Don’t Be Ashamed to Be Asian.
A few weeks ago, I celebrated the Asian Children’s Festival at Singapore’s National Library. It was two days of tiring fun. There was one particular boy there who caught my eye. The 5-year-old boy experienced every booth and once he found the activity he liked best, he queued and played at the same booth over and over again. The boothkeepers couldn’t get rid of the lad!
While I laughed at his energy and exuberance, I felt sorry for his poor mother who looked worn out. She nodded her go ahead for him to take part in every single activity available and over and over again, then she went ahead to slump herself, exhausted, into a chair. Meanwhile, her son was tiptoeing and craning his neck to see how near he is to the front of the queue and if it’s his turn yet. I could only shake my head. :)
The National Library Board didn’t just host the Asian Children’s Festival so that kids could have fun. The event is to power an incredible purpose and message. On the brochure was written how very few children’s books depict our colourful and unique Asian culture. As a result, our children have little opportunities to see themselves in books. What do you think that results in?
Image from AllPosters.com
It is very common now for girls to colour their hair blond and put on contact lenses that make the Irises of their eyes look blue. Have you ever wondered why it’s not a fashion trend to look like our beautiful Asian selves? Why is it trendy to be blonde instead of brunette? Why is it trendy to have blue eyes instead of warm brown?
Later that week, I had dinner with a friend and she related to me an experience she’d just had – she went shopping with a friend who didn’t colour her hair or her eyes and the salesgirl mistook the lady to be her Filipino maid!
In case you misunderstand, I don’t have anything against colouring eyes and hair. You can be as creative as you like with your hair and eye colour, it can be lots of fun. What I want to say is, I think the Asian look is a beautiful one.
I HATE blonde Asians! Especially the ones who get those retarded-looking contacts. They’re not fooling anyone and they just end up exposing their self-hatred.
There is something so utterly wrong with that phenomenon. I also think the Asian look is stunning – every Asian female I see is either cute or beautiful or attractive in some way and I don’t think that about white people.
I used to be a self-hater – I grew up in NY in a really white town and my father taught me that white people are better looking than Asians and my mother used to say I should get surgery one day. It took me almost two decades to finally accept my yellow face. Now I love it and I love being Asian.
Why do you hate them?