Are You Truly Asian?

It’s packed. It’s hot. It’s vibrant. It’s Asia.


A place where people are to be seen everywhere. Not to mention the traffic that is packed with cars, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians, street vendors, burglars and many more.

Yes people. That is the beauty of Asia.

Few years ago, I moved to the land down under, where people called it a promising land of which immigrants can live peacefully and be wealthy. It is called Australia.

And now, I have moved back to my homecountry, which is located in South East Asia. A place where disasters are so ‘friendly’ to visit us, people and cars are always packed everywhere and corruption is the base of the government system. This is what I’ve called, a typical Asian country.

Not try to make a comparison, I just love Asia itself. Its food (best of the best!), culture, custom, anything about Asia. Whenever I think of Asia, I always think of three words, ‘plenty, rich and noisy’.

Asia is always plenty with anything. For instance, when you want to buy clothes, there are lots of styles & designs from different Asian countries (i.e.: Japanese, Hong Kong, Korean, Chinese, South East Asian, etc). Or even, you can buy a toothpaste from hundreds of brands.

For its richness, I can say no more but China. Remember China? The biggest global manufacturer in the world? Let me know where you cannot find a single little thing that is not ‘made in China’.

And not to mention the Asian culture that is rich of uniqueness with various customs from every single ethnic or sub-ethnic. So, what else I can say for the noise of Asian people? It’s from their own custom, tradition and habitual behaviour.

Afterall, it’s Asia, where everyone is loud and vibrant!

So, what else about Asia? Or in particular, about Indonesia?

You might often find in articles or reviews of Asian country where the author always mentioned that Asian people are warm and friendly. All I can say is, it IS truly true. For instance, when you walk down the streets, where you can find lots of street vendors, or when you ride a motorbike (In Jakarta, you might ride ojek motor, ojek sepeda ontel, etc), somehow there’ll be some people who suddenly greet you.

For me personally, some people would say, ‘Neng, mau ke mana (Neng, where are you going)?’ or ‘Ati-ati, Neng (Be careful, Neng)’. Yes, people who are strangers to you, can tell you to be careful on the streets.

Unfortunately, sometimes, this friendly manner is often being misinterpreted to be a harmful action. Especially, for an Indo-Chinese young woman like me, there might be two types of thoughts:

1. They tried to mock me just because I’m Indonesian Chinese, OR...

2. They just simply want to greet me for just the matter of friendliness.

Let’s say I would prefer the second thought. I’d think they’re just being friendly, then I simply smiled back at them. And the problem is gone, as there is no problem at all.

But the problem came out when people (usually) prefer the first thought. You started to get so frightened that these people are trying to get something from you. They might try to rob you, you thought. Then you pulled out your face and people would think, this girl is not friendly at all.

Yes, I admit that we always have to be careful, especially in a crowded place (which is likely to happen in Asia). But, if you don’t overthink, you won’t (or unlikely) get in harm.

Or else, when people (even Indonesian themselves) are facing the Indonesia food. Where the food are most likely to be spicy, lots of people from overseas are getting overstressed with the diseases they might have got from eating Indonesian food. They thought they can get food poisoning or diarrhea, especially when they try to eat food from street stalls. Then, they started to prepare themselves with heaps of vaccines, pills, medicines or whatsoever to avoid every possibility to get sick.

Tell you what, I think people already got sick even before they eat anything.

Or another thing when you have to face the bandit of mosquitos in Indonesia. Some people would say you have to get another injection (perhaps) to prevent any contagious disease from mosquitos. Yes, I admit that mosquitos can be dangerous. But, it doesn’t mean that you have to overreact when you are (or afraid to be) bitten by mosquitos. I guess, you can get sick from any other animals, not only mosquitos.

Afterall, it’s the matter of your state of mind. If you keep thinking that food from street stalls are not hygiene and make people sick, you will get (real) sick. If you keep thinking that mosquitos are very dangerous and you are so scared to be bitten, those mosquitos will come over you all the time and they will be very happy to suck your blood.

Yes. It is the game of your own mind. Hasn’t too much thinking given yourself harm?

I remember a saying from an inspiring and thoughtful Buddhist monk, named Ajahn Brahm. He said, “Don’t think, just do it”. It shows us that sometimes you don’t need too much thinking, just simply do the bloody simple thing.

When you want to eat, just eat. When you want to sleep, just sleep. Don’t overstress the spicy food or dream of the lovely mosquitos. It just emphasizes your mind that they will give you bad thing, and they will (really) do.

And it is valid for anything else. Either when you walk down alone or when you try to ride a public transportation in Asia and you thought you are not safe, just don’t think too much. Just keep being careful and always give your smile. Trust me, most people will smile back at you and won’t give you harm.

Isn’t that simple?

So Asian, if you are scared of simple things like spicy food or mosquitos, tell you what. It’s a shame you called yourself Asian.