Do Indians See Themselves as Asian? | Street Interview

hey bosses it's Marie from Asian boss when you think of Asia what countries pop into your head first perhaps Korea Japan or China but what about India it seems that in the west people first think of East Asian countries before South Asian countries like India for example recently Malaysian comedian Ronnie Chang joked on The Daily Show that Indians are not Asians in a stand-up comedy skit and how he does not feel represented by Britain's first Asian prime minister Rishi sunak Chang has gotten quite some online backlash for this joke but how do Indians feel about this do they think of themselves as Asians or Indians and how is India different from the rest of Asia anyway our Asian bus reporter hit the streets of Delhi to find out there are three countries that come to your mind when you think of Asia Asia yeah Russia China and uh Hong Kong China Japan being an Indian I I would say India first China Korea Japan Sri Lanka China Philippines Singapore I'm an Indian so India first and then Indonesia and of course our neighbor country Pakistan is India part of Asia or like a separate continent I personally believe that it is a part of Asia but some people they do believe that yeah it is some it should be some different continent but I don't personally consider it I believe that it's a part of Asia but considering that it's called a subcontinent in itself the Indian soap continent which comprises of all the India and its neighboring countries so yeah a lot of people do think of it as separate from Asia and especially in other countries I understand that when I when somebody in the U.S or in the west thinks of Asia you think of Asia as East Asia right so China and Korea and all those places but no I think of India as part of Asia I normally prefer to say that India is separate technically it's Asia but I would say that culturally and otherwise as well it's like a separate continent in itself if you look at the food or the culture and everything else then it's like a whole different vibe you know like you cannot compare it with like for example China Japan or south of Korea you personally to be as an Indian first of all I'll say I'm an Indian and an Asian afterwards specifically Indian but Asians if someone asks me like like what are you I would say again I wouldn't think of Asia Indian and I feel proud to be called or known as Indian I think I see myself as an Indian I would not identify myself with someone who say from any Southeast Asian country or any Chinese person Indonesian person person from Malaysia Philippines Thailand if not really because I am an Asian I am a part of this continent so I won't be offended some Malaysian families he recently said on a very popular U.S talk show that you know joked about Indians not being Asians in a stand-up comedy kid let us like show you clip with what people are like talking about the new prime minister of the week Rishi sunak and I know everyone is really excited that this is the first Asian prime minister but let's be clear Indians are not Asian okay okay there's still people great people they're just not Asian people okay no no answer me this if this guy is Asian how come when he became prime minister I felt absolutely nothing I mean when I was down at dim sum Palace this morning me and the Fellas weren't like oh that's me up there Phil see I love how Indians try to have it both ways like being Indian and Asian pick a lane okay yeah I bet if I show up in a Bollywood film I'm just gonna blend right in right because all just one people just having a good time let's see his perspective it's his perspective I believe but I feel Indian a nation is the same thing for me we are part of the continent of course we are Asian there is no doubt about it it is not about it is a fact it is not about people's understanding I think it's funny yeah India Pakistan Bangladesh and Sri Lanka I think of all these countries as like culturally similar but if you think from his point of view it's right that if he looks uh up at Rishi sunak or someone like that he he cannot really relate to them you know so that's why I would say that maybe he's right yeah so I've felt that that you know that are kind of stupidity in that but this guy he's saying that uh not an Asian he's an Indian so Asia is a continent China Malaysia Japan India they all are part of the that Asian continent so in that way we all are Asian it is a comedy skit after also do you find it funny or the other feel offended no I find it funny yeah I think people are getting offended very easily these days you should take it in a lighter sense it's funny but I think um saying that Indians are not Asians and saying that Indians don't like being called Asians are two different things so if you say Indians are not Asians it excludes them from the whole continent you don't have a monopoly over the continent right so that's the difference I feel and I I completely understand where he's coming from because if I see some person who doesn't look like me become get into a power position of authority I want to really relate with him I relate with Rishi Suna because he looks like me if he didn't look like me I probably would not relate with him so I don't really mind this I think it's funny he made a he made a joke and I think it's a good joke he's a great comedian he's playing with the American stereotype of Indians versus Asians in America you think of Asians as East Asians and you think of Indians and pakistanis and bangladeshis as Indians right he's just playing that stereotype it's got no Global context I don't think any Indian should have ever worry about it and I actually think it's a funny joke he's quite hilarious so when you travel overseas have you ever been called Asian by foreigners or do they call you entirely different friend something um I haven't been college and I've been called Indian in fact yeah I have where was that uh I think it was in the US I was never called Asia no people try to guess and normally they don't really get get it in the first turn so I have been called like from the Middle East or from North Africa or even Spain or Italy but yeah usually they don't immediately think of India you know I think people would think of me as Indian yeah I don't think people would think of us as Asian they would think of us as Indian but that's their ignorance right a person can belong to the country they belong to and to the continent they belong to it's harder to think of yourself as part of the continent though because Asia is such a diverse continent as opposed to actually every even Europe it's so diverse like the European part of Russia is so different from British people right like English people so people don't think of themselves in the context of their continent they think of themselves within the context of the country they live in what are the stereotypes you encounter as in Indian when you are overseas uh personally I'm not like but there's any typical in it stereotypes but more towards like oh you're supposed to be good at math because like Asian people are supposed to be good at math you play an instrument these kind of things I've seen I suck at both so so I went for a conference uh in Germany and I met some people from Spain who actually thought that people in India still have like elephants and horses and this guy really seriously asked me like does your father own Elephants or something like that I was like no that doesn't happen anymore and then about the cows on the streets which is also not true I mean not all the time where do you think your time I think I think they are more you know when British when britishers were here in India and the situation of the country at that time and it was maybe probably when they went back they took some ideas with them and this somehow spread so people who have never been to India they are just relying on these like 200 year old stories so I think that's what where it came from everybody thinks that every Indian is great at Bhangra is great at like dancing and that's not really true right I suck at it for example so I mean that's funny you just kind of expect that people people would be good at dancing because any Bollywood videos that get forwarded around are videos of people you know dancing really well and I mean bollywood's huge right I mean if there ever was a stereotype it was a positive stereotype people expect a lot out of you as an Indian they expect that you've studied a lot they've expected you've gone to good schools they expect that you probably are a hard worker when they look around oh there's a problem over here maybe we need a doctor everybody looks at the Indian guy sitting over there who might actually solve their problem right so I don't think it's a real problem I think any stereotype comes from lack of awareness lack of exposure somebody if somebody thinks of every Indian as Bucky and they think of that as a negative thing well that's probably because they had they don't have an Indian friend when they do they won't they won't think that way yeah how much do you think they don't know much about India they know that they have ruled India over for almost 200 years this is all they know economically we we are becoming strong we are exporting few things politically as well we are one of the the key member of different organizations I don't think they they don't know about India if you tell them that you are Indian they will know where are you coming from what where is India who is like a prime minister and everything I don't think there's a problem of people being aware of India we're a very strong presence in the world a very strong presence and I think it's only going to grow when you go to the UK there's nobody who doesn't know India for so many obvious reasons right it's only a matter of time where everybody is very very acutely aware of India because I mean look at the number of leaders that are Indian I don't think people who have never been to India they know a lot if they have Indian friends or like colleagues or something like that then they are like really exposed but otherwise I don't think people really know much about India but does that make sense to you when India is arguably that most the most populous country in the world why is there like so little awareness about India on a global State that's true because Indians are everywhere right so everywhere we go there are so many Indians and this is also a question that puzzles me so probably uh when we when we go abroad we are taking our culture with us but probably we are so uh you know overwhelmed with the Western culture that we are more uh getting into it rather than expressing our own I think and that's why people are not really aware the major source that people get to know about a country is through the popular culture is through songs and music and um through TV shows and movies and I don't think there are a few movies and a few shows that have reached that level where it has a global audience but I don't think uh that kind of reach we have yet what do you want that foreigners should know about India that their you know media fails to put their fails to tell that what India is as comparing other countries other developing countries India is growing at a very fast pace they've uh they should know this people generally think India is very unsafe for women they make it seem to be like a very bad I'm not saying that's safe it's not safe but at the same time it's not as scary as they portray it out to be in the movies and stuff they only portrayed about the poor people in India and how they are living their life you will find similar examples in the U.S and UK as well you have to tell the both side of Saudis how India is growing how India is becoming nuclear power different achievement in different worlds so not only science so many sports as well and there are multiple things where India is doing well not a lot of people know that there are so many different languages in India so I was surprised that this is like a very basic fact but not a lot of people know about this and they don't know that all of these languages are so different from one another that you cannot really guess or if you know one you cannot read the other one you know you know like everybody makes fun of arranged marriage and then when you sit down with a western person or whatever and explain to them well it's not really on gunpoint by your parents right it's a cool option they're like oh okay I would like that too I wish my parents would get off their ass and do something for me right so uh uh I mean talk about any talk about body odor well now let's people think of oh yeah there's a lot of body odor with Indians right well that's because there wasn't freaking deodorant for the last you know 100 years over here right so now there is and that's not a real problem anymore whatever stereotype you can kind of think of there's always an answer to why and uh and and if you sat down and explained to people I think they would they would get it foreign [Music]

Channel: Asian Boss

Views: 681,952

Keywords: Asian Boss, Asia, Stay Curious

Id: naZ1dsMQJR8

Length: 13min 53sec (833 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 20 2022