The Rise of Asian Fishing

This was written by Tishitha, one of our student interns. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.

The past few years have seen a rise in East Asian culture in the western eye. K-Pop, anime inspired aesthetics, bubble tea; East Asia has become a huge part of trends. With this rise in East Asian influence also came a new trend of makeup with the aim to make one look ethnically ambiguous and almost East Asian. Asian fishing is a term used to describe people who try to pass as East Asian, mainly through photo editing and makeup. The term Asian fishing is surrounded by a bit of controversy, being that it sounds like a copycat of the word “blackfishing”, and because it refers to all Asians when Asian fishing only utilizes East Asian aesthetics. However, there is no other word that is used to describe this phenomenon, so the term Asian fishing continues to stay in the public eye. 

Asian fishing is often done through makeup, but it goes beyond that. White individuals who want to Asian fish often do their makeup in specific ways to elongate their eyes and seem like they have East Asian features. They also tend to copy Korean or Japanese inspired looks, which is not a bad thing on its own but becomes very problematic when done with the purpose of changing one’s eye shape. The more unknown aspect of Asian fishing comes in with a person’s general aesthetic. Elongating your eyes or taping them back to look more East Asian is often accompanied by a use of East Asian aesthetics. However, this isn’t an appreciative use, nor is it a use of actual East Asian aesthetics. Many people who Asian fish prefer to use stereotypical East Asian mannerisms, meaning they infantilize themselves while also being highly sexual. These people seem to enjoy Asian cultures, but Asian women have struggled for decades trying to escape these stereotypes. 

This leads into the reason why Asian fishing is such a big issue. Essentially, it’s white people using features that East Asian people have been bullied and ridiculed for and getting praised for it. East Asian women have been attempting for decades to get rid of the stereotype that they are submissive and docile, only for white women to act out those same stereotypes in a sexualized manner. Furthermore, there is a big issue around wearing schoolgirl uniforms while in this type of makeup. Sexualized versions of Japanese school girl uniforms tend to draw inspiration from the sailor fuku a uniform that originated in the 20th century. Versions of it are sold cropped with very short skirts. Wearing an imitation of a schoolgirl uniform is not inherently bad, but wearing a sexualized version of a school girl uniform, which was originally meant for children, while trying to imitate East Asian features and acting like a child is blatantly racist. 

Asian fishing on social media rose to popularity with the fox eye trend in 2020. The fox eye trend places an emphasis on lengthening the eye and elongating up and out towards the temples to make one’s eyes look thinner and more slanted upwards. The makeup look resembles the natural eyes seen in East and sometimes Southeast Asia. The fox eye trend was just another example of Eurocentric mainstream culture cherry picking ethnic features and pushing them as desirable, but only on white people. This trend got even more problematic as many would pull their eyes upward in pictures to gain more of a fox eye look. 

The fox eye trend has more or less died out in recent months, but Asian fishing remains a huge problem online. Usually on Instagram, people will make their entire online presence center around Japanese or Korean aesthetics and blur their faces to the point where you cannot tell whether or not they are Asian. Participating in trends from other countries is never a bad thing to do, but taking those trends and warping your own features to fit them is. And, many people have become extremely defensive when they are called out on this, saying they are only appreciating Asian culture. Becoming defensive so quickly is never a good response. And the best way to appreciate Asian culture is by listening to Asian people, not copying them.