#casia

this is a great question! the answer is no, starember and mxtx are not fetishizing arab culture. they are directly fetishizing central asian cultures. this is a very important point that i need to stress to everyone engaging with tgcf, cnovels, and related Han media.

to introduce myself again, i am a MENA-casian. if you're unfamiliar with those terms, i'll break them down for you. it means that half of my family is from the middle east/north africa (MENA) while the other half is from central/inner asia (casia). all of this is to say that i am very familiar with middle eastern and arab cultures, and i am even more familiar with the distinction between arab cultures and casian cultures. because of this, i feel confident saying that in no way was the depiction of central asians in any of mxtx's novels influenced by modern arab culture. the misinformation being spread saying it is directly harms the central asian groups working to gain recognition and equality in our own countries. we exist, we are here, and we deserve for our struggles to be recognized as our own.

so, why do people think that racism against casians is actually against arab people? it's because very few people know what casians look like. i don't know a singular person that isn't casian themselves that could describe traditional casian features and clothing. despite me having extremely and loudly central asian facial features, people have seen me and confused me for an indigenous american, a turk, an arab, an east asian, a pacific islander, a south american, an italian; you name it, i've been called it. so, i can understand why people see the poorly construed representations of casians and immediately think of another, much more visible culture. there is also quite a bit of casian traditional clothing that lets me understand the confusion a bit! to one unfamiliar with casian or arab cultures, these might cause someone to mix them up

these were all obtained from a quick google search of the names of some traditional casian (mostly kyrgyz) headdresses, so if you're interested in seeing more, they're very easy to find. i'll add an image description once i get back from work, but if someone wants to do it in the meantime, that would be greatly appreciated!

looking at these images, you can see many casian cultures use elaborate fabric wraps around our heads, similar to some arab cultures. like most arab cultures, casia has also been incredibly influenced by islam, with the countries now being a majority islamic rather than our historical majority of native totemistic religions. however, the similarity ends there. the islam practiced in arab cultures and the islam practiced here are two entirely different religions that do each other a disservice to compare them as similar. we are not arab, and the arab people are not central asian. the last time our cultures directly influenced each other is most likely around 4th century AD. so, really not a lot of overlap there, given the fact that it's been thousands of years since then

So I made those two boys into a base and I’ve just been putting some older characters and random designs onto it to try and at least get something drawn

Those with gold stars are actual characters of mine, the purple star is my friend’s character :)