I think Asian culture and attitudes toward sex are very similar to Latin American mores. The family unit is powerful, rather traditional in nature, and has a very strong influence over the younger members of that unit. Ancestors are worshiped (tomb cleaning ceremonies are prevelent in both cultures, except in Latin America people booze around the tombs). I also believe both cultures have similar attitudes toward sex. In Latin America, you may fornicate like a tomcat before marriage, but moving in is taken as a huge responsibility. It is the same in Asia - that is why so many people still live with their parents. In Protestant cultures, common law or independent living is no big deal. Granted, sexuality is more in your face in Latin America (just take their dances for example- they are full of sexuality) Of course there is the Catholic double standard in Latin Ameria. Sin six days a week and ask for forgiveness on Sunday. In Asia, sexual attitudes are conservative as a society, but very liberal on a personal basis. In my opinion, the place drips in sexuality. Its just more guarded than in the West. I think the whole world (Europe, Latin America Asia etc) have always mixed business with pleasure. It is a WASPish phenomina to draw distinctions between work and play…Just my simple two cents worth.
thats funny you say that cause I read a study in the US that asian americans have the lowest birth rate and hispanics have the highest…it seems like any hispanic girl over 16 gets immediately knocked up at least in the western united states. Seriously every latina girl I see in public seems to be clutching a new born infant…how the hell did LA go from being like 5% hispanic in the 60’s to majority hispanic now… they may both be (chinese and latin american culture)officially “conservative” but the mexican chicks sure as hell put out more (or at least in a foolish unprotected way)…most “families” in project housing are single mother households, and most of these “families” are hispanic (at least in southern california)… so much for the family unit.
Z-man, I would agree with the problem of teenage pregnancy that is rampant among hispanics in SoCal. But I think the reason it’s so noticeable is because hispanics do make up the majority. It’s almost like going to a an eastern state or something and saying that it seems most teenage moms are caucasion (sp?).
I see it all the time too, and it sickens me to think that others from the same ethnic background as I cannot use but a single brain cell to comprehend that sex = babies a hell of a lot of times. Of course there are probably multiple factors which go into this, but it all boils down to having common sense, regardless of outside influences.
And the population explosion I think is due more to the huge amounts of immigrants that have flooded in SoCal from Mexico (illegal or not), and even hispanics from the other U.S. states. The resulting births (in most cases, multiple) from a lot of hispanic couples, immigrant or not, has resulted in a boom in the hispanic population. You have to remember that the area used to be owned by Mexico as well, so the base ethnic population was already in place when the U.S. acquired what is now known as California.
“owned by” mexico…yeah but mexico and pretty much all latin american countries, pretty much today even, are ran by a european elite. If you’ve ever watched mexican television all the people look white! all the rich people I have met from latin america (brazil, mexico, costa rica, etc overprivileged foreign students) pretty much all look european. The ones I see in LA are most likely native american/mestizo and the such breeding rapidly in LA. You know a lot of euro countries criticize the US based on the idea that we arent socialist enough (no universal free health care, etc) but if we had to support all the illegal/legal (through a loophole most likely) immigrants this country would come crashing down. I had to take classes after a court case, like honestly 60% of the people there couldnt speak english. There is no excuse, spanish and english are ridiculously similar, its like someone in northern china complaining that mandarin is too hard in comparison to their dialect. I could guess what a spanish newspaper is talking about before I even studied spanish…you pretty much just add a vowel to the end of any big word
So Chewy started off by comparing the sexual morality of Taiwanese and Latinos. Then there was a comparison between Asian Americans and Latinos.
Asian Americans are not always migrants from Taiwan, and some are not migrants at all (born there). IMO most Asian Americans are very different from Taiwanese, especially when looking at the teens-30 yrs bracket.
I was also recently just thinking about the passive-aggressive way sexuality is dealt with here, and I definitely feel there’s a paradox going on, but I can’t quite spell it out right now. Agree that this place is dripping with sexuality, but I personally have not come across any Taiwanese - male and female - that I thought were very sexy. :s
As for pregnancies, Taiwan is in the top five of countries with the highest abortions, legal and illegal, performed each year (as ratio of population). I’ll bet if all these xiaojies weren’t getting abortions, Taiwan’s teenage birth rate would rival that of the Latinos in So-Cal.
Off topic - That’s not exactly true. California and Texas seceded from Mexico because the base population at the time was being overwhelmed by white American immigrants. The Southwest belonged to Mexico but hardly any Mexicans ever actually lived there, beyond a handful of small settlements. The first people to move there en masse and build big cities in that region were American settlers. So now there’s the historical irony at work of a region that seceded from Mexico because it was overwhelmed by Americans may someday want to secede from America because it’s being overwhelmed by Mexicans.
(And anyway, if you want to give the stolen land back to its original owners, there are a few Native Americans with some issues with both the U.S.A. and Mexico.)
I am by no means an expert on Latin culture but isn’t it safe to say that the vast majority of Latino’s are Catholic and from what I hear most Catholics don’t beleive in birth control or abortion. Therefore, we could say the reason for so many pregnancies may be due to religious and cultural influences.
That’s a fair assumption. And yea I’d it does contribute to it. Latin families in the U.S., traditionally, tend to be large. Married couples are very likely to have multiple kids on the count of 3 or more. For example, my maternal grandparents had 5 kids, including my mother. And my mother and father have me and my sister, but were planning on having at least one more kid. My mom passing away put an end to that, obviously.
But anyway, it is definitely a combination of factors. Being Catholic (the abortion/BC thing is right) and having a positive outlook on having multiple children and large families may be among the top causes.
Either way, it gets a little crazy around Christmas time when all of the family gathers and all those [i]peque
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2nd, terminates the Mexican War, by the terms of which California is ceded to the United States; its affairs are committed to the charge of Colonel Richard B. Mason. He became the military governor succeeding Kearney. By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Texas, the western part of Colorado and New Mexico, all of the present states of Arizona, Nevada, Utah and California, an extensive and valuable portion of the Great West, were ceded to the United States.[/b][/i]
I don’t see anything about California being overwhelmed by “American Immigrants” or “seceding” from Mexico. If you were referring to an influx of Americans due to the Gold Rush, you can see this Treaty was done the year before the infamous year of 1849. California had yet to experience this “overwhelming white American Immigration”. A war was fought in California, and the Mexicans lost and handed the lands of California, as well as other lands, over to the U.S. as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe. Please don’t be so ignorant of California history.
American citizens were for a long time an active presence in California, beginning with men engaged in the sea otter trade in the early 19th century. As that activity declined, other Americans developed ranching operations in the Sacramento River valley, in response to the immense Eastern demand for tallow and hides.
On June 14, 1846, Americans tired of Mexican rule seized the administrative capital at Sonoma before word arrived about the outbreak of hostilities between Mexico and the United States. The short-lived Bear Flag Republic was born. A hastily stitched flag, whose star and a grizzly bear’s likeness some thought looked more porcine than ursine, was raised on the public square in Sonoma.
When I studied in a language school in Costa Rica a few years back, we were told that another factor is an astonishingly high rate of abuse by family members, usually uncles, against younger teen females. Yes, the same uncles who are (sometimes!) there in church on Sunday. I don’t remember the precise figure they gave, but it was frighteningly high, and the rate of pregnancy resulting from this kind of thing was also scary.
Another Latino thing seems to be similar to many Taiwanese – a lack of knowledge and/or action on knowledge about STDs. Is it some kind of paradox from trying to keep kids “kids” longer on the one hand (while all sorts of other things are happening on the other)?
Mod lang in all of that, where is your evidence for an “overwhelming amount of Americans” and a “secession” from Mexico? I’m well aware of the bear flag revolt.
I hate to break to you buddy but just because some disgruntled Americans decided to storm the Sonoman capital and managed to replace the Mexican standard with the “bear flag” temporarily doesn’t mean it automatically seceded from Mexico to the U.S. The territory still belonged to Mexico.
What you thought the two countries just fought a war for a couple of years just for the hell of it?
It was a cession of the disputed territory, not a secession.
EDIT: This is wayyyyy off topic, so I apologize to any other readers.
Ok I kinda missed making my point in that rant, it ended up sounding kinda off. the point was there is and was a rich euro elite that carved up and still has a lot of influence in latin america, and so this was really a conflict between a bunch of exploitative europeans. It wasnt really the native americans getting the land stolen by the gringos (it had already been stolen by the conquistadores), rather just being re-stolen from the other exploitative europeans down south. The second part was that many of the immigrants from there are the disenfranchised groups, where as immigrants from taiwan/hong kong tend to be from rich educated sectors of society. I dont have a problem with immigration to the US I’m not pat buchanan but I think there should be some standards, like english proficiency and perhaps some practical skills
[quote=“Chewycorns”]I think Asian culture and attitudes toward sex are very similar to Latin American mores. The family unit is powerful, rather traditional in nature, and has a very strong influence over the younger members of that unit. Ancestors are worshiped (tomb cleaning ceremonies are prevelent in both cultures, except in Latin America people booze around the tombs).
Lewd Chewy[/quote]
If we are talking about Asian cultures (Asia is big) I can assure you that in the Philippines they have big party and boozing on and around the tombs. I refused to have a party on my father in law’s tomb so we moved to a nearby park. I felt very bad about that tradition.
If we are talking Taiwanese sexuality I completely agree with “aprimo”. Havn’t seen a singel sexy woman in Taiwan during my two and a half year here. This is just my opinion and I have the right to have it. Somebody might like them but I don’t see anything in the Taiwanese women.
Well, duh-uh, of course culture in the Philippines is going to be more similar to that in Latin American than to geographically closer cultures in Asia. There’s a 5 century reason for that.
[quote]The larger region of Tejas (Texas) was the scene of mounting tensions during the late 1820s and early 1830s as increasing numbers of United States citizens flooded across the border into the prime cotton lands west of the Sabine River. Mexico, independent from Spain since 1821, resisted the growing foreign presence, but a full-scale rebellion erupted in the fall of 1835 at the town of Gonzales.
In December, Benjamin Milam led a combined force of Tejanos, Spanish-speaking native residents of Tejas, and Texans, English-speaking residents, against a Mexican military unit in San Antonio. The fighting was extremely bitter; each block and building was contested. In the end, the Mexican commander, General Mar
The Texans, led by Sam Huoston, defeated the Mexicans at the battle of San Jacinto shortly after the battle of the Alamo. The US did not assist the Texans in that rebellion.
It was only after Texas became and independent republic that it decided to join the US.
The Texans, led by Sam Huoston, defeated the Mexicans at the battle of San Jacinto shortly after the battle of the Alamo. The US did not assist the Texans in that rebellion.
It was only after Texas became and independent republic that it decided to join the US.[/quote]Uh, Tigerman, you’ve forgotten to add that if it weren’t for the help of us Tennesseeans, Texans would be speaking Spanish instead of English today. Oh, shit. Most of them do speak Spanish today. I guess it was a wasted effort.
Yes, but Mexico never formally recognized the independence of Texas and regarded it as…“renegade province” Sam Houston and the revolutionaries wanted Texas to immediately become a state in the U.S., but Texas’ application was initially rejected because at the time the U.S. government did not want to initiate war with Mexico. 9 years later, the U.S. government decided to give in to the Texans’ wishes and welcomed it as the latest addition to the Union - knowing that to do so would provoke war with Mexico.
(Well, that’s not the whole story - there were some complicated slave/free state issues going on at the same time that prevented Texas from immediately joining the Union after independence, but that’s a whole nother can’o’worms too lengthy to delve into here.)
Sam Houston and the revolutionaries wanted Texas to immediately become a state in the U.S., but Texas’ application was initially rejected because at the time the U.S. government did not want to initiate war with Mexico. 9 years later, the U.S. government decided to give in to the Texans’ wishes and welcomed it as the latest addition to the Union - knowing that to do so would provoke war with Mexico.