HawaiiStories: All Asians Look Alike...Or Do They?

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Posted by ali on July 1, 2002 7:19 PM:

I got 7 out of 18. I've done this test a while back and got a better score but it was sheer luck. :)

Posted by Tom on July 1, 2002 8:06 PM:

If my picture was in there no one would be able to guess..

Posted by NemesisVex on July 1, 2002 8:07 PM:

I think I saw this on Metafilter, and many MeFites criticized the test because of all the goofy faces made by the 'models'.

Posted by honukai on July 2, 2002 6:27 PM:

I did this awhile back as well and I think I got like an 11 or something. All I really remember is my haole husband scored better than me! As if!

Posted by Keith H. on July 2, 2002 6:57 PM:

I did this awhile back as well and I think I got like an 11 or something. All I really remember is my haole husband scored better than me! As if!

Eleven?! That's pretty good!

I couldn't find a real pattern among my numerous mistakes (like confusing only two groups).

Which sort of brings up a point...in your own experience, have you found it hard to tell certain ethnic groups apart (using more than just sight)? It need not be East Asian, BTW...

Posted by Ryan on July 2, 2002 8:08 PM:

I've always sucked at this, and I'm Japanese. I mean, I'm certain there are a lot of variables, but according to my (also haole) wife, I mis-identify people even when they're unmistakably, visibly, blatantly Korean, Japanese, Chinese, or whatever.

(I scored a seven. Jen scored a nine. Both, of course, rank as "very bad.")

Folks sure don't need more than an instant to know my ethnicity.

I'd like to think it's because ethnicity just isn't something I was taught to give much thought to when sizing someone up — that race in general is not as big a deal as it is to folks on the Mainland.

But maybe it's just because I'm not terribly observant.

Posted by ali on July 2, 2002 9:18 PM:

Maybe it's not a big deal here in Hawaii because the ethnicity lines are all crossed and mixed here. Looking at my kids and their classmates, it's near impossible to tell who is what--pure anything is more of a rarity than the norm that it was back in the day. And it's kind of nice that way . . . part of the reason why Hawai'i has such gorgeous children. (I am, of course, prejudiced because all children are beautiful.) :)

Posted by honukai on July 3, 2002 12:59 PM:

I recall being in 2nd grade and wanting the same straight, blond hair my friend Amy had. I mentioned it to my sister who told me I couldn't since I wasn't full Caucasian. This was the first I had ever heard that ethnicity played a huge (!!) role in what someone looked like. Until then, I thought anyone could be born with blond hair or blue eyes or dark skin...

On a separate topic, I think it's amazing how my father has the ability to identify the race based on last name alone. I could never tell the difference between a Laotian and Cambodian name or a Japanese and Okinawan name. And I always thought Chong was Chinese...I guess it can be Korean as well. ??

Posted by Glen Miyashiro on July 3, 2002 3:24 PM:

Honukai, being able to tell ethnicity by surname is completely a learned skill. Here in Hawaii, if you pay enough attention you can learn to tell Japanese from Okinawan and Portuguese from Puerto Rican, and maybe even Ilocano from Visayan! But other ethnic distinctions may completely escape you, especially if they're regarding groups that aren't well represented here. For example, it never occurred to me until years later that a classmate of mine was Jewish - and his surname was Cohen.

Posted by Linkmeister on July 3, 2002 9:11 PM:

OK, I haven't weighed in on this because I'm a haole transplant who's still confused after 24 years on-island. The thing that always gets me about the ethnicity thing is the crime news where the perp is described as part X and part Y. Part Japanese, part Korean? Bull...I don't believe it. No wonder eyewitness testimony is considered poor at trial.

Posted by honukai on July 3, 2002 10:06 PM:

Glen, it doesn't just stop at Asian ethnicity. I think he's even better at indentifying the Northern and Eastern European surnames.

And actually I am better at distinguishing the Jewish surnames than some Asian ones.

Posted by bunny on July 10, 2002 4:15 AM:

That's 'cause we have a Jewish dad, silly. We're a little more used to the names. Dad's really a whiz at names, though. It goes hand in hand with his mathematic abilities. Good retention.

I recall not having a real problem telling folks apart when I was in high school. But by the time college went by, I lost it. Partly, it was because of the new immigration patterns in Hawaii and partly because I had little practice. Plus, there were more multiracial kids around by then.

When I sent honukai that alllookthesame link last year, I was surprised that I only got 10 or so. I thought I'd get more. What an ego crush I had. :(

Now I just rely on last name - it's more reliable than looks alone, although I recently learned that Choi/Choy could be spelled Choe or that Chow/Chao was also spelled Chau. It reminds me of a French acquaintence of mine with a Frenchified Russian name. It looked French, sounded Russian.

Names are funny things. I especially like Icelandic/Viking names (like older Russian names). Very easy to remember (everyone's a -sson or -dottir) and tells who the father is. Very patriarchical, unfortunately, although sometimes the child took the mother's name. Rarely, but sometimes.

Posted by Mike on October 6, 2002 3:26 PM:

Hey, I'm total haole and got 11 out of 18. Pretty good, no? Careful though, ethnicity and race are only skin deep. We're all the same when and where it counts.

Posted by Shingo on October 8, 2002 10:19 AM:

Geez, I was born and raised in Hawaii, Japanese house with Toyota Camrys, Pearl City, got an 8. A hair above average...and much like Honukai, my "haole" boyfriend got a 10! I thought that first guy (I dont know if the order is consistent) was definitely Filipino! Then I saw there was no Filipino option....

Posted by jon merrell on November 9, 2002 5:10 AM:

i like this web site

Posted by ratdot on December 7, 2002 3:15 PM:

I couldn't tell one from another and I scored very badly. I am just regular white, but for some reason I look half Asian. I have black hair and slanted eyes that are blue. My dad is blond and I know I belong to him. I have exactly his chin, forehead, build and attitude My mom looks like she just got off a boat from Ireland. However I have began to take an interest in any Asian culture. Maybe this comes from years of people calling me Chinese/Japanese or even Native American.

Posted by Tan on July 13, 2003 8:59 AM:

Hey, are you guys nut ? can you recognize the different between American, Russian and French ? or the differences among the Africans ? why pick on the Asians ? what a bunch of assholes.

Posted by NemesisVex on July 13, 2003 1:25 PM:

No. We're racists.

Posted by Sunny on July 31, 2003 6:21 PM:

I really did bad....... 3 out of 18! If u guys say u sucked, then think again.

Posted by Sunny on July 31, 2003 6:22 PM:

I really did bad....... 3 out of 18! If u guys say u sucked, then think again.

Posted by Romeo on August 13, 2003 3:09 PM:

I think that's a cool website, it makes you think who really knows about the true asians....

Posted by Kev on December 31, 2003 11:37 AM:

""Hey, are you guys nut ? can you recognize the different between American, Russian and French ? or the differences among the Africans ? why pick on the Asians ? what a bunch of assholes.""

Naw, we're not the assholes, it's the asians who insist on being classified. When someone is called "white," they don't get into a huff about "i'm german with 1/4 swedish!!" so the whites don't care, therefore nobody else does. Asians seem to care, so that's why everyone tries to differentiate them.
as a side note, i can tell full-blooded irish, english, german, polish, slavic, and porteugese people apart. though i have trouble with spanish, italian, etc. Greeks are also not a problem, and sometimes jews, but you have to be careful about the jewish ethnicity vs the jewish religion.
"I'm jewish."
"Really? your name is 'smith'"
"well, yeah, my parents aren't jewish but I'm a practicing jew."

that kind of thing makes it difficult.

Posted by Kevin on June 4, 2004 6:59 AM:

Im a Chinese. Honestly i would find classification of Koreans, Japs and Chinese meaningless. Why? the reason is simple if u knew some basic things of physical anthropology. Our genes, looks are not decided by the nationalities. Koreans might just be a sub set of North East mongoloid who happens to speak a different langauge from Chinese (due to historical and clutural reason) and it is no wonder to find that Northern Chinese situated near the sea look more like korea rather than their south counterparts. It is found out that there is a dictinct difference between North and South Chinese in term of genes. Far north Chinese are genetically more similar to Europeans than other Chinese. Thus, nationalities could show nothing about genetcis. Thus the looks of asian are not judged by nationalities. Just like u cant tell if someone is American or not becos that sounds absurd.

In the western world, though im not living there( Europe and United States), the common asians we observe are merely south Chinese, and particulerly from certain 2 or 3 provinces of south China. Other asians are probably South East Asians (eg Vietnamese,Thails). Thus what u all usually see is not a complete picture.

Kevin

Posted by kate on July 6, 2004 3:17 AM:

ratdot you probably have slavic[russian,eastern european] ancestry somewhere down the line,alot of slavic people have asiatic features.Or your dad could have mixed saami/scandinavian origin.The saami in scandinavia and other groups with asiatic eyes in greenland etc,some finnish people too.Bjork is a great example,so is this scandinavian guy.

http://groups.msn.com/DjingisKhan/jag.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=6

Posted by Asian on July 31, 2004 3:40 PM:

I'm Asian but the test was fucking hard..They all look Chinese...serios..CHINESE!!!1....ugly bastard

Posted by Alexa on August 7, 2004 10:00 AM:

I'm white and I got a 15 out of 18. I expected a lot less. On some I had to guess. But on a lot, I was pretty sure on whether they were chinese, korean, or japanese. I don't know HOW though. Well maybe it's because I am very interested in asian culture, but I am not sure.

Posted by Mokihana on August 10, 2004 11:08 PM:

ack! I got 13. Born and raised on O`ahu... was I just lucky, or was I talented like they said? Dunno. Part Portuguese, the rest all mixed up. No Asian. That's me.

Posted by Lauri on October 14, 2004 7:01 PM:

I got 11. ehh if they werent making funny faces in some of their pics it would have been easier to tell

Posted by robert wynne on October 30, 2004 5:54 AM:

many, many years ago, Milton Caniff, (Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon), ran a strip showing some of the distinguishing characteristics of Chinese, Japanese and Korean facial features. I would love to find a copy of that strip! Do any of you have an idea of how to locate it?

Posted by lise on November 17, 2004 8:13 PM:

I'm white, but I scored 12 out of 18... I have Japanese, Chinese, and Korean friends and acquaintances, tho, so seeing features that slightly resembled people I know helped me decide who was probably what.

Posted by lena on August 27, 2005 11:43 PM:

dude! I want to take the test but somethings wrong with the site. Everytime you type in www.alllooksame.com it redirects you to this image squirell site. Anyone know what's up??

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Posted by sin on September 16, 2005 2:51 PM:

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All Asians Look Alike...Or Do They?

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