What's Up Chink?

“What's up Chink?”

“YO...hi there...how you do my fren?"

Yeah so I must've gotten like about...55 "nihao's," 30 "konichiwa's,"9 "annyeonghaseyo's", 2 “namaste’s” and a thousand more stares in my 1.5months in Europe. But after about 2 weeks, I pretty much accepted the fact that everywhere I went, especially with a pack of about 15 other Asians, we were going to be the center of attention.

Maybe I was being super naïve by thinking that Asians were everywhere and that racial discrimination was a thing of the past (just kidding)…but I kind of expected it, albeit still culture-shocked. And maybe it was because for the previous two summers, I had traveled only to Asian countries where I fit in and spoke the language. Maybe I’ve been hanging around too many Asians (in Asia and America), so “Asian” is all I know. Maybe this…and maybe that…but it still bugged me that I was sort of a walking circus for them.

But one thing I did notice was that there WERE Asian tourists and many more Asians who ran small grocery stores and a handful of Asian restaurants…so why did we get so many much of this attention? I noticed that a group of kids would not say stare and “greet” a bunch of Asian tourists but would say “nihao” and stare at us who were younger and much more Westernized. HMMMM?

So during my first day in Europe in Copenhagen, I was both anxious and excited to experience a new part of the world. It was 8AM and as soon as I got off the metro, I was approached by two drunken teens, each holding a Carlsberg in their hand, who mockingly greeted me with “nihao’s” and “konichiwa’s” and a little bit of Spanish for some reason. And from that point on, it became a social norm for me to accept all these “greetings” and stares. I either ignored them or just responded with an English “Whatsup?”

When I think about it, I don’t know whether they were mocking us or actually saying “hello.” At times, I liked to believe they were genuinely saying “hello” because they were amused to see Asians.

And this continued on in Spain as well. Perhaps our group was mainly Asian so we always got stares. And I mean…when you go out with 10 of the only Asian girls in Spain dressed up in heels and all…I would definitely stare and say “nihao” as well.

And there was another memorable moment in Rome when a bunch of Italian kids said “nihao’s” to us. I wanted to take off my belt and whoop their asses but I replied with “hola.” Hm…WTF?

But as the stares and “nihao’s” became more ordinary, I still wondered when I would get my first “chinky eyes.” And then I got it…in GERMANY! Well I wasn’t happy when I got it but rather pissed off. But I look back at the situation and laugh about it now. So on a train ride from Berlin to Prague, just as we were departing from a station, these two guys come waddling up to our window with their “chinky eyes.” It happened so fast that I had no time to react. At first, I was like ok…then I got angrier and angrier the more I thought about it. I felt like turning into the Hulk and ripping the roof of the train off so I could run 5000mph back to that station to track those assholes down and eat them both. I really did. Then as time passed and the surrounding scenery became more beautiful and serene, I cooled down and actually thought about the situation. I mean…it was a remote town in the middle of nowhere and they’d probably only seen Asians on television so they didn’t know better. But I still wanted to eat them. Kind of. Not really.

And then I thought about it more and more…we weren’t in America where most of us are accustomed to seeing a variety of races. And then I reversed the situation as if I was a foreigner in an Asian country. Yeah, I would definitely get the stares and a lot of them but not so much the “greetings” since Asians are so passive. I remember I met a friend from Nigeria who told me about her experiences studying in China. She would always get stared at and people would go up to her and ask to touch her hair (just like in the Karate Kid!). And face it…whenever I, an American, saw a white or black guy while in Asia, I would ALWAYS stare in amazement and be like “holy shit! White guy! Black guy!”

That really is the magic when you travel abroad and visit a whole new place. At home, you live in a place of comfort and sameness without much variety. And that monotony will be the only thing you see unless you go abroad. And yes, you may and very likely will experience some sort of culture shock but that is the beauty of it. You will learn from it. You learn that there is so much out there than just you. Actually when I think of it…I do miss hearing those “nihao’s.”