From: cqk5188@acf5.NYU.EDU (Chien Kwok)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Re: No more ``sour grapes'' please!!!
Date: 15 Oct 92 04:31:09 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: New York University

jpak@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Jim Pak) writes:

>In article <92283.220111ZQH@psuvm.psu.edu> <ZQH@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>>[...]  In the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of Mainland China, there are many
>>AM/CF marriages (according to a recent article in the People's Daily, there
>>are more than 140 AM/CF couples from ONE county participated in a local
>>study about interracial marriages, no CM/AF was mentioned there).  Just FYI,
>>those Caucasians are Turkic origin whose ancestors migrated to Xinjiang
>>after Han Dynasty took that land 2100 years ago.  After the birth, those
>>Caucasian-Chinese and Han-Chinese in Xinjiang live together, go to the same
>>school system, watch the same TV shows and speak the same Mandarin, and thus
>>develop the common languange/culture background across races.  The situation
>>is similar to the one between the 2nd-plus-generation Asian-American
>>and the European-American.  Since the Han-Chinese is the mainstream
>>in China, some of those Caucasian-Chinese would want to marry into
>>the mainstream.  So the same thing happens to those Caucasian-Chinese
>>there as to Asian-American in U.S. --- more female outmarriges than
>>male outmarriages.

>No, no, no, James.  The reason there are more Caucasian female outmarriages
>than male in Xinjiang has nothing to do with wanting to marry into the
>"mainstream."  Absolutely nothing at all.  The *real* reason is that the AMs
>and WFs are individuals who just happened to fall in love with each other.
>Race and mainstreaming have *NOTHING* to do with it.  Right, y'all?  Correct?
>If it's true in America, why should the reasons for the comparable "phenomena"
>be different in China?

>Gee, I'm kind of surprised how many of you WMs and AFs out there who have no
>problem acknowledging the lack of racial influence on relationships didn't
>pick up on this immediately and instead waited for someone like me to point
>this out.

>Hmm.  Why don't those Xinjiang Caucasian men want to "mainstream" too?
>Perhaps they get too "wrapped up" over the "color" of their mates.  Somebody
>needs to tell those guys that true love is colorblind...

>He he he.

>Jim (sorry, I couldn't resist :-) )

I'm skeptical that the WMs and AFs would want to admit that race bears any
significance in their relationships even if there were.  I don't about the
Xinjiang culture and society and how it affect interracial relationships.
But I do know about American culture and society.  And in this society if
you haven't noticed, most portrayals of Asians by gender is markedly 
different.  Tia Carrere is a sexpot in Wayne's World.  Meanwhile a white
guy portrays a Chinese/Caucasian character in Miss Saigon (of course no 
problem in casting a Asian female in the other lead role).  When was the
last time an Asian male was cast in a role of a strong intelligent and
sexual character?          OK I'll give you an example though it still may
not meet my own criteria: John Lone in the Last Emperor.  Very interesting 
though for a movie that won almost all the Oscars in the non-acting segment
of the film, none of the actors (which were mostly Asian) even got nominated.
Of course the white director and cinematographer won.  An exception to this
was the composers of the great scores of the film: David Byrne, Ryiuchi 
Sakamoto and Cong Su, two of them being Asian.  Though David Byrne may have
been the one that the academy voted for, I'll be optimistic and say that
the other two had an equal role in it.

To ignore the effects on people's psyches by these differences is foolish at
best and dangerous at worst.  Black males have suffered for a long time by
this.  In the not too distant past, a black male walking together too closely
with a white woman would have been lynched for being uppidity and suspected
of desiring to rape the woman.  God forbid if the woman actually had any
real love/desire for the black male.  White male egos can't handle it.
If you haven't noticed yet it's not hard to find these images screaming out
to be noticed.  As an Asian, I'll point out the recurring emasculated Asian
male and sexpot Asian female.

I would be interested in reading about any studies on the percentages of
WM/AF and WF/AM relationships compared and the possible causes.  If love is
truly colorblind (and I admit it can be, though not as common as you may
think) and that since each group have equal chances of "hooking up", my guess
as to the result of that study would show an even distribution among both
types of relationships.  But my feeling is that it won't be so. 

Chien Kwok