No.

Possibly unpopular opinion incoming. If you can't handle a simple opinion or are here to act like a self-righteous zealot, please leave now. Think before you comment, please.

I think it's fine time to share another little story.

• • •

So, there's this student I had in a couple of my classes/shared the same studio as me this last semester. I had a thousand bones to pick with this kid, but one of the most infuriating things he did one night when I was working on some Chinese homework in the studio was interrupt me while working and acting like a little know-it-all about Chinese culture.

No, he wasn't Chinese. He was sitting there claiming he knew this and that about Chinese culture (when in reality, everyone knew the only 'Chinese' thing he was possibly into was probably a handful of mediocre kung-fu, military, and horror movies/cartoons/videogames) and was trying to teach me to speak Cantonese and teach me what Cantonese cuisine was.

...And I'm the Chinese person. Don't even. My family immigrated from there. I'm a first-generation Chinese American, still very in touch with my roots, history, and culture from my ancestral homeland. I can understand and speak (fairly well, if you exclude specialized jargon terms for specific topics and disregard my heavy accent) Cantonese fluently, and am picking up Mandarin. I can read some characters (in both simplified and traditional forms) and write some of it as well. Attempting to 'teach' me how to speak my own bloody language (with bad pronunciation, mind you) with the five or so phrases learned from movies or manhua TV adaptations and telling me what my people's culture is and isn't based on a wee bit of exported pop culture is a downright insult.

I wanted to call him a string of very ugly phrases in Canto right there and then, but it was going to be a waste of breath. Pfft. Even with the semester over, the very mention of that kid's existence makes me want to vomit.

• • •

I have no problems if people are into a country's pop culture and enjoy things from it. I don't mind if people are genuinely interested in learning about a certain country's history and culture. It's chill if someone wants to become an expert on another country and study it in depth/move and live there for an extended period of time. It's all cool. What gets on my nerves very quickly is when people have the gall to act like a certified expert on everything about a country when the only things they know are stereotypes and colloquial slang phrases they picked up out of a handful of movies, videogames, and cartoons. This goes for all countries.