What it means to be Asian?

What it means to be Asian?

It means one thing to one and another thing to other. It may mean being an Indonesian to one and being Japanese to the other. It may mean Buddhism or Confucius. Or it may mean black eyes, black hair or brown skin. The west looks at Asian with a suspicious tone. Hence the saying, “East is east, west is west and the twain shall never be met.”  Even Asian does not quite fully understand her own self and hence this question of, “What it means to be Asian?”

To me, Asian is people of Asia that is unique in many ways of his own. First and foremost among all is her being the oldest people that lived on earth. China may like to boast of her 5500 over year long history and insinuating that she is the beginning of human culture. A search through the crystal ball tells me otherwise that it is actually the Tigris River in Mesopotamia region (Iraq today) where Asian originated.

Secondly, Asian is unique in her culture. No where else in the world has a culture as rich as an Asian. Weather you are Indian, Chinese, Iranian, Israelis, and you name it, all has a history of over a thousand years. Due to the long historical period of Asian, she has accumulated so much culture in virtually all areas.

Architecture wise, she has the Israelis Wailing Wall, The Throne Hall of Per Polis in Iran, Petra in Jordan. Going further east, we have the Indian Taj-Mahal, Chinese Great Wall and Nanjing Porcelain Tower, and Shwedagon Pagoda in Myanmar. Moving south – east, we see Cambodia Anchor Wat, Philippines Banaue Rice Terraces, and Indonesia Borobudur Temple. And the list could go on.

Food wise, she too is exotic, sumptuous and well known. No one in this planet would never have tried or at least heard of Chinese, Indian, Japanese or Thai food. Not only is she the most eaten food in the world simply because of the cheer number of population, but it is also famous of her very tasteful and culinary nature. The renowned extravagant fit for the King Chinese, spicy, and curry Indian, fresh from the sea Japanese, or Tom-Yum-Kung Thai cooking are all mouth watering yummies-yummies.

Clothing too is fascinating even to an Asian likes me. I still do not quite figure out how woman put on sari or kimono. I also can not wear my neighboring Burmese male sarong and walk on the street. But I can certainly boast of my many hand made Indonesian Batik shirts that each is unique and no other same pattern is found in the entire universe. How about Jim-Thomson Thai silk and much talked about Indian wool fabric? All are fabulously Asian.

Language is also the most spoken and written language in the world. With over 1.4 billions Chinese in China and those scattered around the world, Chinese is certainly the most used language.  

But most of all, Asian originated all the world religions of Buddhism Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Even our Lord God Jesus chose to be born Asian. Without an Asian, there would never be salvation. And that makes “what it means to be Asian?”