Felt greatly insulted yesterday.
There usually are 3 types of ang moh tourists that come to
1. the type that truly want to immerse themselves in another culture and learn new things.
2. the type that just want a cheap holiday and don’t care about anything else.
3. the misguided kind who thinks they are open to new things and culture but really just want to do it their way.
I admire those who truly respect the culture and want to learn new things. They don’t try to force something down your throat but is amazed and happy with the different aspect in life. Meeting guests like this makes me happy and I want to recommend the world to them.
Then there are the type who want a cheap holiday in
And I met the third type of guests, the one who claims that they want an authentic Asian experience, and then they do their vague research via google and then tell you they want this and that. Fine. But what I cannot stand is after they tell you they want this particular Asian experience, they don’t listen to you and mash it up into something of their own liking, irrespective of the traditional way of doing things, uncaring if it insults the Asian or not by the way they alter the tradition into something ridiculous. AND THEN tell ME that I’m so westernized that I don’t know the authentic Asian tradition anymore. Bloody hell.
If you wanted to create your own circus, please don’t try to justify it as an “authentic Asian experience”. You don’t listen to us from whom this tradition come from, you want to create your own tradition, so please, don’t insult us, call it your own fiasco, don’t insult us by saying we are not traditional enough to give you what you want. You disrespect us greatly by pretending you are more knowledgeable than us. And worse of all, this mish-mash you call an Asian tradition has to be carried out by us because you demand it, this “tradition” you massacred into your own rubbish.
So no, I don’t know my traditions better than you. You know way better.
