As I was sitting on the loop bus a Chinese girl who sat beside me was smiling at me and asking me a question “are you from China?” and I simply smiled and answered “no, sorry,, I’m from Indonesia” . Finally the bus stop and her curiosity ended by saying “bye” to me. As the meaningless short conversation ended I started to think, what did make her think that I’m Chinese? Which part of me that attempted her to ask that kind of question to me?
In other occasion, I was excited to have new housemate who comes from Taiwan. I was taking her to a city tour for some window shopping. As she was interested in one shirt, she turned to me and spoke in Taiwanese with me. Is it my eyes or what?
One of my classmates even shocked when I said I’m a 100% Indonesian. Radically she thought that I come from India and she was wondering why I don’t look like the other Indian,,(gosh). Maybe you can tell me why? She also insists to guess that I have Chinese blood in me. My other classmate though that I’m from Malaysia while the other thought I’m Thai. Am I undistinguishable or what? Or maybe I do have that multiracial look? Or maybe, all Asian look the same and that might be the reason they cannot distinguish me?
here most people would prefer pasta rather than rice, country where shopping centre closes at 4 pm, country where Barbie looking girls and rock star looking boys are crossing the street, country which has (more or less) 7000 times higher living cost, country where making interaction is not as easy as I used to. I found myself as a different person here. I don’t hang out, I do groceries shopping, I’m more self-organized, I ask questions in class, and I go to the library almost every day.