Help I'm ethnically challenged

[venturi]

I have to agree with Surfin on this. I'm pretty much as whitebread Scotish/American as they come but there are as many different nuances to each Asian and South Pacific brand of people as their are southern dialects in the US.

I lived in Japan (ok, it was Okinawa - Disney for the Japanese) for a year and was amazed at how diverse the people are there. Okinawa is NOT a Japanese island at it's root. It's Polonesian (sp?). Yes, for many hundreds of years the Japanese and Chinese invaded this 68mile long island and tortured and killed the inhabitants but the true Okinawans are not of "Asian" decent - they are closer to being the brothers and sisters of the Phillipinos.

Now, Korean vs Vietnamese vs Japanese vs Chinese vs Thai vs Whatever.... There is a stricking physical difference between these people and their cultures. Can I pinpoint each one all the time? No, but I do see the differences. The eyes, the cheeks, the mouth, the nose - there are distinct nuances that differentiate each and every one of us. Anyone that lumps people into a given stereotype just isn't looking.

And that's my two cents.