I can haz Japanese?
I am currently in Bangkok, Thailand amidst the protests and political unrest that is in its seventh week yet I’m finding myself rather unaffected by it all. Sure, it’s bullshit, I find the entire situation very “un-Thai” and embarrassed for my own country. The amount of bad press and situation these protesters have put the nation in makes us all look like uncivilized barbarians. I can get into this further, but this short post is mainly about how I’m not recognized as a Thai here.
Since last time I visited Thailand, which was down to Phuket and Krabi last March, every person I spoke to here seem to think I am a foreigner. If I can get a dollar for every time someone asked if I was Japanese, I’d be able to buy a new laptop. Anyways, all I wanted to post to remember this moment by is yesterday while strolling with Nikesh down at Jatujak Weekend Market, a shop owner (of course) asks where I’m from and says I look Japanese. Nikesh then comments later on that the first time he noticed me, he also thought I was Japanese, to which I playfully threw a fit for being in “my house” and not recognizing I was Thai. But then …
“People if your own fucking country don’t even think you’re Thai!”
Never truer words.
It’s a little difficult to differentiate Thais from other Asians particularly because our ancestry is a mix of Chinese and Indian immigrants; combinations of both result in a variety of looks. I guess I must have mutated a bunch of the Chinese genes and mixed them with growing up in the states to equal Japanese.
Physical appearances are a funny thing. I sort of enjoy a look that’s rather ambiguous, but at the same time, it sucks a little to not be able to look like you’re from where you rep.
