I'm Asian, Can't You Tell?

Confession: I get uncomfortable when I feel like I'm fulfilling a certain stereotype about Asians.

So I noticed it consciously for the first time when I used to live in the Lovejoy dorm. The dorms are pretty much a bedroom shared between two people (doubles) or three, hopefully not. There's a communal kitchen down the hall past the lounges where I was going to go to get my rice washed. I had a little rice cooker in my room but I had to get water from the kitchen. So I'm carrying the rice pot and as I'm walking down the hall, I hear a lot of people in the lounge (study session?) and I started feeling increasingly uncomfortable as I'm heading down the hall.

I knew what they were going to think. At least my paranoid mind was certain of it.

"How typical of an asian to go wash and eat rice"

I don't even know why it bothered me that I was fulfilling that stereotype. Yes, rice is commonly associated with Asians. But I couldn't suppress my embarrassment anyways.

Then today I was sitting in the library at night. It was inching towards 11PM and most people had already gone home. I looked around me and the only people left were Asians. All of them. Half of the library area was full and all of the people still studying were Asian. Then I started feeling that familiar discomfort again.

"Asian nerds, always studying"

All the whispering and dialogues spoken in their native Asian language didn't really help the situation. It was like I was sitting in the Chinatown of libraries. Don't get offended please.

So then some caucasians come down to study (phew!) but then I started thinking about what they are thinking. Looking from their perspective, they're pretty much outnumbered by Asian people, and the annoying buzz of Asian conversation didn't really make that any more discreet.

After all that, I started thinking about incidences where I felt like I was fulfilling the Asian stereotype and there were so many!

Like when I'm waiting for the train at the platform in Chinatown along with a crowd of mostly Asian people.  The train pulls up and you can see that inside there's a good balance of ethnicities, nothing out of ordinary. The door opens, and then it's like the gates of a dam had burst and all the Asians on the platform suddenly  flooded the train. They are loud, they are speaking in their native tongue, and all you now hear is a mix of foreign Asian languages. It's like they took over the entire train. And again, I can't help but wonder what the non-Asians on the train think about all of this.

Sigh, major awkward turtle.

So anyways, that's my 2 cents. Back to studying!