Tip for an asian character

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alright so you want to create an asian character, cool! here is one major tip when writing them

(not asian but this is mainly on educating myself on asian cultures)

Not every asian person looks the same: when people think of an asian people, they think of chinese people, japanese people, or korean people. However everyone of these ethnicities vary. Not every japanese/korean/chinese person looks the same. Not all of them are pale, not all of them have the same eyeshape, not all of them are short. There are many Asians that do not fit these racist stereotypes. Please give a variety. Not only in the looks department but ethnicity-wise as well. Asia is a big continent filled with many countries and diverse people. Lets start with east asia. Not every asian is from these three countries.

East Asia

  • Japan
  • China (includes HK and macau)
  • Korea (South and North)
  • Taiwan
  • Mongolia

Now moving on to South east asia

  • Vietnam
  • Laos
  • Thailand
  • The Philippines
  • Brunei
  • Myanmar
  • Cambodia
  • Indonesia
  • Timor-Leste
  • Singapore
  • Malaysia

Now moving onto south asia.

  • India
  • Nepal
  • Sri Lanka (pronounced shri)
  • Bangladesh
  • Bhutan
  • Pakistan
  • Afghanistan
  • Maldives

Now lets move on to West asia. A lot and I mean a lot of people forget that most arabs are asians too (when i say most i mean that most people who are arab are either from asia or africa (morocco, algeria, egypt, and i think libya as well). West asia consists a bunch of arabic-speaking countries such as

  • Palestine
  • Lebanon
  • Iraq (not eye-raq, its ee-raq)
  • Kuwait
  • Syria
  • Qatar
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Yemen
  • Oman
  • Jordan
  • United Arab Emirates or UAE for short

Now when you think of the word caucasian, you may think of white people or white americans specifically BUT the term refers to asians as well (mainly in central asia) some examples of caucasians

  • Turkey
  • Georgia
  • Armenia

Now lets move on to central asia which consists of the following

  • Kazakhstan (pronounced just how you see it, kaza-kh-stan)
  • Tajikistan
  • Uzbekistan
  • Turkmenistan
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Iran is between the middle east and azerbaijan

big reminder, never use google translate for your characters

also not every asian kid has immigrant parents. There are many asian kids who are born to first-gen Asian parents (little bit of a hypocrite myself since two of my asian characters are not born in the us). also be sure to reach out to people who are from or are descendants of that country to learn more about these cultures. It is very important for authors and directors to include asian characters from many ethnicities/ countries. People want to be represented in a good way and they want to relate to a character. I hope this helped and good luck!

I had also mentioned a couple of stereotypes that affect east asians but i will mention the majority that i’ve seen on media
First lets start with east/south east asian people

  • that asian guys have no game, and are the most respectful men. FALSE! like any guy, there are asian guys who are players and they may not be as respectful. There are very inappropriate stereotypes about asian guys which i will not list bc this post will be taken down and episode stories should not be filled with the you know what.

*ALL Asians are very slim- false. They are many plus sized asians. Even then, there are plus sized asians who do speak up about fat phobia. It is hard on them since in the media, asians are often portrayed as slim. and that all asians are short. FALSE!! have you seen choi so-ra or hoyeon jung? they arent the only ones but there are a LOT of tall asians (including east,west, south, southeast, and central) i made two of my asian characters 6’1/185 cm (male) and 5’8/172 cm (female).

  • all asians are really good at math- this affects south asians as well. no, asians are not born with super mathematical genius powers. There are asian people who do struggle in math just as anyone does. This gives many asian people a higher standard they feel forced to reach those standards because of this stereotype. also this much more harmful than people think because asians are stereotyped into the “model minority” which in the name itself is pretty explanatory but if you don’t understand, basically in america mainly white people try to portray black people and hispanics/latinos (this affects the darker skinned hispanics the most) as lazy, dont work hard, and uneducated but then they portray asians are hard workers, extremely intelligent, they’re rich and what not making them seem as the “model minority”.

  • all asians (includes west, SE, south, and east asians) have an accent and every asian person has immigrant parents- no. although there are asian immigrants, they may not have an accent or even be born to immigrant parents. so make sure your characters dont always have immigrant parents

  • all asians are pale. Not true at all. There are dark skin asians and are not represented. Even kpop idols have their photo edited which is known as white-washing. Please be sure to include different skin tones

  • asians eat dogs and cats- do i even have to explain myself? this “joke” is not even funny at all.

now moving onto south asia

  • all indian men are creepy and like to dm girls on social media. not always the case and these jokes portray indian men in a bad light. i’ve recently just heard about this stereotype but i know that some ignorant author may put this in their story. ANother one is that they’re scammers.

  • they all have accents. i mentioned this previously

  • good at maths and computer science- again not every asian person is good at math

West asians/arabs
-all of them practice islam. nope, some arabs practice christianity or judaism.
-terrorists. again not funny at all and if anything, the us military has done more damage to the middle east.
-fluent in arabic. nope, some kids just dont pick up the language (also affects south, east, central, and southeast asian people)
-strict conservative parents. applies to all poc. some parents just really dont care.

amazing contribution by @t3ss4_n0v4

these are my don’t for now, i will continue editing once i’ve gathered more information

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:clapping: you are so so so right

As a asian

that’s what I always see (mostly) that people first think of

I mean there are a loooot of country too!

No offense to any country people :peace_symbol:

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Yupp in Hindi (national language) there are many words which are bad words in cultural language ( (ex- my culture language Bengali) and manyyy more) :skull:

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Heck, even I (I’m from S.E. Asia) forget that too :joy:
And this is a wonderful post for those who needs a reference. I suggest to include some do’s and do not’s for each different region of Asian ethnicities so that people can have a clearer overview before doing their research.

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partially it’s important

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can you please give me some examples? i want to help out authors and help asian readers feel represented

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Love the post!

Maybe include some stereotypes to avoid adding all of time (obv sometimes these stereotypes are true for some individuals, but in most cases they’re not)?

Like Asians always wear glasses, or always study, or are great at maths or bad drivers, normally short and/or thin, don’t speak/are bad at English, always have an “Asian” accent etcetera.

I’m half Thai, so all of my family on my mom’s said are Thai. Feel free to ask any questions if you have them although I can’t answer anything in depth since I was born and raised in Australia. :sweat_smile:
I believe @nals is also Thai and might be able help? :blush:

I also write this down awhile back:

@June_Sinclair @Unknown_writer @ZaraJayXO @Deevas might be able to add points on India or answer any questions relating to India?

@Gerr.episode could probably help with points on Lebanon if he has the time.

@janinestories and @Lino_episodee are Filipino and could probably provide insight into the Philippines.

Obv they may not all be available or feel like writing about their countries but their tags are there in case they do. (:

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My Maths-

:eye: :lips: :eye:

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Okay, so I’ll start with mine since I know it best.

Here goes nothing...

  • It’s true that most countries in SE Asia is underdeveloped and remote. A few examples are Myanmar (or Burma), Cambodia and Laos. But they aren’t that poor. Their citizens can afford a budget smartphone nowadays.

  • Due to its geographical location, SE Asia (lands around the South China Sea) was almost like a world trading center back in the old civilization days. That’s why there are many different religions roaming free here, ranging from Hinduism, Buddhism to Islam and when globalization happened: Christianity.
    Anyone can practice any religion freely, or just don’t practice any at all.

  • Culture in SE Asia is influenced by the religion practiced by the locals which varies by a lot, mind you. But they have one thing in common: they are closely related to nature. We call that as traditional culture.

  • Race in SE Asia is like mix and match. It has bloodlines from many places, and if I’m going to make a full list of all the possible races, it’ll take me a whole day.
    In short, there are native SE Asians which have been living there since dawn of humanity. They are everywhere in this part of the continent.
    There are also bloodlines from China (such as me) whose ancestors immigrated here. Some stayed in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, while others found their homes in Singapore and Malaysia.
    In fact, some could potentially carry genes from the Middle East because early on, there were traders from there too.
    There’s no fixed statement that says SE Asians are all Malays, or are all Indochinese… No, they are all unique. So better do your research.

  • SE Asian’s physical attributes depends on which country they originate from, and their bloodline as well. Chinese descendants will have facial features resembling East Asian countries, while others could match with South Asian people from Bangladesh and India.

  • SE Asia is a natural vacation resort. It’s one of a few places on Earth that’s the closest to nature. There are beaches, mountains (highest is Mount Kinabalu, 4,095 m/13,435 ft), forests and many more. It’s a nice place for your characters to stay in a getaway, just saying haha.

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Same here :joy:

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Thanks for the tag! :heartpulse:

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Great post!
Thanks for educating!

True that! :skull:

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well, i can only tell you that it’s one of the worst countries in the world and i can’t wait to leave this place. don’t add it to your story, i promise there are WAYYY better options :joy::joy::joy:

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@schittwriter Thanks for the tag! :hugs: :innocent:
I will be more then happy to help , if u have question regarding India and our culture! :wink:

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:raised_hands: :sweat_smile:

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yeah! just incase lol. :grin: :joy:

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Here’s all the information I know about my country India.

Click to read

  1. India is still a developing country which is an important point.

  2. According to what I’ve heard and learnt, we Indians major a lot in Science and Commerce. That’s why NASA has many Indian scientists.

  3. Due other backward classes not getting the same importance in the society, our government gives them the chance to work in many fields which results in common class people being unemployed even after having a better education.

  4. People in who were born in the 20th century have orthodox thinking. That’s why you will see a lot of useless rituals and superstitions here. Superstitions are exposed as fake but people from 20th century just don’t wanna give up lmfao :rofl:

  5. Unlike other western countries, India has a bigger concerns related to clothing, living style, etc. For example, if a girl wears clothes which are too revealing, she will be insulted and talked shit about because people care a lot about how you dress.

  6. Most parents in India are strict especially the one’s born in the 80’s and 90’s. They have a bit of orthodox thinking. You will even be expected to get good grades and get compared to even if you’re good or bad at studies.

  7. We Indians are more friendly to people from foreign countries than to people within the country.

  8. I shouldn’t say this but politics is shit here. You really don’t wanna know about it.

  9. Not every crime committer gets the punishment deserved, hence the victims don’t get justice and end up taking away their lives most of the time.

  10. We have poverty and corrupted people. You really really don’t wanna know about it. As much as the country is beautiful with one of the seven wonders of the world, there are still many things which puts down our country’s image.

I maybe wrong or maybe right at few places but this is all I know personally.

THIS!!! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!

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Great post OP

My own two Asian characters from new story un work. Narin and Neary. They are twins, and Malaysia. I am considering adding one more asian character Bangladash as their background

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image1125Ă—2436 113 KB

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Bump.

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Hey! Would anyone mind helping me out a little with my character? I made the mistake of publishing my story while only having an idea in my head about my character, but I didn’t do enough research (I’ve realized). Luckily I though about it before actually bringing her family up in the story though, and now I’m trying to make this right.
I need to decide where her ancestor is from, because that’s part of who she is. She’s born and raised in Canada though.
Anyone have time to help me out? :sweat_smile:

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