All Look Same!

Over at AllLookSame, they offer a quiz where you attempt to identify Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people based on pictures of them.

I think the first time I took the quiz, 3 years ago or so, I got about 3/18 correct (it's multiple choice and there are only 3 options, so I did significantly worse than I should have if I were just guessing). I took it now and did a little better - 6/18, exactly what I should have got if I were just guessing.

With that caveat, I have something to say about all three of these Asian cultures. From what I can see, there often seems to be a strong separatist identity. They define themselves by their own culture and by their differences to the other two, and normally have this pride where they believe they're "the best". Obviously I'm making generalizations - performing the same kind of generalizations I'm about to condemn.

This whole mindset strikes me as, well, silly. Perhaps it's because I can't understand wanting a Cultural Identity. I don't care that I'm an Oregonian, an American, a North American, whatever. I'm not eager to identify and place myself in that group. To be honest, I think it's sort of childish to want to do so. More importantly, it's meaningless. Any classification, of oneself or others, seems to want to do this. He's Japanese, therefore blah blah blah. Not only are statements like this ignorant, they're also the roots of cultural discrimination (a variant of racism). Making blanket statements about others on the basis of culture is simply a stage before making judgments about those same blanket statements.

The accomplishments of my cultural ancestors are theirs, I can't claim any personal right to them. The accomplishments (*cough*) of my culture or of America are not mine. I can choose to identify (time-wasting, non-productive arguments of free will aside) with certain aspects of American culture, but that is not because I am American - it is because I choose to do so. My exposure to them may have increased the likelihood of a certain behavior, but nothing is a given. This is why I don't understand the strong desire to identify oneself and classify others on the basis of culture. We're all just people, at a basic level. There is no difference between a Korean, Chinese, Japanese or American person of any real significance. Maybe we don't actually All Look Same!, but aren't we'll all the same anyway?