Ok, I thought I'd put in my two pence worth into this thread about the attractiveness of Asian males as I am a white woman who lives in Britain. In addition (or in conjunction) with the rise of topics such as these, there also has been a recent rise in discussions about why heterosexual AF/WM seem to pair up a lot more than heterosexual AM/WF. Therefore, there is obviously a growing need to understand how WF perceive Asian men, East Asian men in particular. Just to clarify, in Britain, Asian cultures have politicised themselves quite differently from Asian cultures in America. I work with the black & minority ethnic (BME) and recently there was a focus to drop the "black" as white workers saw it as a racist term. It was the BME community who rejected this change as a lot of minority ethnic communities have united under the banner of 'black' and see it as a positive term. In Britain, you cannot call someone from African-American origin "African American" as that is termed racist. The African-Americans I know prefer to be, politically, referred to as "black".
Also, in Britian we have a much higher concentration of people from Western Asian origin (either direct descendants or 2nd//3rd generation, etc) living here than we do Eastern Asian. As a result, the term Asian is used to desribe those from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. To differentiate, we call those who have descended from the Mongoloid race either "Eastern Asian" or "Oriental". I don't like the term "Oriental" due to it's negative connotations so I'll use the term "Eastern Asian". I hope this doesn't offend anyone as this can be tricky in an international forum.
My view is that, in Britain, Eastern Asian men are not sufficiently (or accurately) covered by the media. We have a growing number of films in Scotland that deal with Western Asian idenities living in Scotland (the marvellous Ae Fond Kiss is an example) but very little about Eastern Asian. In addition, although we do have an Eastern Asian population, they tend not to be very visible in more "mainstream" society. Although we have a growing number of Eastern Asian men and women studying at Scottish Universities, they tend to study subjects that are more 'male-dominated', i.e. science & techology (engineering, medicine, particle physics, etc) therefore AF have more access to meet WM than AM do with WM (I know a number of WM/AF couples who met this way). In addition, WF that I know are not clear about Eastern Asian culture and the whole concept of arranged marriages, etc. Therefore, Eastern Asian men can be regarded as 'not being allowed (or preferred)' to date WF, similar to how Western Asian men are viewed by WF. Like Western Asian men, WF recongise that Eastern Asian culture is more saturated with religion and family match-making than ours is. A lot of WF in Britian are not religious and their families have little influence in their choice of partner. WF can be intimidated by the fact that they may be expected to convert to a religion to date an Eastern Asian man or that their family will not approve of the match. These factors can help explain why there are not a lot of AM/WF couples in British society.
In response to the "sexiness" of the Eastern Asian male, I can honestly say that a lot of WF find Asian men extremely attractive. In my own top 10 list of famous male celebrities for attractiveness, I would place Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chu Wui, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Jet Li and Bruce Lee (as well as his son Brandon but that could be regarded more as a Eurasian matter) on that list alongside Western men such as Christian Bale, Jake Gyllenhaal, etc. However, I watch a lot of foreign films which are not so widely accessed by the majority of the WF population in Britain. Popular films with Eastern Asian men tend not to emphasize the more ardent sexual behaviour of Eastern Asian men, i.e. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, Enter the Dragon, House of Flying Daggers, Kiss of the Dragon, Romeo Must Die, etc, and if they do, it is mostly always with Eastern Asian women which reinforces the stereotype that Eastern Asian men prefer "their own kind". Films that do portray AM/WF relations tend to empahsize the "inappropriateness" of the relationship and how it can never be accepted by either culture, i.e. The Lover. Romeo Must Die was an exception to this but, even then, the love story was underplayed (I know it was AM/BW but I'm using it as an example) and there was no real sexual chemistry.
There needs to be more independent films portraying AM/WF couples WITHOUT the whole "inappropriate and never-to-be-accepted" angle to convey to the majority of the WF population that all Eastern Asian men do not conform to the stereotype and that dating an Eastern Asian men isn't going to cause an absolute out-cry. Also, it would help if AM were a bit more forward when they find a WF woman attractive! However, on the whole, both parties probably think they would by rejected by the other due to the whole stereotype thing. We need to work to bring down the barriers. AM, WF DO find you attractive... maybe not ALL WF, but AM are not universally seen as nerdish, assexual, etc. In the coming years I do think these barriers will break down, but more needs to be done now to help this process.
Again, just my two pence worth...
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ivona244
16 years ago
exactly, sexy men are just sexy, whether white, black, asian or whatever. I'm european white female and I was so turned on by Ji-tae Yu in Oldboy. that movie was eyeopening. korean cinema is flourishing for a few years now and yes koreans are sexy. thanks to great asian directors like Chan-wook Park, Ki-duk Kim, Ang Lee, Kar Wai Wong, Yimou Zhang and others and some hot asian actors, (who can act,btw) I became a great fan of asian cinema and developed a thing for asian men. the only problem is that asian men are not very tall especially if you are, but hey Ji-tae Yu 186 cm. I dont recall Tony Leung Chiu Wai was this sexy in 2046 and In the mood for love. he was sexy but not this much, God bless Ang Lee. imperialistic propaganda (cause thats what it is) never had effect on me. actually it makes me sick. Lust, caution is better than most of american production this year (I've seen every american film worth seeing this year), still american critics are dissin it. Knocked up got better reviews.
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mrs_m_norris
16 years ago
It's not so much the words themselves, but how they are used. The word "Oriental" has been used largely in a negative/ignorant manner for a long time.
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XuDai
16 years ago
Being Chinese myself, it has appeared to be the norm that Chinese females are marrying white men. Every time I go onto the streets, I see many couples of mixed race - not that there's anything wrong with it, because multi-culturalism is desirable way of life. Today, even our Chinese parents approve our daughters marrying a white guy.. they've finally welcomed the 21st century.
As they say to their daughters - to marry a skin lighter than yourself is acceptable. But they tend to frown upon their daughters marry darker skinned men, such as Africans. But white is okay!
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