This came up in the "To Be Black & Woman & Alive" poetry thread, and the point here is to continue and/or stimulate discussion without derailing that one.
Caveats: I use "Asian" here in the, I admit, ethnically insensitive colloquialism for "East Asian" which really just means China/Korea/Japan. Being Chinese and having grew up around Chinese, these are the groups I am commenting on. I do not and cannot offer any opinion on Southeast Asians (Thai, Viet, Indo, Malay, Filipino), Indians, or Western/Arab Asians. But feel free to comment on these groups if you feel qualified to. I am also American, so I will be talking with an American perspective.
I think there is a slight to moderate aversion to Asian men from Asian women. Going by dating site statistics and personal observation, we, as a dating group, are basically competing head to head with White men on this front. This is especially noticeable in urban centers where you'll as often see a White man/Asian woman combo as you'd see an Asian man/Asian woman combo, especially as you leave the Asian enclaves (which, no surprise, are primarily Asian/Asian).
(Aside: White women/Asian men are distinctly rare and I don't need to comment on White/White.)
The way I understand it, and why it's intrinsically different for what happens between (some) Black men and (some) Black women is generally due to our cultural heritage.
Confucian societies are very patriarchal. A male birth is, historically, a joyous occasion. A female birth is motivation to try again, for a boy. Thanks to Western influences on the homeland, this is becoming less and less true. Nonetheless, we have a long history of rigid social hierarchies where women sit consistently below men and practices like patrilineal inheritance, foot binding, and, well, female infanticde.
And so I think the desire to date "outside" for Asian women is a rebellion against that culture, even in its modern, transplanted, vestigial form. It's not that we, as Asian men, are irrevocably doomed to patronize Asian women, but the closer we are to the first gen immigrants of our family, the more of that culture we internalize and it can be... offputting. Many Asian men grow up in rebellion of their culturally and socially conservative fathers, but there are likely as many that don't, who basically become their fathers but slightly more American.
(Aside: We're not very good at assimilation, as far as I can tell. This may contribute to the proliferation of the negative aspects of our heritage.)
At the same time, there is a racial group that is not only exotic (from the POV of Asian women), but also prestigious (this is mildly racist, actually). This same group seems very enthusiastic about dating Asian women, because of the same streak of exoticization (except in the opposite direction). I'm talking about White men, of course.
It's a no-brainer for many Asian women who seek to escape the grip of Confucian patriarchy.
Finally, I leave these OKCupid snapshots of online dating in 2009 and 2014, which apparently contradict what I think I know, to further incite debate and discourse on this subject.
Caveats: I use "Asian" here in the, I admit, ethnically insensitive colloquialism for "East Asian" which really just means China/Korea/Japan. Being Chinese and having grew up around Chinese, these are the groups I am commenting on. I do not and cannot offer any opinion on Southeast Asians (Thai, Viet, Indo, Malay, Filipino), Indians, or Western/Arab Asians. But feel free to comment on these groups if you feel qualified to. I am also American, so I will be talking with an American perspective.
I think there is a slight to moderate aversion to Asian men from Asian women. Going by dating site statistics and personal observation, we, as a dating group, are basically competing head to head with White men on this front. This is especially noticeable in urban centers where you'll as often see a White man/Asian woman combo as you'd see an Asian man/Asian woman combo, especially as you leave the Asian enclaves (which, no surprise, are primarily Asian/Asian).
(Aside: White women/Asian men are distinctly rare and I don't need to comment on White/White.)
The way I understand it, and why it's intrinsically different for what happens between (some) Black men and (some) Black women is generally due to our cultural heritage.
Confucian societies are very patriarchal. A male birth is, historically, a joyous occasion. A female birth is motivation to try again, for a boy. Thanks to Western influences on the homeland, this is becoming less and less true. Nonetheless, we have a long history of rigid social hierarchies where women sit consistently below men and practices like patrilineal inheritance, foot binding, and, well, female infanticde.
And so I think the desire to date "outside" for Asian women is a rebellion against that culture, even in its modern, transplanted, vestigial form. It's not that we, as Asian men, are irrevocably doomed to patronize Asian women, but the closer we are to the first gen immigrants of our family, the more of that culture we internalize and it can be... offputting. Many Asian men grow up in rebellion of their culturally and socially conservative fathers, but there are likely as many that don't, who basically become their fathers but slightly more American.
(Aside: We're not very good at assimilation, as far as I can tell. This may contribute to the proliferation of the negative aspects of our heritage.)
At the same time, there is a racial group that is not only exotic (from the POV of Asian women), but also prestigious (this is mildly racist, actually). This same group seems very enthusiastic about dating Asian women, because of the same streak of exoticization (except in the opposite direction). I'm talking about White men, of course.
It's a no-brainer for many Asian women who seek to escape the grip of Confucian patriarchy.
Finally, I leave these OKCupid snapshots of online dating in 2009 and 2014, which apparently contradict what I think I know, to further incite debate and discourse on this subject.