Newsflash: Reporter Discovers West Still Romanticizes East

While it's not exactly news to many of us, and the WaPo writer does explore the issue fairly thoroughly, I do wonder what the Beijing Olympics will do to alter the image of the mysterious East to the rest of the Western world. There's huge potential to mitigate fears of the unknown and obliterate antiquated stereotypes of China and the East (and subsequently, East Asian Americans), but whether that will happen remains to be seen.

More interestingly, what kind of eye-opener could it be for second- or third-generation Asian Americans? Admittedly, I love me a good martial arts movie (e.g. "Crouching Tiger," "Hero," etc.) set in ancient China. I've never actually visited to China. My Chinese sucks. I'm sure I have outdated impressions of what life in even larger metropolitan areas like Shanghai and Beijing are like, even if they aren't filled with dragons and kung fu. Hmm. It's an interesting thought. What happens when those descended from the East romanticize the East? Maybe that was more of a newsflash than I thought.

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lala wrote 4 years 41 weeks ago

re: Newsflash: Reporter Discovers West Still Romanticizes East

There are such things as Asian Americans who have an Asian festish. This is something John Cho likes to say about his attorney character in the film "West 32nd."

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