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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   29086 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 5, 2025

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wouldn't call antisemitism universal

Are there peoples or cultures where it's absent? I don't mean uncontantacted people's in remote areas.

East Asia seems not to have adopted that particular prejudice, for one.

In particular, China didn't adopt this particular vice despite being home to small but significant populations of Jews throughout history, with enclaves in many Chinese cities (with the Kaifeng Jews being the most famous of the bunch), while also hosting significant numbers of Christians and Muslims. There has been some suggestion in the official records that the earliest of them arrived mid-Han dynasty approx. two thousand years ago, and there are independent observations by e.g. Persian travellers noting established Jewish merchants operating in China by the Tang dynasty.

Interestingly I have noticed an uptick in a bizarre sort of antisemitism in some of the wackier corners of Chinese popular culture very recently -- some sort of combination of classic Da Jooz tropes imported from the West, combined with the perception that the West is trying to contain China, resulting in various syncretic conspiracy theories about how (((they))) are puppeteering Western institutions to control China (or have in some nonsensical way done so in the past). But on the whole the Chinese remain philosemitic.

Malaysia has.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad

I have seen a theory that some of it was intended to create a (nonexistent) Jewish scapegoat for Malay ethnic mobs to distract them from (very real) Chinese and Indians they were currently targeting.

Similarly, "Black americans stop beating up Asians. Your real enemy is the Uzbeks."

Does Malaysia count as East Asia rather than Southeast Asia?

If antisemitism is a response it could be there's been insufficient exposure.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2023.2287877

their number in East Asia never exceeding 36,000 (currently around 10,000), Jews there are the subject of both distinctly strong positive and negative views

in a worldwide survey across 101 countries conducted recently by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The survey, which is discussed in detail below, revealed that, among respondents in China, Japan and South Korea, no less than 20, 23 and 53 per cent, respectively, could be regarded as holding antisemitic views

Pharaoh seems not concerned with the Israelites until they've become too numerous in Exodus 1:9.

Yep, I recall reading somewhere that Asians tend to respect Jews for their disproportionate influence, the thought process going something like:

You're telling me that this tiny minority dominates your finance, media, and government? Sounds like they're doing something right, what's their secret?

They have a more diverse array of “market dominant minorities” so they’re more familiar with the concept in general and yet less familiar with the particular expression of the phenomena re: the Jews. Which explains their thoughts on the subject.

They have market dominant minorities in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia & more…

Yeah but the ones harboring the market dominant minorities tend to be anti-Chinese and, atleast in the case of Malaysia, also quite Anti-Jews

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