The English Page was thrilled to receive an email bag full of reactions to Yi Ya’s (the ‘Asian Girl’) last column, ‘How to Romance a Chinese Girl’ (Delta 12).
Reader responses ranged from thoughtful and outraged, to loving and downright dirty, like this email from Wey Tang, self-proclaimed ‘Asian Boy’: “It seems that your [Yi Ya’s] current life is a little devoid of a bit of good loving from the male species…perhaps I can fix that for you. I can give you some good loving, long and hard, and I don’t only mean in terms of time…”
W. Vanpee, was more gentlemanly: “There are a number of reasons why romance is a rare commodity at this little Venice of the North. For one, the complexity and refinement of the female character are beyond the scope of most (Dutch) men’s comprehension. If you really want to hit the jackpot…forget about Dutch men. Find someone with a similar urge for adventure…find a foreigner! So what do you say? Monday evening, eight o’clock, on top of the library? I’ll bring you a flower.”
PhD student Yan Wang’s email subject line read ‘some words from my heart’: “At first glance, I don’t appreciate the column’s title; reading in detail, I feel disgusted.” Wang seemed to think Yi Ya was speaking for all Chinese women: “I don’t think her points can stand for most Chinese students…. Of course, you may provide a space for her to speak freely (for this is a free country); however, please don’t emphasize the so-called ‘Asian girl’ as her label. I’m afraid readers, especially Dutch readers, will be misled by her voices.” Wang added: “I feel shame on the writer.”
Wey Tang – of the “good loving, long and hard” line above – was also “simply quite shocked and dismayed” that the column included a profanity – the ‘f-word’: “For all the years that I’ve been reading printed materials, I’ve never come across such disturbing behavior and feel very strongly about the editing which occur for Delta….Perhaps a little censorship might be wise for Delta… such words don’t belong in a university newsletter, which may compromise the moralities of the university’s student body. I hope the editorial board will consider my plea and not let the morals of such a reputable university as TU Delft slip into the oblivion of an abyss, which we might not be able to recover from.”
Lin Luo, a Chinese woman working at TU Delft, wrote: “What Yi Ya wrote is in a way true – imagine due to our cultural background Chinese women have been conservative for centuries, and now, with the rapid development of our economy, girls (actually also guys) get confused a bit in between the old traditions and the modern ways of living….More importantly, I think most Asian girls are already not like what she described…at least me and some of my close friends don’t follow the ‘dinner-flower-learning Chinese-going to bed’ procedure. However, I’m not a typical Chinese. My boyfriend always calls me a ‘broken Chinese’.”
Finally, Plamen Manoilov didn’t like Yi Ya’s criticism of the Netherlands’ fast way of living: “You don’t have the right to criticize the way of living of university students and Dutch people generally. Try first to understand them, and only after that – complain. I can understand why the Dutch guy, who comes from Amsterdam every day by train, works hard and after work hurries to catch his train home. I know a Dutch woman who eats very fast. She finishes eating long before me and waits until I finish my food. I once I asked her: ‘Why do you eat so fast?’ She said she used to work at a company where your salary depended on the work you’ve done. So, people ate fast in order to do more work…. I do understand and love these ‘doing everything fast’, hard-working Dutch people.” (DM)
Asian Girl Yi Ya’s next column will appear in Delta 16.
The English Page was thrilled to receive an email bag full of reactions to Yi Ya’s (the ‘Asian Girl’) last column, ‘How to Romance a Chinese Girl’ (Delta 12). Reader responses ranged from thoughtful and outraged, to loving and downright dirty, like this email from Wey Tang, self-proclaimed ‘Asian Boy’: “It seems that your [Yi Ya’s] current life is a little devoid of a bit of good loving from the male species…perhaps I can fix that for you. I can give you some good loving, long and hard, and I don’t only mean in terms of time…”
W. Vanpee, was more gentlemanly: “There are a number of reasons why romance is a rare commodity at this little Venice of the North. For one, the complexity and refinement of the female character are beyond the scope of most (Dutch) men’s comprehension. If you really want to hit the jackpot…forget about Dutch men. Find someone with a similar urge for adventure…find a foreigner! So what do you say? Monday evening, eight o’clock, on top of the library? I’ll bring you a flower.”
PhD student Yan Wang’s email subject line read ‘some words from my heart’: “At first glance, I don’t appreciate the column’s title; reading in detail, I feel disgusted.” Wang seemed to think Yi Ya was speaking for all Chinese women: “I don’t think her points can stand for most Chinese students…. Of course, you may provide a space for her to speak freely (for this is a free country); however, please don’t emphasize the so-called ‘Asian girl’ as her label. I’m afraid readers, especially Dutch readers, will be misled by her voices.” Wang added: “I feel shame on the writer.”
Wey Tang – of the “good loving, long and hard” line above – was also “simply quite shocked and dismayed” that the column included a profanity – the ‘f-word’: “For all the years that I’ve been reading printed materials, I’ve never come across such disturbing behavior and feel very strongly about the editing which occur for Delta….Perhaps a little censorship might be wise for Delta… such words don’t belong in a university newsletter, which may compromise the moralities of the university’s student body. I hope the editorial board will consider my plea and not let the morals of such a reputable university as TU Delft slip into the oblivion of an abyss, which we might not be able to recover from.”
Lin Luo, a Chinese woman working at TU Delft, wrote: “What Yi Ya wrote is in a way true – imagine due to our cultural background Chinese women have been conservative for centuries, and now, with the rapid development of our economy, girls (actually also guys) get confused a bit in between the old traditions and the modern ways of living….More importantly, I think most Asian girls are already not like what she described…at least me and some of my close friends don’t follow the ‘dinner-flower-learning Chinese-going to bed’ procedure. However, I’m not a typical Chinese. My boyfriend always calls me a ‘broken Chinese’.”
Finally, Plamen Manoilov didn’t like Yi Ya’s criticism of the Netherlands’ fast way of living: “You don’t have the right to criticize the way of living of university students and Dutch people generally. Try first to understand them, and only after that – complain. I can understand why the Dutch guy, who comes from Amsterdam every day by train, works hard and after work hurries to catch his train home. I know a Dutch woman who eats very fast. She finishes eating long before me and waits until I finish my food. I once I asked her: ‘Why do you eat so fast?’ She said she used to work at a company where your salary depended on the work you’ve done. So, people ate fast in order to do more work…. I do understand and love these ‘doing everything fast’, hard-working Dutch people.” (DM)
Asian Girl Yi Ya’s next column will appear in Delta 16.
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