Name Calling

Read a post over at Stuff Asian People Like, apparently Peter dug out a post by Mr. Gary Lee back in February entitled What Type of Asian Are You? It's quite funny because it described a few Asian American archetypes in humorous, stereotypical "meme test" scenarios.

When I first come to the States, we have condescending nicknames for Asian Americans; Twinkies, Bananas, ABCs. The first two for its obvious yellow exterior with the white center, signifies that they might look Asian at the outside, but they are essentially culturally Americans. ABC stands for American-born Chinese. They are foreign and don't know anything about Asian cultures.

On the other spectrum, you've got the folks that we called FOBs, or the Fresh Off the Boats. The ones that have good grades and probably not born in the US. The ones that have problems with the language and only hang out in Chinatown or other Chinese communities. They have no American friends and are not really that interested in American cultures at all. I know some folks that live their whole life in the States but have no urge to step out of their communities.

Eventually some FOBs grown to be Young Asian Professionals (YAPs) who works in finance, pharmaceuticals or other professions, some turns to be gangsters. Fashionistas are deemed to be Trendy Asian Bitches (TABs) or even worse Hoochie Tabs, (Isn't that a bit severe?) the guy equivalents are called Rice Boys. And the ultimate Asian being according to the writer is called a Fobulous, which owns both his Asian and his American side, have a lot of pride and ultimately choose its Asian side to stick with. According to the stereotypical activities listed, I'm half a YAP and two-third of a Fobulous.

I don't know about name calling, I have never been the victim of serious discrimination and I really don't care if people called me a chink or a queer, those words don't mean much to me. If you're calling me a chink queer because I'm a Chinese homosexual, that's fine by me, I am one. Same with the word fag or faggot, I don't have qualms with them, is that weird? Sinner is very objective too, I don't believe in your religion, hence not my sin. Now I've to admit the ching-ching-chong-chongs a la Rosie O'Donnell is a little bit offensive, but other than that words don't quite fade me, attitude and behavior do.

Tell you one thing though, Yves is my middle name but Paul isn't my first name. It's a name that I've gave myself to replace my real first name. My father gave me my real first name and I hated it very much for as long as I've remembered. Eventually, I will change my name officially to Yves-Paul, but for now I'm stuck with something else. That name gave me a lot of inconvenience and still bugs me a bit til this day. I'll give you a hint: Sometimes I feel like Amy is singing specifically to me and that's probably one of the reason why I like her, I too, sometimes go out by myself and look across the water. And, it is spelled with a "Y". ^_^