History Main / AllAsiansAreAlike

Part of the problem is that many Americans, as in the case of African-Americans and Latinos (and, to a lesser extent, whites), insist on treating "Asian" ''itself'' as one big ethnicity, evidently confusing "ethnicity" with "race" - and even "race" wouldn't be accurate, since, anthropologically speaking, Asia is home to at least four different races. For since at least the dawn of civilization, Asia has been the native continent of four distinct racial groups: Caucasians (Armenians, Georgians, Indo-Iranians), Afro-Asiatic people (Arabs, etc.), Mongoloid people (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and all the other groups the West is thinking of when they say "Asian"), and the Austro-Asiatic people or Negritos (people from the southern half of the Indian subcontinent as well as Vietnamese, Cambodians, many ethnic groups from the East Indies, and New Guineans); [[FacialProfiling in colorist terms, these people can be classified, respectively, as "white," "tan," "yellow," and "brown/black."]] In addition, many Asian groups are actually of mixed race: Turks are mixed Mongoloid and Afro-Asiatic, and Indonesians are mixed Mongoloid and Austro-Asiatic. Some American publications and documents go further by grouping together most or all of the above people and people native to the Pacific islands into one huge category called "Asian/Pacific Islander"; but physical studies have confirmed that Micronesians, Melanesians, and Polynesians are three distinct races, and that they are distinct from the races of Asia as well.

An especially common variant of this trope is "All Asians Are Chinese" - which, again, is understandable, both because Chinese (specifically, Cantonese) have been the most prolific immigrant group in the United States and because so many East Asian cultures (Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, etc.) were either culturally influenced by China or have languages that sound similar to Chinese.

* J.K. Rowling put a lot of time and thought into choosing names for her characters in Literarure/HarryPotter, but for the Asian girl? Just slap 2 generic Asian sounding names together and call it a day.

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

* Mentioned in ''FallingDown'', when a police officer snarks that he is Japanese, unlike the robbed store owner who is Korean.

* Lady Shiva, the fighter who taught Bruce Wayne the art of unarmed combat in the ''{{Batman}}'' comics, is usually depicted as Chinese and is sometimes given the improbable surname of "Wusan", but her title of "Shiva" is Hindu and describes the name of an Indian god (and a ''male'' god, no less). Just to add to the confusion, Shiva has in the past [[RaceLift been drawn as a Caucasian woman]], even when it's clear from the context that she is supposed to be Chinese.

* In an old issue of ''[[JusticeLeagueInternational Justice League]] [[WestCoastTeam Europe]]'', TheFlash bonded with the Japanese heroine Doctor Light. During their discussion, Flash said that his girlfriend Linda was of Asian descent (specifically, Korean-American) like Light, but quickly corrected himself and stated that he didn't mean to imply that all Asians are alike.

Part of the problem is that many Americans, as in the case of African-Americans and Latinos (and, to a lesser extent, whites), insist on treating "Asian" ''itself'' as one big ethnicity, evidently confusing "ethnicity" with "race" - and even "race" wouldn't be accurate, since, anthropologically speaking, Asia is home to at least four different races. For since at least the dawn of civilization, Asia has been the native continent of four distinct racial groups: Caucasians (Armenians, Georgians, Indo-Iranians), Afro-Asiatic people (Arabs, etc.), Mongoloid people (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and all the other groups the West is thinking of when they say "Asian"), and the Austro-Asiatic people or Negritos (people from the southern half of the Indian subcontinent as well as many Southeast Asians and New Guineans); [[FacialProfiling in colorist terms, these people can be classified, respectively, as "white," "tan," "yellow," and "brown/black."]] In addition, many Asian groups are actually of mixed race: Turks are mixed Mongoloid and Afro-Asiatic, and Indonesians are mixed Mongoloid and Austro-Asiatic. Some American publications and documents go further by grouping together most or all of the above people and people native to the Pacific islands into one huge category called "Asian/Pacific Islander"; but physical studies have confirmed that Micronesians, Melanesians, and Polynesians are three distinct races, and that they are distinct from the races of Asia as well.

Asia is a large and culturally diverse place, but [[FarEast East Asian]] cultures often get lumped together into one general mishmash. This is not unique to Asia, however, as most people will do the same to African and European countries as well. People who are generally unfamiliar with the intricacies of Asian cultures will often confuse the country of origin of various phenomena, such as ''karate'' being a shortcut term for any Asian martial art, when karate is specifically Okinawan/Japanese in origin; note, however, that sometimes this confusion is justified: taekwondo (Korean) was directly inspired by karate (Japanese). In places where the AsianAndNerdy trope exists, Asians from a variety of different cultures will be lumped together in the same stereotype.

* When the ''WorldOfDarkness'' had its "Year of the Lotus" event, where it released Asian-themed material for its gamelines (''KindredOfTheEast'' in particular), it treated the entirety of East and Southeast Asia as the generic "Middle Kingdom"--actually an epithet for China--with no cultural distinction between any of the countries therein.

* J.K. Rowling put a lot of time and thought into choosing names for her characters in Harry Potter, but for the Asian girl? Just slap 2 generic Asian sounding names together and call it a day.

* In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFPWwx96Kew this spoken word video]] by Rachel Rostad, in which she criticizes the FlatCharacter [[HarryPotter Cho Chang]], more than a few commenters mistake her for Katie Leung.

* Lady Shiva, the fighter who taught Bruce Wayne the art of unarmed combat in the ''{{Batman}}'' comics, is usually depicted as Chinese and is sometimes given the surname of "Wusan" [[CriticalResearchFailure (although in Chinese all surnames are monosyllabic, so that would have to be her given name)]], but her title of "Shiva" is Hindu and describes the name of an Indian god (and a ''male'' god, no less). Just to add to the confusion, Shiva has in the past [[RaceLift been drawn as a Caucasian woman]], even when it's clear from the context that she is supposed to be Chinese.

This could all be partially explained by the commonality of brown eyes and straight black hair in Asia; blondes and brunettes are generally restricted to the Caucasian part of Asia. However, it's a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect psychological]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-group_homogeneity fact]] that humans have a harder time distinguishing details in faces from races that are unfamiliar to them. This trope is often turned on its head [[PlayedForLaughs for comedy]] when Asian people will claim, "All [[AcceptableEthnicTargets white people]] look the same!"

Part of the problem is that many Americans, as in the case of African-Americans and Latinos (and, to a lesser extent, whites), insist on treating "Asian" ''itself'' as one big ethnicity, evidently confusing "ethnicity" with "race" - and even "race" wouldn't be accurate, since, anthropologically speaking, Asia is home to at least four different races. For since at least the dawn of civilization, Asia has been the native continent of four distinct racial groups: Caucasians (Armenians, Georgians, Indo-Iranians), Afro-Asiatic people (Arabs, etc.), Mongoloid people (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and all the other groups the West is thinking of when they say "Asian"), and the Austro-Asiatic people or Negritos (people from the southern half of the Indian subcontinent as well as many Southeast Asians and New Guineans); [[FacialProfiling in colorist terms, these people can be classified, respectively, as "white," "tan," "yellow," and "brown/black."]] In addition, many Asian groups are actually of mixed race: Turks are mixed Mongoloid and Afro-Asiatic, and Indonesians are mixed Mongoloid and Austro-Asiatic. Some American publications and documents go further by grouping together most or all of the above people and people native to the Pacific islands into one huge category called "Asian/Pacific Islander"; but physical studies have confirmed that Micronesians, Melanesians, and Polynesians are three distinct races, and that they are distinct from the races of Asia as well.

Part of the problem is that many Americans, as in the case of African-Americans and Latinos (and, to a lesser extent, whites), insist on treating "Asian" ''itself'' as one big ethnicity, evidently confusing "ethnicity" with "race" - and even "race" wouldn't be accurate, since, anthropologically speaking, Asia is home to at least four different races. For since at least the dawn of civilization, Asia has been the native continent of four distinct racial groups: Caucasians (Armenians, Georgians, Indo-Iranians), Afro-Asiatic people (Arabs, etc.), Mongoloid people (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and all the other groups we're thinking of when we say "Asian"), and the Austro-Asiatic people or Negritos (people from the southern half of the Indian subcontinent as well as many Southeast Asians and New Guineans); [[FacialProfiling in colorist terms, these people can be classified, respectively, as "white," "tan," "yellow," and "brown/black."]] In addition, many Asian groups are actually of mixed race: Turks are mixed Mongoloid and Afro-Asiatic, and Indonesians are mixed Mongoloid and Austro-Asiatic. Some American publications and documents go further by grouping together most or all of the above people and people native to the Pacific islands into one huge category called "Asian/Pacific Islander"; but physical studies have confirmed that Micronesians, Melanesians, and Polynesians are three distinct races, and that they are distinct from the races of Asia as well.

* Parodied in an episode of ''Series/ThirtyRock''. Jack Donaghy has a meeting with a group of scientists from India, who accidentally call him "John Donovan" and dismissively remark that all American names sound alike to them. For added humor, a delivery boy who looks ''[[IdenticalStrange exactly like]]'' Jack (and who like Jack, [[ActingForTwo is also played by Alec Baldwin]]) later shows up, and one of the scientists asks if he's a racist for thinking the two white men look alike.

** In a season two episode, the Korean liaison officer semi-sarcastically explains the difficulty in finding the father of a half-American baby as, "You all look alike to us." There's also several episodes that deal with or make reference to the difficulty in people being able to tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Korean people. An Asian blackmarket salesmen posing as a general even uses the trope to deflect suspicion away from himself, claiming, "We all look the same." The show often reused actors as [[FakeNationality multiple races]]. Japanese-American Pat Morita appears as a South Korean officer, while Japanese actor Mako appears as a Chinese doctor and a South Korean interrogator.

* A 1980 episode of ''TheMuppetShow'' famously [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] the entire ''continent'' of Asia. Right after Kermit the Frog announces to the audience that the gang are going to be reenacting ''A Thousand and One Nights'' (or ''The Arabian Nights'', as Kermit refers to it), a Chinese gong goes off, provoking laughter from the audience. Later, a random Muppet sings about going to Bombay and meeting a "sentimental Oriental" who is supposed to be a Hindu, but dresses like an Arabian harem girl and is played by the AmbiguouslyJewish Muppet "Wanda." Furthermore, her love interest is a "whirling dervish," referencing the Sufi Islamic sect that exists in Turkey, Iran, and certain other countries, but not really India. Later, during the depiction of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," Ali Baba and his horse are shown traveling through what looks to be a jungle - even though tropical rain forests are nowhere to be found near Arabia.

* Averted in ''TomorrowsRejects'', When Keiren is introduced to Phil Nguyen at his job interview, he said that he could tell just by looking at him that he's of Vietnamese descent, which impresses Phil so much that he gives him the job. Keiren later admits to Gilligan that Nguyen is the Vietnamese ecquivalent of someone with the surname Smith. In fact, it's estimated that up to 40% of the Vietnamese population have this surname.

* Inverted in an episode of ''BarneyMiller'': when an asian prostitute has been purse-snatched, she looks through the mugbooks. When she comments to Sgt. Yemana that "they all look alike," he repsonds, "I know, I'm Japanese too."

** Interestingly, ''The Simpsons'' applies some of the FacialProfiling described above to help distinguish between the different types of Asians: Chinese and Japanese characters have light skin, but Apu and the Thai restaurant owner have dark skin.

** Played with again about Southern Asians when Homer is in India trying to find Apu's cousin; his difficulties are mainly due to the vagueness of Apu's description -- along the lines of 'he has dark hair and eyes'. (Somehow, he manages to find him in about three tries.)