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Is there a way to have less "racial blindness" when consuming asian media?

The title is shit and confusing, so let me explain.

I’m a white latin american who lives in a latin american country, so in my environment there is very few asian people, in fact, in my region there is so few asians that if there is one in a friend group, they will automatically be “El chino” or “La china”.

Anyway, I understand there is a phenomenon that when ur not used to hang out with people from other races, you might see people from other specific race as “they look the same”. This is part of the reason why so many people in this part of the world thinks that “asians look the same” when that is absolutely not true. It might also happen that some asians also think all white people look the same. And yeah, in a limited genetic pool, many people will look similar.

Anyway, I like asian media and I consume Jpop, Kpop, and I’m starting to try and get into watching more dramas. The thing is when I face the “they look similar” barrier so I have a hard time differentiating people.

I can identify well for example the Black Pink girls, GIDLE girls, Mamamoo, half of the BTS members, etc, just to give you an idea, but sometimes I’m stuck playing a game of “Oh, this is X? No, I think that’s actually Y, nah, I’m wrong, really is Z”.

Is kinda stressful sometimes, not being able to differentiate people in dramas or groups and trying to hang on certain identifiable features to do not get me lost.

Is there a way to kinda “train” myself into identifying Asian people and differentiating them better?

I hope this post doesn’t sound racist, is not my intention at all. I’m just looking for some advice. Thanks.

Odo ,

In my experience, just consuming more media is a good way to become more familiar with the facial features that we might not pay enough attention to differentiate between people. When I first started watching Japanese movies, I had a bit of a hard time grasping who was who, but as time went on it became easier.

SirFancypants ,

The fact that you’re conscious of these biases and are trying to take a thoughtful approach to avoiding them probably means you don’t need to worry too much about it. I think it’s probably unrealistic to be able to memorize and identify every media star, and getting some actors of a certain ethnicity confused doesn’t automatically make you racist. I mix people up all the time, regardless of their background, so don’t sweat it too much. Over time, your recognition will improve, as with any other activity. Good luck!

MoonshineDegreaser ,
@MoonshineDegreaser@lemmy.world avatar

What you are referring to is called implicit bias. It’s the automatic differentiation of tribal heritage. It’s honestly a phenomenon that can’t be controlled. You spend enough time with a certain people, then you are going to prefer that people. IMO that’s why we should drop the cultural walls and just amalgamate

RightHandOfIkaros ,

Don’t worry, you’re not racist. If people look similar then they look similar. There is no need to stress out over this very minor issue. Just spend more time with that media and you’ll be able to pick up on differences more easily.

It can be hard to determine the differences between people of different Asian nations sometimes, just like it can be difficult to tell the difference between a Caucasian American, Caucasian European, and a Caucasian Canadian. Some can be easier to distinguish (such as Filipino and Japanese being usually easier to tell the difference than say Laotian and Vietnamese based purely on looks alone), but races now are not as “pure” as they used to be in the distant past. There is a lot of international travel and interracial families, so some may look like another nationality because they are.

Its kinda the same with languages. Spanish and Portuguese sound very similar, and infact are based in the same language family. They both use some of the same words and grammar. But with enough understanding of both you can tell the difference.

gila ,

I think it’s just learned over time spent engaging with faces of that ethnicity. For myself as a white person located much closer to Asia than South America, I can identify someone’s specific Asian ethnicity with fairly good accuracy, although there’s always curveballs like Chinese people that aren’t Han Chinese. But I’d have a lot of trouble identifying the same for people from different South American countries, because it’s a lot farther away and there’s only a few South American people that I’ve come to know well in my travels. I think it comes down to understanding that the ways faces vary are different between different ethnicities. Stereotypes result from not understanding this. You could possible ‘train’ yourself on Asian faces by reading into the ways they vary, but I think internalising it comes mostly from experience.

wrath-sedan , (edited )
@wrath-sedan@kbin.social avatar

Alright we’re putting you on a strict diet of 8 hours of Kpop exposure therapy no exceptions.

But seriously like most have said, the main features that differentiate faces can differ all over the world so it will come with time, just do your best and it will get easier.

Lemmylefty ,
@Lemmylefty@lemmy.world avatar

You improve at what you do often and with mindful intent. You’re already doing that; what’s tripping you up is the guilt you feel at getting things wrong because it feels like you’re being dismissive of people.

But you’re not: you’re actively working on a problem you’ve identified you have, and for partially personal but also kind, interpersonal reasons. There’s no timeline or final grade to worry about, so just focus on enjoying your media and discernment will come to you.

baseless_discourse , (edited )

Dude, I am asian, and I cannot tell kpop band apart to save my life. Some of them really look very similar; racial bias might make it worse, but I dont think it is completely racial.

I think the best way is just to keep watching more and more. Eventually you should be able to tell.

freamon ,

I think the creators of Korean dramas are aware of the issue - the last one I watched was The Glory, which seemed to go out of its way to make its characters visually distinctive.

For me, I have to stop myself blanking it when I hear a name from unfamiliar language, and instead of thinking “Well I’ll never remember that”, force myself to take note, that’s she’s “Lee Sa-ra” and he’s “Jeon Jae-joon”, etc. I find it useful to pause the screen once in a while, to actually make sure I know who’s who, and what their motivations are.

fiat_lux ,

It's an easier task if you're looking at normal real people, not popstars deliberately selected for 'ideal' beauty archetypes, with professional makeup, filters, and editing.

This reminds me of the Korean beauty pageant profile photo discussion 10 years ago.

It's not necessarily so much a race thing as it is a 'cultural beauty ideals conformity' thing. There are a lot of similar looking white celebrities too, the blonde pop princess cloning machine was working overtime in the early 2000's.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Man, I am white, live in a predominantly white country, and notice even white people looking the same and confusing them for other people. I’m not so sure it’s such a big deal. Humans look pretty close together and is why we constantly bicker about small differences like skin color and eye size; cuz there ain’t much else that’s different. 🙁

Teon ,
@Teon@kbin.social avatar

Kpop is cool and all but not a great way to see the differences in people. Kpop idols are routinely made to look like other popular idols to appeal to a larger fan base. This happens in other cultures as well, US actresses for example!

I would suggest you stick with Dramas to get a better mix of people. And mix it up by country. Add some Thai, Japanese and Chinese dramas to your watch list. At some point you will see the vast differences in just one nation, China is quite diverse in looks, Thailand as well. And it can't hurt to experience music and dramas from other parts of Asia like Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.

And don't just limit yourself to Asia, really look at humanity. You would be surprised how often you can see the similarities between cultures. American Eskimos having Chinese traits. And I don't mean eyes, facial architecture varies worldwide.

In America people think anyone Hispanic/Latin is Mexican (which is SOOOOO false). But Central and South Americans are just as diverse. The larger the mix of people from a continent you are exposed to, the easier it is to get a sense of where they may be from.
All of humanity migrated from someplace, and we still do today.

Niello , (edited )

Let me tell you an anecdote. I'm Asian and grew up in an Asian country. When I was studying abroad there's a time when my American friends were watching a Japanese drama series. I was the one asking them throughout the watch session who's who because I couldn't tell the actors' faces apart.

STUPIDVIPGUY ,

its impossible asians just look the same

(not true im exaggerating but i definitely feel like there is a lot more genetic homogeneity and they just have more similar features)

cloudless ,
@cloudless@feddit.uk avatar

Username checks out.

East Asia is one of the most genetically diverse regions in the world, and the three major ethnic groups of East Asia, Han Chinese, Japanese and Korean, have distinct genetic makeup and ancestry. They also have different facial features, such as eye shape, nose shape, skin tone, and hair texture, that reflect their genetic variation and environmental adaptation.

According to a recent study based on whole-genome sequence data, Han Chinese, Japanese and Korean populations have diverged from each other about 3000 to 3600 years ago, and have experienced substantial admixture with surrounding populations since then. Another study based on population genomics revealed that East Asian populations have different ancestral origins, population relationships, genetic differentiation, and admixture patterns.

…biomedcentral.com/…/s41065-018-0057-5

STUPIDVIPGUY ,

I don’t mean to say all asian people look the same, my statement was overly simple. I can usually tell people of different ethnicities from eachother but it seems chinese people look more similar to other chinese people, japanese people look very similar to eachother, so on. Not suggesting that the entire continent looks the same, and of course there is genetic diversity, but my observation has been that diversity shows less visually among their more homogenous groups/regions

redcalcium ,

Korean celebrities are the exception. I’m an Asian and can’t tell them apart lol.

TheActualDevil ,

I assume that’s primarily from the over-abundance of plastic surgery in Korean celebrities that tends to genericize their features towards an ideal? I remember hearing about surgery being a huge thing years ago and I’m assuming it still is. They’re like, Stepford Wive’s-ing themselves visually and all end up looking generally the same when chasing attractiveness.

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