recognition guide.
We think they all look-a-like, they think we all look-a-like. Fair enough, really.
As for the question - well I think there are traits whereby you can tell eastern European from western European, Aborigine from Austronesian, etc... though I guess these are all generalised with the need for you to be in the proximity of certain peoples to really be able to tell (and even then appearances can be deceptive).
Quote from: Admiral Yi on June 17, 2009, 07:23:28 PM
Quote from: PDH on June 17, 2009, 07:22:06 PM
Which side of the family? Both? In that case, you are royally fucked.
Just the chinaman side.
I'm willing to bet that everyone in your family who has spent time in Korea doesn't have that difficulty. Would I be right?
Quote from: Queequeg on June 17, 2009, 07:29:12 PM
I'm willing to bet that everyone in your family who has spent time in Korea doesn't have that difficulty. Would I be right?
You would not.
Do you have trouble with the chinaman-girls too, Yi?
Quote from: PDH on June 17, 2009, 07:42:31 PM
Do you have trouble with the chinaman-girls too, Yi?
Mixed results.
Quote from: PDH on June 17, 2009, 07:42:31 PM
Do you have trouble with the chinaman-girls too, Yi?
Ladyboys come mainly from Thailand.
Chinaman-girls is a Languish term - Jacob pointed it out when Lettow used it.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on June 17, 2009, 07:39:13 PM
You would not.
Seriously? There's no way Chinese/Koreans have trouble telling eachother apart.
Quote from: PDH on June 17, 2009, 07:46:08 PM
Chinaman-girls is a Languish term - Jacob pointed it out when Lettow used it.
Ahh right. I still like the word "ladyboys", mind.
Quote from: Queequeg on June 17, 2009, 07:46:31 PM
Seriously? There's no way Chinese/Koreans have trouble telling eachother apart.
Of course they have trouble - that is why they all have the same name.
Quote from: Queequeg on June 17, 2009, 07:46:31 PM
Seriously? There's no way Chinese/Koreans have trouble telling eachother apart.
Seriously. I spent my childhood in Korea and I have difficulty telling some Koreans apart.
Thought this was interesting, and appropriate. It would seem that there's really quite a bit of phenotype diversity in Asia, it is just that most of it is on the outskirts and most clear between modern boundaries (which represent real, long standing genetic barriers in some cases, unlike in Europe).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/LA2-NSRW-1-0149.jpg
The Buriat could fairly easily be Japanese, so could the (slightly weird?) Chinese man. I think the Korean looks quite a bit different. The Ainu is supposedly a kind of throwback to the the time when Caucasians and Mongoloids were pretty similar, after they'd broken off from the original African (read:black) type (including modern New Guineans, Australians, possibly Tamils, other native peoples of the area). The Giljak are the weirdest looking people in the world, and not in a good way.
I have trouble telling white people apart. In context, I have lived in places where it was mostly white.
I also been mistaken by my white peers for another person of every other non-white ethnicity including Hispanic, Chinese, (dark) Italian, black, etc.
Quote from: Phillip V on June 18, 2009, 01:51:30 AM
I also been mistaken by my white peers for another person of every other non-white ethnicity including Hispanic, Chinese, (dark) Italian, black, etc.
I've been mistaken as half asian in China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Berkeley. They seem to think every white person has blonde hair and blue eyes, brown hair and hazel eyes means you're mixed.
I sometimes still have trouble with Asians. But I also occasionally have trouble with whites, blacks, and others, too, so I guess it's all about the same.
Haven't had that problem IRL.
Last summer I worked for the university in its English language student summer school helping to organise and run the various social events and cultural trips and all that sort of thing.
By far the largest number of foreign students there came from China and as one of the social leaders it was my job to be all bright and friendly and to make friends with them....I'm no good with names at the best of times, now that was a disaster that time. I was just walking down the corridor and had shouted at me "Hello Tyr!", I turned and smiled and all I could come up with was "Hello.....". When it came to actually having to remember the names for getting their attention, handing out letters and that sort of thing...damn it got embarrassing. It even went beyond recognising someone but not remembering their name, I grew unsure whether someone asking me something was someone I knew already or a randomer.
But anyway. On Chinese/Korean/Japanese...
I think I am pretty good at telling the difference between Japanese and Chinese, I don't know what it is (barring some Japanese having brown hair) but they do tend to look different. Koreans though utterly confuse things and if you throw them into the mix I've very little chance.
Quote from: Disturbed pervertI've been mistaken as half asian in China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Berkeley. They seem to think every white person has blonde hair and blue eyes, brown hair and hazel eyes means you're mixed.
Their definition of blonde does tend to be anything non-jet-black though. I always get called blonde by non-white folks despite being really rather brown.
What do they make of green eyes btw?
Quote from: Tyr on June 19, 2009, 07:41:01 AM
What do they make of green eyes btw?
Not sure, but Chinese sometimes have green eyes.
I was once mistaken for someone who cares, or at least half-cares. Luckily I disabused them of this notion with a swift knee-capping.