Guest Post: The Quirky Asian
June 5, 2008 | Filed under Asian-ness
What’s up Amanda’s readers! I am The Blogger, Quirkified, here to make your lives quirkalicious. A little about myself: I’m quirky, I run, and I’m Cambodian.
Yep, Cambodian. Khmer. A person whose ethnic origin is from Cambodia.
Being a minority within a minority, you’d figure that I have those tight bonds with other Cambodians because I would feel so alone. Nope! I grew up happily in a melting pot, and have subsequently been called white washed, black (for many reasons, including my misleading name.1), and when people try to guess my ethnicity, Filipino. Although I’ve done things to promote my heritage2, my lack of association with other Cambodians is frowned upon by some.
Last year, I made friends online with a Cambodian. The first thing he said over AIM was how he doesn’t meet a lot of our fellow brethren, and that to meet me was exciting. My school work kicked up and I wasn’t able to talk to him, but when I did two weeks later, it was bad.
He accused of me ignoring him, to which my reply of the increase of studying was refuted by belittling my school and my major, and then going on to accuse me of having no pride in my ethnicity because I don’t want to talk to him. Because obviously, if I don’t want to talk to and date other Cambodians (him), nor if my family doesn’t donate or is not involved in the country’s politics, then I should be ashamed. I cut off my ties with him that very night, but I walked away shaken. I’ve never had my pride questioned before, and I’ve never had someone disrespect my family so, even though they donate all they can spare to poor relatives in Cambodia. I almost failed my test that next day.
I rarely make a mention of my ethnicity unless incited, but that doesn’t mean I’m not proud of who I am. I like to appreciate people for who they are, and your ethnic label has little to do with it. Maybe this idea would be different had I grown up in a prominent Cambodian community. Maybe this idea would be different were I part of a bigger Asian ethnicity. Any factors could have come into play, but I’m comfortable with the circumstances. I hope people don’t come to know me just because I’m Cambodian. Know me because of who I am. Like being quirky.
Speaking of which, I haven’t done my usual dosage of quirk. I leave you with a picture then.
1 One link on the website says “Is (name) not popular enough for you?” and I’m like… BEETCH. Testin’ my popularity, che.
2 I’ve done cultural dancing for seven years and did a National History Day project on the Khmer Rouge. I made it to Nationals.
This was a guest post by Q. If you’re interested in guest-posting on this blog, please feel free to check out this forum post.
3 Responses to Guest Post: The Quirky Asian
Leave a Reply
I reserve the right to edit or delete your comment as I see fit, though I only delete comments from anonymous commenters, or people with multiple aliases. Using a genuine name/email combination will ensure that your comment is approved.
Ugh, I hate this whole nationality-pride thing. Why should I be proud of 1.3 billion people I don’t know, just because I’m also Chinese, as opposed to the rest of the world whom I also don’t know? I’m proud of people who achieve things, who do good for the world, who are happy, who don’t hurt others etc… regardless of their ethnicity. There’s also a subtle amount of racism involved in a lot of these “pride” things as well. And that’s one thing I cannot tolerate, and that’s racism.
I wish more people would realise that races don’t really matter for anything!
Belinda on June 6, 2008 #
I’m always being called whitewashed by my friends at Chinese school, though they say it more jokingly.
Too much pride, as seen with the guy you were taking with, is sometimes a bad thing.
Regina on June 6, 2008 #
I had no idea this was a guest post until I read the small print at the bottom. I feel pretty dumb right about now.
Sarai on June 6, 2008 #