Myths of the Asian nymphs

In my time spent here since 2006, I have observed a strange but consistent phenomenon - the stereotyping of Asian females.

Would I call it racism? Well, a little bit yes. I suppose it's mostly out of ignorance and not malice though. Here are some common misconceptions and my bit of rambling to refute them.

Stereotype 1
Asian females can all get along
Now it's no huge secret that a lot of caucasian Australians date Asian women. And these men have a tendency to assume that the Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian and Taiwanese ladies can all get together and become F.R.I.E.N.D.S (so the men can get together to drink beer and talk about their sheds).

This is a very wrong assumption.

See, we might all originate from neighbouring countries, but our socioeconomic backgrounds can differ vastly. For example, the Thai might have been a 50 year old ping pong shooting dancer from Patpong (would you believe it, this girl once asked me if "all Asians can shoot stuff out of their bits"! I credited the Thais for that talent), the Indonesian a divorcee Harvard-educated lawyer, the Malaysian a former maid in her thirties and the Taiwanese a lesbian English student.

There may be inter-national grudges and the likelihood of everyone sharing a lingua franca is minimal. Chances of people from the same country clicking however, are a lot better.

Stereotype 2
Asian women can't drive properly
I'm not very qualified on this matter. I have been chauffeured my entire life by friends and family, hence possess the driving skills of a baboon on booze (Di has firsthand experience). But my mother, also known as the Moral Police and Backseat Driver has an excellent record (proving lousy driving skills are not hereditary nor genetic). I do also have a lot of girlfriends who can maneuvre vehicles smoothly, all well trained by the notorious traffic jams of the Klang Valley.

X has a theory on this one. Apparently, due to Asia's generally crappy driving conditions (Malaysian potholes/ Bangkok jams/ Vietnamese traffic etc), the people behind the wheel only have one thing in mind - survival. Therefore other rules are trivialised/ ignored and the policemen can always be bought off for MYR50 anyway.

Stereotype 3
Asian women are kitchen hoggers
I have lost count of the amount of times people have asked me what I'm "cooking for X". I usually assume a benign smile to distract them from the evil eye I'm casting. "Why would anyone assume we cook?" AG who lives in Brissy asked, "I mean, there's an abundance of cheap food in KL!"

My personal culinary repertoire is confined to instant noodles and fried egg. I have no idea how to make anything else edible. My last attempt was a chiffon cake with the consistency of wafer (which my godfather bravely gnawed and declared delicious).

People in my generation don't cook much. We're into hanging out at cafes/ dieting. If you hold a fulltime job in Asia, you wouldn't generally have enough time to whip up anything beyond microwaved pizza.

There are other stereotypes such as Asian women all no-speako-Engrish (AG tells me if I ever get in trouble, I should just say,"No England, no England!"), Asian females are SPGs, Asian women who are whores/ gold diggers etc. These assumptions are made by idiots who are not worth my time and should go throw themselves off a cliff hence will not be discussed.

Cliched as it may sound, hopefully someday I'll be more than just a yellow face.