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[fountainhall]

With respect, I don't think "hate" is the right word. Nor even is the term "strong dislike" despite dislike of body odours (and believe that or not it is 100% true) and lack of respect shown for local customs. Nor even is it a case of how well you treat someone. It's more a case that they just tolerate westerners.

i think it's important to remember a bit of the history of the continent. The Japanese waged a monstrous war against America and some of its Asian neighbours - and lost. The French committed unbelievable atrocities against its colonial vassal states of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. When they were kicked out in 1954, along came the US and its allies with even more atrocities and millions murdered (the tiny landlocked country of Laos is the most bombed per capita in history - between 1964 and 1973 the US dumped a planeload of bombs on it every 8 minutes for 9 consecutive years!) The British record in colonial Malaya is nothing to be proud of. China all but imploded with millions killed and the country set back many decades with the disastrous Cultural Revolution which ended just 41 years ago.

Add in to that mix of horrors the fact that the vast majority of peoples in Asian countries had had absolutely no connection whatever with westerners until this time - and the example the foreigners set was not pleasant. You therefore have to set this "tolerance" for foreigners against a backdrop of virtual isolation against colonial oppression which morphed into a virtual holocaust.

[AsDaRa]

....

Two remarks:
1) Then they should dislike French, Americans and UK citizens. Not all white people. The Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies, killed many Dutch. I don't feel dislike for Japanese because of that, let alone Asians. I must say the older Dutch generation does feel that dislike for Japanese. But they didn't feel it for all Asians. So why must a Vietnamese hate a Dutch Farang? We had nothing to do with that country.

2) Don't they realize that if power was reversed in that age they would have been colonizing Europe? Conquering other countries is universal in human hsitory. The Khmer conquered Thais etc. If they had had that technological advantage over us, then it is fair to assume they would have conquered and colonized Europe. Only since about a 100 years the morality is slowly changing that it is not done to colonize others. Slavery was also universal one time. It is not a white sin. It was a universal sin. Same like colonizing. Look at China, more than 50% of their territory originated as colony. Tibet the last one, slowly turning it more and more Chinese.

So shouldn't these Asians think: We must not hate Farangs, they are just like us. We would have done the same if we had had the power. Because we conquered and colonized our neighbours when we had the chance. Would we really have stopped colonizing Europe if we had had the chance in an age where this was not seen as a sin? So there is no reason whatsoever to dislike white guys. They are the same human beings like us, not more evil. They just had a technological advantage over us which they used and which we would have used if the roles were reversed, in an age where colonizing was not seen as a sin. So why dislike Farangs?

You say it isn't 'hate' they feel, also not a 'strong dislike'. What is it then?

[fountainhall]

You have raised a whole range of largely irrelevant hypothetical issues. The world does not function on the bases of pure hypotheses. It works on facts. I'll stick to facts!

And as I have written before, if you took the trouble to read a lot more about Asia and spent more time visiting many of its countries, you would not pose nearly as many irrelevancies!

[AsDaRa]

My remarks are not irrelevant.

Do Indonesians hate/dislike Japanese because of WW2? Of Japanese don't have that backlash of their past which apparently we Farang experience?

[Manforallseasons]

My remarks are not irrelevant.

Do Indonesians hate/dislike Japanese because of WW2? Of Japanese don't have that backlash of their past which apparently we Farang experience?

I lived for a while in Indonesia where they referred to westerners as "booley". The only place I have been to in Asia where people overtly hated the Japanese was S.Korea
Most Thais have little or no knowledge of what happened during WW2 between Thailand and Japan.

[fountainhall]

Or ask the Chinese about the annexation of Manchuria or the atrocities further south - The Rape of Nanjing will never be forgotten nor forgiven.

As for Indo China, just read "Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia" by William Shawcross. Although Shawcross later toned down his scathing criticisms a little, the book is a dreadful indictment of an illegal and undeclared war that ended up laying the groundwork for the quick rise of the Khmer Rouge and the massive genocide of well over 1 million Cambodians.

And do not forget there is a huge right wing in Japan that believes the war was just and that Japan should never have surrendered. That lot will fall in their swords before they ever admit any blame.

[cdnmatt]

I think some of you are giving too much credit to the level of history taught in schoools around here.


Go do a random polling of under 30s who even know who Pol Poot is.

[AsDaRa]

But if for Japanese people there is only some backlash in South Korea and not in Vietnam, Indonesia etc, yet we Farang experience backlash because some Farang countries - 3 only - were involved in mainland Southeast Aasia, then there can only be one reason for this difference in treatment: racism, and not our past politics.

Besides our past politics won't differ a single bit from theirs, had power been reversed in that age. I am positive. Asian countries were good at conquering and colonizing too. We were just better because of technological advancement.

[a447]

I don't believe for a second that Asians hate us. I think they are basically indifferent to us and prefer to spend their time with someone who shares the same language and other cultural attributes. It makes life so much easier.

In Japan, the word gaijin can be either neutral or derogatory, depending on the tone of voice. A polite way to refer to us is gaijin-san. Aaah, so much nicer!

Gaijin is just the abbreviation of Gaikokujin, meaning "outsider."

[fountainhall]

had power been reversed in that age. I am positive. Asian countries were good at conquering and colonizing too. We were just better because of technological advancement.

You really have no idea what you are talking about for the very simple reason it is impossible to be positive about anything that MIGHT have happened yesterday. Yesterday happened. It''s over. No one can change history. It's past, finished, as dead as the Monty Python parrot.

I don't believe for a second that Asians hate us. I think they are basically indifferent to us and prefer to spend their time with someone who shares the same language and other cultural attributes

As I wrote earlier, I agree. They tolerate us.