Japanese, American, Chinese Stereotypes

[Emoni]

Hello everyone, long time no read.

I will soon be leaving for China to give a presentation at Nanjing Daigaku/Daxue and the said presentation will mostly focus on general stereotypes of Japanese, Americans and also of Chinese. My point will to be point out the dangers of stereotypes in a light hearted and easy to understand manner.

My question to you all, is what were the stereotypes you have seen about the United States, Japan, and China that have proven not to be true? This can be from any point of view, from US to Japan, Japan to US, Japan to China and such. Please state your background if possible.

I'm curious just to see the answers that might pop up.

Just a few Stereotypes from a US perspective that I have seen.

From US to Japan:
All Japanese people are short (Reality... I'm short too)
Japanese people tend to eat mostly Japanese food and not other dishes.
Japanese education is the best in the world. We should all copy it(hehe... zzzz)
ALL Japanese read manga.
Most Japanese speak English in Tokyo
All Japanese men are perverts (Reality... All men are perverts)

From Japan to US
Americans all carry guns.
Americans all have sued many people in their life times.
Americans all love Bush.


These are just a few silly examples to get the ideas going.

Thanks to any who

 

[shadowmonkeybangbang]

what about the ' all "yanks" are fat' stereotype?.. oh wait.. hehheh heh just kiddin'.

 

[magevampjoe]

Jokes in the UK about Americans being fat are common;
Ex. Who is the Statue of Liberty supposed to represent?
A: The average American, because its 50 metres wide.

Americans All hate bush
All americans love bush
Americans like Britain because it has castles and a monarchy (Don't know if this one IS true or not...)

For Japanese;
All Japanese people know how to program computer games
All Japanese are geeks
The Japanese only make things better, they don't invent anything.
Also, 'All Japanese men have small reproductive organs.' (The same is said about the chinese)
All chinese eat dogs. (People say it, and it isn't true, and it is more in Korea, and it isn't even a daily meal there...)

Just to name a few.

But if you are making a presentation, shouldn't you have collected this data months in advance? You seem to be leaving it to the last minute.

 

[shadowmonkeybangbang]

OH!!! here's a good one!!!!

all americans think that the whole of britain is england... that annoys me, so.

 

[Haruspex]

OH!!! here's a good one!!!!
all americans think that the whole of britain is england... that annoys me, so.

You're lucky, most probably know about Scotland... imagine the situation of Welsh and Cornish people lol.
Ok, ok, my apologies, that was a poor joke.

 

[shadowmonkeybangbang]

You're lucky, most probably know about Scotland... imagine the situation of Welsh and Cornish people lol.
Ok, ok, my apologies, that was a poor joke.

yes it was, made me smile though! heh, cornish people... do you think they tell CORNY jokes?? ok that was bad. real bad. not the good kind of "superbad blackman with soul" kind of bad. and wales is more like a big city XDD sorry ive been its nicethere.

 

[doinkies]

Hello everyone, long time no read.
I will soon be leaving for China to give a presentation at Nanjing Daigaku/Daxue and the said presentation will mostly focus on general stereotypes of Japanese, Americans and also of Chinese. My point will to be point out the dangers of stereotypes in a light hearted and easy to understand manner.
My question to you all, is what were the stereotypes you have seen about the United States, Japan, and China that have proven not to be true? This can be from any point of view, from US to Japan, Japan to US, Japan to China and such. Please state your background if possible.
I'm curious just to see the answers that might pop up.
Just a few Stereotypes from a US perspective that I have seen.
From US to Japan:
All Japanese people are short (Reality... I'm short too)
Japanese people tend to eat mostly Japanese food and not other dishes.
Japanese education is the best in the world. We should all copy it(hehe... zzzz)
ALL Japanese read manga.
Most Japanese speak English in Tokyo
All Japanese men are perverts (Reality... All men are perverts)
From Japan to US
Americans all carry guns.
Americans all have sued many people in their life times.
Americans all love Bush.
These are just a few silly examples to get the ideas going.
Thanks to any who

I would add "All Japanese people watch anime regularly" to that list. It's a misconception that even I had when I first started watching anime.

 

[Goldiegirl]

Well, back at ya....

All Brits have horrid teeth,
All Brits are drunk.
All Brits are stiff, stuck up people.
All Brits are terrible lovers.

But I digress as this was for Japan, China and America but I thought it need to be shared as others were so willing to share.

As for how people in my little area of the USA. Most people think of Japanese as smart, hard working, but inflexible and with out imagination, as they tend to copy. Right or wrong that is what I hear, especially as my husband is Japanese and people feel free to share their opinions to me....

 

[sabro]

American Stereotypes about the Japanese: They are short, bucktoothed, wear glasses, polite but untrustworthy, hard working, bad drivers, good at math, live in crowded conditions and small spaces, calm and zen-like, vacation at Disney resorts and always carry cameras, disconnected, alienated, men can be company men, obsessive and hard drinking... or somewhat stunted.

 

[Emoni]

Thanks everyone, we have some good ones so far. I'm not doing anything about England, but the stereotypes were still interesting I thought.

I'm curious about Japanese stereotypes of Chinese... any Japanese posters able to help with that one?

 

[JTM]

Thanks Emoni for posting this interesting topic. A lot of this has already been said by others but is worth repeating.

One would just need to look at the NBC TV series "Heroes" to see what the American impression of the "typical" Japanese male is (no offense to those that like Masi Oka's portrayal of the Hiro Nakayama character) -- that the typical Japanese male is short, wears glasses, is socially inept, immature, loves anime and are super intellectuals, descendents of Samurai (or Ninja ) and are overly apologetic.

For girls it's equally unflattering - that all Japanese girls are shy, immature, child-like or on the other extreme sexually promiscuous, Geisha-like, seductive, guy crazy for Caucasians/Blacks or are conceited tramps.

Even now many Americans still have the outdated notion that all Asians are the same (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Vietnamese etc.) That Japan's only claim to fame is electronic goods, Toyota cars, Godzilla, sushi and the Wii - for those who remember J-Pop group Kome Kome Club's "Funk Fujiyama" video from the 80s, it perfectly lampoons the sterotypes that foreigners have of Japan just brilliantly.

Another general stereotype is that all Asian are brainy, know martial arts and speak with an accent (thank goodness we've advanced from the slant eyed/buck toothed, chinaman's hat, coolie caricature).

While not as bad, Japanese stereotypes are also hugely based on media portrayals in movies or outdated cultural misperceptions --that all Americans are loud and obnoxious and that blacks are dangerous thugs or street gangsters. For Chinese, they think some of the same stereotypes that Americans do - that they are all skilled in Kung-Fu, are anti-Japanese, are sly and stingy (it also doesn't help when the news media plays up the rash of product contamination cases that have occurred of recent). Koreans get it even worse - that they all eat garlic and kim-chee, hate the Japanese, eat dogs, are overly extravagant and showy but are super stingy and are loud and demanding.

Of course everyone is perhaps guilty of one form of stigma or racial bias, stereotyping and prejudice. Those of Middle Eastern descent and who are of the Muslim faith definitely are suffering now from unfair portrayals of them in the world media as being fanatical, terroristic, uncultured and backworld.

Thankfully as more people travel abroad or experience life in other countries and meet people of other cultures, people are slowly getting away from these erroneous stereotypes but we've still got a ways to go.

 

[kireikoori]

overly apologetic.

By Western standards...
This one is probably a bit more less of a stereotype, but a fact of cultural difference.

We Americans are definitely stereotyped as being fat, that's true all right.

 

[lonesoullost3]

This one is a bit touchy for some people, but I get this a lot: all Americans are Christian or Catholic.

 

[Haruspex]

Well, in Hungary clueless chaps imagine Americans as protestant zealots, and not really as zealous catholics. Not sure about other European countries.