(Some time in the future when I've actually got my s**t together, we'll have to co-write a paper!)

I can't really comment on the details because I haven't had the chance to experience it first hand, like you have. But if I take it as reliable observations, and I have no good reasons to doubt them as otherwise, it's very unfortunate to see that sort of ideology at work there, even if it's not consciously applied.

I know that when I call it an "ideology" some connotations spring to mind, usually bad ones implying people's thinking being "clouded by irrational thoughts" or something similar along those lines. I don't mean something so simple as that, but more like a set of attitudes or dispositions as person holds due to various social factors. Maybe those people don't really know what they're doing, or they don't fully grasp the implications of their actions. (When I wrote about Jurgenson's article in one of my posts, I think this is what he was getting at: How some forms of thought are seen as being "right" and thus privileged above others.) This isn't excusing them or their actions, mind you, but merely a first attempt to see what else might be going on there. I mean, it probably is startling to some people to find out that some of their cultural expectations aren't fulfilled or are plainly false (something like that seemed to be at work in that example you mentioned, the guy comparing himself to the Chinese boyband). Maybe exposing some people to more stuff like that might be helpful to dispel harmful ideas about cultures other than one's own. And this exposure might take the form of actually having one's own ideas challenged by first-hand experience, or it might come from reading a well-thought out op-ed. If you can make people go, "Oh, I never thought of that before", and to get them to rethink their thoughts or actions, then you've gone some ways towards connecting with those people who aren't fully aware of what they do.

That's only a first step, I think, in questioning various cultural assumptions, especially the ones that tend towards some sort of cultural hegemony. But you have to start thinking somewhere, and that somewhere has to informed, reasonable, and honest.

Maybe it's just the environment in which I've been raised, but I find it incomprehensible when people act like this, haha. Like, if someone around me acted like this I literally would not know how to react, because the very idea is so absurd to me.

I was wondering what the payoff was, mainly because throughout the read I'm going "why do white guys think a Chinese girl will want them?" And then there comes the part of the traditional view of the East and it suddenly made sense.

I'm finding myself somewhat immersed in the culture and mindsets of Asians, given that I'm friends with a lot of them and roommates with two of them. It's a thing that pops up in conversation frequently and we get on discussions about the differences in our cultures. There's some things I get told an Asian woman is "supposed" to do or be like that I just balk at. At the same time, they wonder why us white people view their cultures/people in certain ways, like how I have to explain that despite the symbols just saying "owl", it looks really cool to a white person.

Anyhow...I think what you've got here is interesting. And given the length of college newspapers, this'll most likely fit in the slot. :V