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Rhea's avatar

This is a fantastic piece! From having a smelly lunchbox to our food being ‘trendy’ (cough matcha latte), what an odd feeling of whiplash…

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_sooni's avatar

This was a refreshing read! I’ve had similar thoughts before but struggled to express them in a way that doesn’t feel too unkind or gatekeepy—which is why my take on how Western criticism of Korean beauty standards is racist and Eurocentric is still sitting in my drafts LOL. But perhaps people who belong to Asian cultures shouldn’t feel obligated to baby the feelings of those who merely consume it. After all, if they truly “respect the culture,” they should be willing to listen to it.

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Alina Peng's avatar

Thank you for reading Sooni, glad you were able to resonate :-) that draft deserves to see the light of day!

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anniething & anniewhere's avatar

aww thank u for sharing this !! there’s so much to be said about the simultaneous fetishization and otherization of asian cultures, something that feels abundantly clear w all the news the past month. looking forward to more writing on this :)

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Alina Peng's avatar

I appreciate you reading Annie!! :-)

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Shambhavi ♥‿♥'s avatar

Hey, I don't mean any hate, and call it being self centred, but I can tell this essay comes from a western viewpoint when you fail to include all countries from the Asian mainland except China. Asia is bigger than Korea, Japan and China, yk? Apart from that, this was a great read.

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Alina Peng's avatar

Hi! 1000%! I did write from my Chinese American perspective, which is just a slice and Asia is much more than that – East Asians, South Asians, Southeast Asians, etc... thank you for reading :-)

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