Originally Posted by
Paco97
The point that I'm trying to make is that whether a person is from Central Asia or Southeast Asia is pointless. THey are all asians.
Now to your point, yes they are the first Oriental Asian or Mongoloid Asians to finish Le Tour not the first Asians to complete the race. By saying they are not asian is incorrect and elitist. Mexicans, Canadiens and Americans are all North Americans. By your standards, Mexicans shouldn't be classified as North Americans because they aren't white. This is a falacy to believe this way as your way of thinking is a falacy. First Oriental Asians, YES. First Asians, NO. Be proud of your heritage and hopefully these Oriental Asians will inspire others to take up cycling.
Like I said, you're right scientifically - I agree with you on that. But face it - there are some anthropological truths that slip under the radar. People are different, even within the same continent. And that difference is manifested in cultural, religious, linguistic, social, color - and in this case, physical characteristics. Its not a pretty truth, but it IS the truth. Even within China, the Central Asian minorities are seen as a different ethnic group, and hardly Asian. Asiatic, yes. But Asian to most still mean the Orient stock, as you rightly pointed out. For that reason, despite all our historic antagonisms, a Chinese would feel more affinity to a Japanese when it comes to something collectively 'Asian'. It might be bigotry, it might be prejudice - but us Asians do feel that way. In any case, riders such as Vonokourov or the Tashkent Terror are more Caucasian physically - so their performances in the Tour hardly has any ramifications on Asia ex-Central Asia. But seeing a yellow-skinned (the term posters here seem to prefer, despite my misgivings) rider complete the Tour and even put up a fight in the Champs Elysse - now that's a different thing altogether. Its an affinity of sorts. To use your example, an white American kid will probably identify more with a European rider than a Mexican, even though North America is home to the US, Canada, and Mexico.
By this argument too, it can be said that the Japanese and Koreans hail from the same stock as the Chinese. Thus, the affinity.