<p>another thing i want to say is that i am not saying americans are stupid or ignorant. i know UVA kids are smart enough to know that india/the philippines/malaysia etc are in asia. all i am saying is that the whole american definition/stereotype of ‘asian/azn’ is exemplified in UVA at times (what i see on its website. i am not on grounds yet). it’s just that if you were to tell an american on omegle.com or something that you’re asian, he/she’ll immediately think of east asian. or if you ask an american if he/she would like asian for dinner, he/she will probably ask you for chinese takeout/sushi or something. although to be fair… naan is pretty popular everywhere.</p>
<p>and mind you, i still believe UVA is tolerant to all races and it is multicultured. no issues with UVA whatsoever; i love UVA so far. all i am saying is that i had previously always heard of how americans would say asian and immediately think chinese/japanese/korean etc. i didn’t know if it’d happen in UVA as well, but hey, i guess it does, kind of at least! what is the problem anyway - i’m not saying UVA kids are geographically stupid or ignorant. it is an american definition. though PAFN doesn’t mean to only cater to east asian kids, i guess it kind of attracts them more. so yeah, i’m not saying PAFN isn’t for pakistanis/indians/middle easterns/filipinos etc. i’m just saying what i noticed about the definition of ‘asian’.</p>
<p>so i have no issues with pafn/america/UVA/db123. perhaps i should have been more subtle so you wouldn’t misunderstand and think i had issues with the stated entities. i apologize if i was rude or came off too strong. i don’t plan to argue on this anymore… especially since i know this issue has become a natural phenomenon and you and i cannot change it with words.</p>
<p>Not to further derail this thread from the OP’s question, but veshch, do you prefer being called Asian, South Asian, or Indian?</p>
<p>Based off of what my Indian friends have told me, they prefer to be referred to as “Indian” since they understand that here in the U.S., “Asian” commonly refers to East Asians, just as you have said. They certainly don’t take any offense to the issue though.</p>
<p>East Asia is a geographical term. Genetically, Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese are very very much apart. In fact, I believe the Japanese are either closer to the Turks and the Finns (Ural-Altaics), or were Austronesians who were subjugated by Altaic influence. The Vietnamese come from a very very ancient people who have an extremely long archaelogical history there (the Khmer). The origins of the Chinese are interesting – they’re a very young people obviously, but it’s hard to map their origins – the Chinese languages are full of Austronesian, Khmer, Turkish, Mongolic and Indo-European substrata so there’s good evidence Old Chinese was the product of this nifty little process called creolisation.</p>
<p>So IMO PAFN is quite diverse. The Indians often have their own clubs so maybe that draws most of them away from PAFN. We also have people from Nepal, Tibet. I have good friends from Pakistan but they tend to align themselves with the Kuwaitis, Egyptians and <em>gasp</em> the Indians, though I don’t know all of PAFN. Is Russia European or Asian, Occidental or Oriental? Hmm, ancient question that confronted Tchaikovsky and Peter the Great. Russians however, do have their own community, support network and language house. PAFN would welcome people from Central Asia and ethnic Siberians, if more of them applied to UVA. </p>
<p>As a Singaporean Chinese immigrant to America I feel this huge disconnect with people from Mainland China actually – I can recognise some of the things they say, despite their r-coloured Northerner drawrrrl, and some of their cultural customs but it’s like looking at a long-lost brother who grew up in another country. I think PAFN does a good job of integrating those who would be vulnerable to self-segregating because of the lack of a support network.</p>
<p>vesh, listen hon, just because you have one friend who has been here for 2 years does not mean they understand the sterotype well, or even understand the simplest aspects of american culture. They may not even understand the subtler aspects of the english language. Come back in a few years once you have actually lived here and have a personal understanding of the stereotypes and cultures. How would you like it if I commented on stereotypes of your country because a friend of mine had lived in your country for a couple of years?</p>
<p>^um, go ahead? i mean if it makes you happy… lol. singapore isn’t my country. i have no attachment towards it whatsoever. i am not a local so um yeah. and of course singapore has its own stereotypes and i tell you today that they’re true. i’m not one to lie. in fact if you want to know, even india has its own stereotypes relating to the different cultures of the country. i don’t take if offensively actually; i accept it because it’s actually happening.</p>
<p>stop harping on my friend when you should be discussing the media issue. that’s what makes the most impact anyway. tv, movies, the internet. the friend point was just to prove that i have personal knowledge as well and that i’m not just watching mtv and basing everything on it.</p>
<p>galoisien is probably correct. i think the indians, pakistanis, filipinos etc have their own groups. i think it’s just a thing in US; like i have this other friend born in boston who’s an indian and he told me he doesn’t call himself ‘asian’ because ‘asian’ usually means east asian in US. rather, he refers to himself as an indian, as do his other indian friends. so it’s a thing that happens there. </p>
<p>shirker: yeah see, exactly. you proved my point. and hereafter i think i’m going to go as ‘indian’ in US. and weird, but i’m not taking an offence whatsoever o.O in fact it’s probably good i’m going to be just referred to as indian. so east asians can be asians, i’m cool with that :D</p>
<p>Okay, I just felt the need to contribute to this nonsense. </p>
<p>First off, I’m American, 100%. (although admittedly not Native American)
Second, I’ve lived in Korea, I’ve been to Singapore and Malaysia, and Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, China, and Thailand. </p>
<p>And I’d like to say that when people say “Asian” to me, I don’t automatically assume they mean “Chinese” or even East Asian.</p>
<p>Just thought I’d throw that out there so there’s at least one exception to the generalization right here on this post.</p>
<p>But yeah, Americans do love being stereotyped. Every single last one of us.</p>
<p>“Asian are Chinese” is very true to those narrowed mind whose perception and opinion are based on the little world they live it. It is definately not an “American thing”, or at least where I am. (Northern Virginia and DC)</p>
<p>Back to the OP question. My son (we are Chinese) joined and really enjoyed.</p>
<p>collegeccer: I see nothing wrong with joing an organization that composed mostly of a certain group if you are interest in what the organization has to offer.<br>
The Wushu Club is another organization at UVA I know that is very Chinese and has members who are caucasian and afro american.</p>