fellow asians of the UK rise up

Wow Imperial! Congrats!

thanks!

british born chinese here! been living in the UK my whole life in a small area so there wasn't much diversity in my schools, anyone else? how were your experiences growing up in the UK as an asian? What's your ethnicity? What are your school plans?Are you going to uni? Let's talk!

british born chinese here! been living in the UK my whole life in a small area so there wasn't much diversity in my schools, anyone else? how were your experiences growing up in the UK as an asian? What's your ethnicity? What are your school plans?Are you going to uni? Let's talk!

british born chinese here too. in primary school i was one of the only east asians, there were probably about 4 others but i was the only one in my year group. i got a lot of questions, almost harassment i’d say from a group of white boys in one of the years above nearly everyday asking me what my name is and where i’m from etc. id tell them one day and they’d keep on approaching me the next day. probably the start of where i wished i was white and “normal”, my friendship group was white with me as the exception. my high school was quite diverse in the way that it was like 50% white and 50% poc. again there were a small few of east asians in other year groups but i was only one of 2 in my own. id still get asked questions about where i was “actually” from although a lot of people would think i was only half asian and was half white which sadly gave me a lot of validation. the only people that would ask me so many questions about my background were white and i think this is where my almost prejudice for white people came from, my friendship group was all poc and they had shared the same experiences as me and had the same views on white people as me. at sixth form a few more east asians had joined the year group which made me feel more comfortable, none were girls though and i hadn’t talked to any of them since they weren’t in my classes, i wasn’t the most outgoing person. by this time being east asian was almost praised, kpop, kdramas and anime had become a thing and the questions about where i was from had stopped. this topic really interests me because i find it so weird how a few years ago i’d get people pulling their eyes in my face and now suddenly everyone wishes they were asian, like on tiktok you see girls pulling back their eyes and taping them, i get that not everyone would be offended by it but from the experiences i’ve had it most definitely offends me. gladly i’m much more comfortable with who i am now and i’m proud of my background, i don’t need white validation anymore. interestingly i had dated a white boy for the first time last year, the male attention i was used to was from poc only. i realised it’s definitely different in the way that they won’t understand your struggles as a woc and that can sometimes be difficult, not that all male poc’s do but they’d definitely understand to an extent. of course this ended in him choosing a blonde, blue eyed white girl over me, definitely hurt me but was expected. i’m lucky that i’m now confident in who i am that this sort of thing doesn’t affect me as much as it could.

i’ve definitely waffled a bit with this response haha but this is the first time i’ve spoken about this or even thought about it properly

i’m going to uni next year, on a gap year currently, got a place at uni of bristol. slightly worried that there’ll be a lack of poc’s. i’m wanting to get to know more british born east asians since i’ve never been friends with one before but i really doubt that’ll happen with my choice of uni.

how about you?? sorry for the extensive essay 😭😭

first of all dont be sorry for writing a whole essay cause it’s great that u can talk about ur experiences which is actually very similar to mine😭 and LITERALLY OMG IVE ALSO GOT A PLACE AT UNI OF BRISTOL 😳 I’ll be starting in September 2022 hopefully, I’m currently at my second year of college, so maybe we’ll see each other 😳?!?? I was hoping there would be a lot more diverse people there since it’s a big uni and Bristol actually has a lot of Chinese people

omg no way what are you studying?? everyone ive spoken to about the diversity at bristol says something different, but i wouldn't say bristol is one of the uni's that international students would have as their first choice? i wouldn't know about british born's though im just guessing lols ive never actually been to bristol before to see for myself

british born chinese here! been living in the UK my whole life in a small area so there wasn't much diversity in my schools, anyone else? how were your experiences growing up in the UK as an asian? What's your ethnicity? What are your school plans?Are you going to uni? Let's talk!

I’m studying childhood studies w study abroad!! and really? I would’ve thought Bristol would be quite diverse as it’s a Russell group plus there are a lot of Chinese owned stores in Bristol I think it’s pretty diverse from what I experienced

In Yr11,

I am Filipino but I was born here. Usually, it involved a lot of Asian ‘jokes’ and jolly lighthearted racism, but it stopped when people (including Asians and me)finally realised that it was actually really bad to say those kind of Asian ‘jokes’ - which was like 2019/2020.
Besides that, they have been positive in the sense that I could still relate to my culture (since I was in touch with a lot of Filipino family friends) and different Asian cultures (mostly on media). Plan on going to sixth form.

I want to divert from the Asian stereotypes a lot, but i hope that doesn’t make me subconsciously disingenuous with the subjects I choose. Right now I don’t think so, but hopefully I don’t regret it.

ayyeee, also a year 11 filipino. the jokes part was really true, especially before the last few years of secondary with the questions of “are you chinese? or are you japanese? what are you then?” or the “pig face” some kids used to do. really wish i was more in touch with the culture though, since we only visit the philippines every few years and even then, i speak to relatives in english because they always point out my accent and lack of fluency when speaking tagalog and it feels juuust a bit embarrassing lmao.
(ended up kinda picking subjects that could be counted as stereotypes tho - an art kid who ended up picking a route that’s kinda linked to nursing 💀)

I’m studying childhood studies w study abroad!! and really? I would’ve thought Bristol would be quite diverse as it’s a Russell group plus there are a lot of Chinese owned stores in Bristol I think it’s pretty diverse from what I experienced