Hot Topic: Yellow Fever

Every time I walk down the street there is a very high chance that I will run into a biracial couple, the most common form of which is the cliched white male/Asian girl. Even though I have fallen into that same trap, I still find it rather odd when I see biracial couples walk hand in hand. Especially when she looks like she's fresh off the boat and can barely speak a lick of English. Last month, I sat next to a biracial couple on their first date, and it was painful for me to watch him explain to her such basic references and listening to her struggle to get a coherent English sentence out.

Let's get to it:

Before any white males with Yellow Fever try to get into this argument with me, hear me out. I am very much a fan of white males, and I'm not here to shoot their lust love for Asian women. This is simply an observation and some first-hand experience. I have gone out with my fair share of white men, and I can safely say that some of them do see me as nothing more than a little dumpling with a personality. Of course, you can easily turn this around and blame Asian girls for liking gweilos, but I should probably save that article for a rainy day.

The romanticization of Asian culture, most prominently East Asian, is both a blessing and a curse for us Asian women. A blessing because more people have invested their time into understanding our culture, but a curse because that is all we are and all we will ever be; a personification of our Orientalism. I realized that there are two ways that a foreigner can see an Asian girl; as a human, or an artifact. 

Debbie Lum's documentary, Seeking Asian Female, tells the tale of Steven, a white male obsessed with Chinese women, to the point where he marries one woman he met off the internet. Both could not converse with each other at all (except through Lum herself) and their marriage ends up in shambles. Although Steven might be a rare and exaggerated case, the documentary is just one example of the fetishization of Asian culture. 

There is a bar a few minutes from my flat that amalgamates different Asian designs and ornaments to create an exotic aura. Of course, even though the statue of Mao is Chinese, the large bronze idols of Buddha are Indian, the wooden room separators are Indonesian and the giant sexy anime pictures on the men's urinals are Japanese, the bar itself is not country-specific. It takes bits and pieces of each culture that 'works' and lumps it in a huge bowl of Asian. The bar encourages the homogenization of Asian countries and the fetishization of Asian girls. Which is a terrible thing but, you know, I'm still getting my $1 champagne there every Thursday (they're $1 champagnes!).

Now, being attracted to Asian girls isn't really the issue for me, however, I find that most men are somewhat obsessed with East Asian culture to the point where they just want a girl to nod their heads and be kawaii. The stereotype that Asian women are more submissive and motherly might be true, but it should not be exclusive to Asian women. Yes, most of our countries are way behind on the feminist movement (the government-issued Indonesian family card literally has 'head of family' instead of 'father', if that doesn't scream patriarchy then I don't know what does) and that might make us Asian women seem docile, but cats look harmless too until the claws come out. There is this image of Asian women mainly constructed by western men throughout history, and then fetishized further in western media. Honestly, can Asian women ever play anything except the dork or the sex bomb? Either we have flat chests and large glasses or we're just all ass and tits spewing nonsense like sucky sucky five dolla and I love you long time.

The worst part is that western media has glamorized East Asian culture so much to the point where countries below China are negated completely. During a class pitch, a classmate of mine said that one of the characters in his short film will be Asian. When I asked specifically what kind of Asian, he simply shrugged and said, "I don't know...just Asian." Ah, Just Asian. Such a beautiful country with kind people. You see, I know that Just Asian means either China, Korea, or Japan; the three most romanticized countries in terms of its culture, women, and language. It rarely occurs to people that countries such as Indonesia or even India are part of the Asian continent and look nothing like the people they have lumped into the term Just Asian.

Southeast Asia is a culturally and historically rich region that have been walking in the shadows of their big sisters up above. So whenever someone says they like Asian girls, rarely do they mean Cambodian or Vietnamese women. Mongolians and Laotians will not cross their minds, because why would we? Our culture has never been painted so prettily in western media. Indonesia is nothing but the 2004 tsunami, and the Philippines is blanketed by news of typhoon Haiyan. We are merely scraps from the beautiful Just Asia right above.

The melodic intonation of my language has yet to reach the ears of foreigners. To them, it sounds like chewing gravel. To them, our culture is not beautiful because it has not been beautified in the way they are used to. What my country lacks in its women we make up for in landscapes and animals. But that is not what matters, not when all they want are Just Asian girls. Just Asian girls who nod along and speak in a soothing timbre. Just Asian girls who could regale them with stories about their country in their cute little accents. Just Asian girls who fulfill their idea of what Just Asia is and what Just Asian girls are supposed to be. 

This is detrimental to East Asian girls, as they will feel like nothing more than exotic objects to be fawned over and treated like a fetish, and to Southeast Asian girls, who like me, have learned to keep their cultural heritage to themselves in the presence of those with Yellow Fever. Because even though I do look Just Asian, I still bear the tongue of my people. I went out with a man (or two!) who encouraged me to speak the little Mandarin I could and to be...Just Asian. My identity as an Indonesian was completely negated and they began to see me as second-rate. They wanted Just Asian, but I gave them my individuality. 

Like all races, we all have to treat each other as humans—not things, not history, not culture. We have a voice that transcends language, and thoughts that speak louder than skin color. It would be a shame to nullify our souls for the sake of exoticism.