Comments on: New Zealanders like Asians! http://www.8asians.com/2009/01/27/nz-asians/ Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:14:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kia Ora http://www.8asians.com/2009/01/27/nz-asians/comment-page-1/#comment-111154 Kia Ora Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:42:40 +0000 http://www.8asians.com/?p=2566#comment-111154 Funny thing -- I went there for a vacation with my family in January 2005. 4 Chinese Americans from San Francisco traipsing around the big cities of NZ. The NZers seemed to open up to us a little more than they did to the white American tourists. I guess because most of the Asian tourists they see are actually from Asia and speak little to no English, so it was like we were special. I didn't ever perceive this as condescending, though. Almost like, "Someone who's NOT a typical American tourist! Yay!" What I noticed most were the differences in what the Maori folks would say to us. They were far more candid (away from the white American tourists) about the injustices in their history and the current state of Maori/white race relations in NZ. Funny thing — I went there for a vacation with my family in January 2005. 4 Chinese Americans from San Francisco traipsing around the big cities of NZ.

The NZers seemed to open up to us a little more than they did to the white American tourists. I guess because most of the Asian tourists they see are actually from Asia and speak little to no English, so it was like we were special. I didn’t ever perceive this as condescending, though. Almost like, “Someone who’s NOT a typical American tourist! Yay!”

What I noticed most were the differences in what the Maori folks would say to us. They were far more candid (away from the white American tourists) about the injustices in their history and the current state of Maori/white race relations in NZ.

]]>