The Asian Mystique

“The Asian Mystique” is a book I am reading for the past 3 weeks. I only wish I can read in English faster. It’s a great book, and I highly recommend it.

It is about the westerner’s misconceptions of Asians. The book covers from historical events, document references, to current events. It talks about how the misconceptions affect the personal relationships, the businesses interactions, and the international affairs between the east and west. The author does a great job researching the topic, and she tries to present the interviews untouched.

She differentiates different Asian societies very well. Display of the different history background, belief system, and social structure are used to show how each Asian society is unique from the others. She also said, you will find a career woman in Beijing and a career woman in New York might share the similar values and feelings. Even though, the Chinese woman will enjoy the same rice and tofu dishes as a country farmer, it does not mean they are the same. Therefore, we should not stereotype people since everyone is also unique in their own way. It is a 400-page book packed with topics that I can relate to and things that I didn’t even know about other Asian cultures.

Conflicts and unpleasant feelings occur when interacting with people from different cultures. I don’t get offended easily; because I think we should educate each other. Ignorant comments or silly questions happen to me at times, but I can see it happen anywhere else in the world, even in my own country. I might also do it to people from other countries, since I do hang out with people from all over the world. However, as long as we have the sincere attitude toward learning about others, it’s okay to learn form mistakes. Recommending the book is not to spread angers toward westerners. It’s to clear the misconceptions, so people can understand each other better in this world.