I ran across this article on Cracked.com (one of my favorite time-sucking sites) and found it amusingly relatable. It’s hilarious in a politically incorrect way, and some of the things noted, like #2: Chinese Bubbles, are things I actually like about Asian-American culture.
You can maybe make a communist joke if your family comes from mainland China (“In Communist China, Google searches you!”), but if your roots are in Taiwan, you’re stuck.
Nobody knows anything about Taiwan. You can joke about all the weird organs you’re expected to eat as part of Taiwanese cuisine and you will just get blank stares. (“…and there was the Taiwanese guy, eating all the chicken uteruses! Come on. Anybody? Chicken uterus. Taiwanese people eat them.”) Someone from the back will yell at you to do some kung fu and then it will all go downhill from there.
Even if you’re not doing comedy formally, this really puts a damper on joking around with your friends. You’re just sitting there, ribbing each other good-naturedly on your various stereotypes and then someone tries to rib you back and they’re all, “Well… why don’t you go… get some straight A’s or something.” Then the whole evening is ruined and everyone has to go home.
When I first started reading (that was an excerpt from #6, by the way) I thought, “Ha, that’s funny and kind of true.” The more I kept reading the more I found myself going “HEY THAT IS SO TRUE!” all the way down to #1 where I thought to myself, “Okay, so I’m not the only one!”
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