Do Asians have an inferiority complex?

Title

Creator

Nakpil, Carmen Gurrero

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XV (No.9) September 1963

Year

1963

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Painfully self-conscious, the Asians — especially Filipino seem unready to treat Westeners as equals

Fulltext

■ Painfully self-conscious, the Asians — especially Fil ipino—seem unready to treat Westeners as equals. DO ASIANS HAVE AN INFERIORITY COMLEX? Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil Few statements about AsiaWest relations can ever be wholly true or wholly false. Most of them must remain uneasy generalizations. Asians have neither race, colour, re ligion, ideology, language nor history in common; and the political grab-bag we know as the West is almost as di verse. But two things do hold Asians together: the common experience of Western domi nance atid the fierce desire to be completely free of it. The diplomat from Bangkok, the Tokyo industrialist, the coolie in Hong Kong, the Manila lawyer, the teacher in Singapore, the Indonesian colonel and the Indian writ er are bound — if by nothing else -?• by their awareness of the West. It may be out right hostility, well-reasoned dislike or, at the other ex treme, a sedulous and abject fondness. But it is always an obsession. White Man’s Bonus Asians tend to exaggerate both their importance in the Western scheme and the place of the West in their own plans. This makes us painfully self-conscious' and quite unready to treat West erns as complete equals. Where does one find the sang-froid ' to treat an im mensely rich uncle — uncle whose unwilling ward one has been for many years — exactly as one of the boys? One must either hurl a brick or kiss his hands. Even that most recent achievement of Asian diplo macy, the Confederation of Malaysia, hailed everywhere as the final cutting-away of the Western apron-strings. September 1963 11 was not brought off without many a side-glance at Lon don and Washington. One of the satisfactions derived from one’s coming-of-age, it appears, is that of watching for any signs of discomfiture on the faces of one’s erst while mentors. Paradoxically enough, in Manila and other big Fili pino cities, it is the social elite who show more signs of cultural insecurity vis-a-vis Westerners, By their be haviour they proclaim that they consider Americans and Europeans better managers for their business establish ments, better guests at dinner and better husbands for their daughter^ than Asians. White executives and em ployees command at least twice the salary given to a Filipino of equal ability and experience. The official rea son is that the foreigner has a higher standard of living; but it does not fool any body. A higher salary is sim ply the White Man’s Bonus — a neat compensation for Kipling. Manila landlords, offering houses or apartments to let in newspaper advertisements. tack on the following annoucement as a certification of quality: “For Americans and Europeans only.” Visit ing foreigners are lionized and feted within an inch of their lives: a white guest-ofhonour is a status symbol, something like a TV aerial or the tail fins on a new Am erican automobile. Our middle classes and the people from the rural areas, less accustomed to foreigners, display a mixture of curio sity, awe and circumspect hostility. A sandalled, dark* glassed, barebacked Ameri can tourist strolling down a village street is a curiosity to be stared and gaped at and, from a safe distance, perhaps hooted at. After all, a white person is as outlandish and as rare in distant Filipino barrios as a polar bear. Many Filipino women, like other Asians, are uncomfort able in the presence of white foreigners. I know several who will not go to a party if they are told beforehand that Americans are on the guest list; or finding them there unexpectedly, will try to avoid speaking with them. I do not think it is hostility or 12. Panorama racial prejudice so much as a feeling of unbridgeable distance. An American or a European is an utter, un knowable alien. But so would an African be. The fact is there hasn’t been much of an opportunity to feel at home with foreigners. Even at the apogee of the Spanish regime or that of the American occupation, white foreigners never made up more than one . percent of the entire population. Light-Coloured, Eyes As in other parts of Asia, notably India, a fair skin, a sharp nose and light-colour ed eyes are prized as attri butes of beauty in the Phil ippines. The best proof is that a great majority of our film stars are Caucasians or Eurasian^ who have chosen Filipino screen names; and Kair-and skin-bleaches are a popular article of trade. And why not? For centuries the ruling classes were white or half-white. And politics has shaped aesthetics. The intellectual and cul tural pupillage is even more marked. The most frequent and effective argument in any dispute begins with, “In America ...” or “ Dr. A of USA says ...” The cheapest, most tawdry item from an American department store is more precious than the finest Filipino handicraft. Of course, for every provo cation there are dozens of speeches and letters-to-thecditor denouncing “colonial mentality” and “inferiority complex.” This ambiva lence is particularly amusing in the'question of inter-marrage. Sinibaldo de Mas (a kind of latter-day Machiavelli to the Spanish*crown) recom mended in 1842 that marri ages between Spaniards and the natives of the Philippines be forbidden as a means of keeping the colony loyal and docile. When, despite offi cial discouragement, these t alliances occurred, they were socially disastrous for both parties. Perhaps for that reason, many fine Filipino families still frown on marriage with whites; but many more, no less, consider such an alliance a welcome arrangement. It is quite common in Manila to hear of a father who is not on speaking terms with a daughter who has married an American. In a study of September 1963 13 Philippine social motives con ducted on Manila factory workers, J. Bulatao cites a typical value judgment: “Marriage to a simple Fili pino (although a ‘financial blunder’) is preferred to a for eign marriage .... for the sake of cherishing things that are Filipino.” Miscegeneration is unpatriotic! Yet peo ple in coffee-shops will say of a rich, beautiful and talented Filipina: “Who can be wor thy of her? She should marry an American!” The contradictions ’ can probably be resolved by re membering that some Fili pinos have not got over the humdrum lessons of coloniz ation ("Never trust a white man!”) while others have been quick to learn the ad vantages of connections — another , historical lesson, when you think of it. Left-Handed Compliment.. The Indonesian attitudes are less complicated; or per haps they only seem so be cause I know them less well. But one might say that, in general and despite a rather pugnacious nationalism, In donesians take their former colonizers, the Dutch, quite cahnly. I have heard them describe their period of tute lage as “a blessing in dis guise”; a left-handed compli ment, since what they mean is: “At least we did not have our culture destroyed by colo nizers like the Spaniards.” Unlike Manilans, Indonesians treat their Eurasians with lof ty contempt; and like In dians, they view Americans with humorous condescen sion. The Japanese seem to be the most successful example of selective admiration of the West. Having got over their anti-social phase of isolation and conquest, they now ap pear to know just what they want from the West and what to discard. Of course in re cent years, this discriminatory faculty has not been working as well as usual. The tooWesternized Tokyo teen-agers are every bit as absurd as the ‘cowboys* and 'gangsters’ in Manila. Still the Japanese seem to have developed a most level-headed, profitable and dignified way of dealing with Westeners. Certainly the most curious thing about the Asian atti tude in general is that most 14 Panorama every Asian will say more or less what I have been saying in these paragraphs without feeling that any of it applies to him personally. An Asian of any nationality will sit down with you and agree that fawning hospitality and craven diplomacy and dou ble pay scales and intellect ual subservience exist; but that he himself is an except ion. “Yes, I’m afraid we do re tain,” he will say in his best objective manner, “an in feriority complex.” Then, with lordly scorn, he will add, “Not that it goes for you or me." I think that there are ma ny more exceptions than we each- individually suspect; but the wicked tale of our inadequacies and insecurities goes on ballooning over our heads, like a puff of smoke on a windless day. — The Asia Magazine, Sept. 1, 1963. LIBERAL EDUCATION Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philo sophy, however, enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a can did, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life — these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a university; but still they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for consciuosness, they attach to the man of the world, to the profli gate, to the heartless — pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. — Alfred North Whitehead. 1963 15

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