Asia

The other category is made up of a lot of minor stereotypes.

The two main stereotypes associated with Asia are that everyone is Chinese and that they are all extremely smart and excel at academics.

When people think of Asia or China in specific one of the first things they think of are the facial features of the people and more importantly their eyes. Their eyes can be describes as either “slanted” or the more popular term “squinted”. Science proves that the reason why Asians have more of a slanted eye is because of an epicanthic fold. The fold covers the inner corner of the eye which causes them to look more squinted than normal.  Non-Asian people view this feature as a mutation that only occurs among Asians or Mongols in specific.  However, while epicanthic folds are more commonly seen on Asian people, anyone can have them.

The second main stereotype associated with Asia is that people assume that all Asians are extremely smart. Americans over the years have formed the ideas that the only grade Asians receive are “A’s” and hardly ever receive anything below that .This statement can affect the academic lives of Asian students by placing unrealistic expectations on them which can cause unnecessary pressure on Asian students. The stereotype was formed because in the country of China, academic institutions have extremely rigid standards. Students spend most of their time studying with very little social distractions. Those traditions have been carried over to America and are still practiced by Asian Americans today which, validates the stereotype to begin with.


~Elizabeth