A few months before I came here to Vienna, I sort of fell into a panic… when I read a discussion about how Austria is (possibly) the most racist country in Europe.\u00a0 Is this true?\u00a0 Of course it is debatable.\u00a0 Austria is the furthest east of the German speaking countries on this continent; it is more conservative compared to its neighboring West European countries.\u00a0 Apparently it is not too welcoming to outsiders, especially those who came across the boarders from its eastern neighbors.\u00a0 I even read that the Viennese would opening show their disgust at the presence of whoever it is that they don’t like, an obvious outsider, an Asian tourist, for example \u2013 and, may I note, as the IES center is located in the first district, I have spent considerable time in the most touristy area of Vienna and have seen plenty of Asian tourists.\u00a0 That seemed like a devastating news to me when I read it.\u00a0 Since I already confirmed my study abroad, whether this claim is true was for me to find out.\u00a0 I decided it is best to not step into the country with any presumption.\u00a0 If it is true, then I will just have my default reaction \u2013 ignore it.<\/p>\n
So I stopped thinking about it.\u00a0 I have lived in Vienna for almost three months now.\u00a0 I have had many people \u2013 sometimes even random people on the streets, in Belvedere Garden, at Stephansplatz \u2013 stopping and asking me, “woher kommen Sie? Where are you from?”\u00a0 Or simply, “japanisch?” Hahaha.\u00a0 In these instances I always ended up having a friendly conversation and never felt hostility (or sometimes I was just irritated).\u00a0 There’s definitely more curiosity, and people do not try to hide the fact that they clearly notice the different appearance, not at all.\u00a0 They won’t take “ich komme aus Amerika” for an answer either!\u00a0 But where are you originally from, where are you really <\/em>from?\u00a0 They would say.\u00a0 In such a relatively homogeneous society, and a society in which people normally do not move too far away from where they were born, it must be very difficult to understand how an Asian person could come from America.\u00a0 Eventually I became less sure and started changing my answers depending on my mood and depending on what I thought they wanted me to say.\u00a0 It is true that the society influences how you think about yourself and your identity!\u00a0 Sometimes I rather like it this way.\u00a0 Compared to what I experienced at home in the States, this is much more direct.\u00a0 I don’t call it racism or anything like that, it’s just being (strongly) aware of the differences in appearances.\u00a0 I am used to being in the minority, too \u2013 I lived in Missoula, Montana for crying out loud, and my sister and I were probably the only Asians at my high school… oh wait, maybe there were two others!\u00a0 Anyway, what I am tying to get to is, where I lived in the States, I could always feel it, and when people treated me differently, even though it could well be for other reasons, I had to wonder to myself: is it “racism”?\u00a0 However, it’s a terrible thing to point it out!\u00a0 You could wonder about my ethnic background, but you must not ask me directly about it!\u00a0 Sometimes the awkwardness becomes way too absurd.\u00a0 Whereas here, it is one of the first questions people ask.<\/p>\n We talked about this in my German class too.\u00a0 My German instructor cannot explain this phenomenon, because she simply is one of the Austrians who think this is the most natural question for people to ask!\u00a0 People are curious, we don’t mean it in an unfriendly way, she would reply.\u00a0 When she saw me, she immediately assumed that I have a completely different culture background than others students, that I must speak an Asian language, Korean or Japanese was what she guessed, and she would frequently single me out in discussions, asking, for example, Joan, you come from a different background, what do you say?<\/p>\n A fellow student, who is Asian, who came from Chicago, seems to have a different take on this matter.\u00a0 We, including some other friends, were all standing at the back of Musikverein gro\u00dfe Saal during a concert intermission.\u00a0 A tall, gray-bearded, stern looking was standing close to me.\u00a0 He glanced back at me several times, and finally turned around, shouted and spitted passionately, “I know there are more countries than just Japan and China in the Far East!! I know!!!”\u00a0 He subsequently repeated the statement a few times, uttered something else that we couldn’t make out, turned around, and then, as if remembering something else, turned to face us again and excitedly said something else that we couldn’t understand, although he was speaking English.\u00a0 I didn’t know what to think of it.\u00a0 His demeanor made it sound as though he meant it to be hostile, yet I didn’t catch anything truly offensive.\u00a0 The man moved away and was crazily shaking and swinging around for the second half of the concert.\u00a0 I shrugged.\u00a0 But my fellow Asian student, who has been here since September, apparently took it to be somewhat offensive, as he said to me, “don’t worry, you will get used to it!\u00a0 The first two months I was here I felt so uncomfortable.\u00a0 I could always find someone staring at me.\u00a0 When I go back to Chicago I will be so glad \u2013 there will be ten sorts of rice to pick from, gosh \u2013 but then I know I will still miss it!”\u00a0 Should I feel uncomfortable?\u00a0 Where I lived in the States, there aren’t that many sorts of rice to pick from…\u00a0 Have I already started ignoring everything since day one \u2013 is that why I don’t feel offensive at all?\u00a0 Sometimes I’d rather people admit what they are thinking and be more direct, but sometimes I get irritated for being ask so frequently the same question, for people always singling me out.\u00a0 I still don’t know what to make of this!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few months before I came here to Vienna, I sort of fell into a panic… when I read a discussion about how Austria is (possibly) the most racist country in Europe.\u00a0 Is this true?\u00a0 Of course it is debatable.\u00a0 … Continue reading