Is Every White Guy in Asia a Loser Back Home 本国卢瑟 ?

Caucasian men have been traveling to Asia for years, not in search of a mystical martial art or love of any language; many are there to get over using their complexion.

Welcome To The Greatest Place on Earth and Why So-Called White Guys Are in Asia

In May something of 2013, the day after I touched down in Beijing, my host invited some of his homies over. They instantly became my new fake friends.I slightly knew my host through a referral, he was a large brother who obsequiously shined his pearly whites for his Caucasian friends, who were no more spectacular than myself.

I concealed my concern for host’s character, which was legit, and then got on my journalist shit, asking newjack questions.

“Which app did this?

How do I get around?

Can I exercise in this foul-ass Beijing air?”

All that shit got answered. Priorities were out of the way; my questions eventually led to the subject of women.

“Where should I go to get ‘the pussy?’”

This club or that club, they answered, perhaps at Sanlitun, a place where all the expats and foreigners congregated.

The pussy laced convo segued into who had gotten with which woman over the last week or so. The terminology used amongst them was ‘flags.’ If you got with a chick from Germany, then you could claim her flag. The guys in the room claimed multiple flags and discussed the ones they wanted.

As a newjack, I found their perspectives interesting, and I pondered the pussy flags that I would accumulate in Beijing — if any.

A new fake friend headed home in a few days, whose name escapes me, explained that going back to the States was going back to “the real world.”

I didn’t fully comprehend it, but he explained that the odds were in my favor when he spoke about the dating scene.

The long and short of his summary was this: Expat men typically dated Chinese women. Expat women, for the most part, did not date Asian men.I’ll delve into the reasons why in my upcoming book, but most expat women didn’t have anyone to date long-term, and they were often desperate.

So, regardless of how you looked, as a Western foreigner, if you had a functioning heterosexual penis, you could get laid regularly. I found this to be a truism during the next 4.5 years in Asia and realized that things were even better for my pale-skinned homies, but whatever.

My new fake friend, who was a few days from returning to the real world where he’d be in the shit, casually turned to me. While everyone else in the room was caught up playing some video game, he confidently said:

“Welcome to the greatest place on Earth.”

I realized something about my new fake friends. They didn’t have a lifelong obsession with The Forbidden City. They hadn’t seen the film The Last Emperor fifty times like I did. Most of them had no obsession with kung fu or martial arts movies growing up.

They were behind the Great Wall for another reason.

Loser Back Home 本国卢瑟

Over the next few months, I found my way in Beijing. Although I was a certified English teacher with experience, I had difficulty finding work.

After interviewing and reading the ads on The Beijinger, I realized that the Chinese preferred pale-skinned English teachers even if the person spoke English as a second or third language.

Just as long as they were ‘White.’

I kicked, pushed, and eventually found work. During a convo, a European coworker mentioned that he had a part-time job where he could show up and not do anything.

He got paid for his complexion connection. Another pale-skinned coworker who had previously worked for a wine company described a similar gig.Eventually, he left because he felt like he was being used. The company he was working for even told him not to learn Mandarin. Just show up to some dinners. Hold the wine bottle, smile, and, of course, be ‘White.’

White-face jobs were in full effect.

I started to understand that in Asia, so-called White men could do nothing, have nothing, be nothing, and then be celebrated. I kicked, pushed, and didn’t complain. I had a functioning dick and met women on WeChat and through countless nights at Salsa Caribe.

One day, by way of the message boards on The Beijinger, I came across a legendary, no excuse me, epic thread from a website called China Smack. I haven’t been able to find it since, but in 2013, know this, hundreds of Chinese girls ‘went in’ on the low-quality foreigners they had been dating.

The overall consensus: They realized that many of the so-called White guys in Asia weren’t rockstars.

They realized that many of these guys had never had a girlfriend in their home countries. A few of these girls called them ‘Losers.’ I truly believe that this thread gave way to the Chinese term ‘Loser Back Home’ 本国卢瑟.

A Loser Back Home is a so-called White guy who moves to Asia and gets over because of his complexion. He gets paid for being White. He gets pussy for being White. He gets preferential treatment for just being.

Despite being called out on China Smack, the so-called Losers Back Home continued to enjoy their pale-skinned rock star status until 2016, when a Vietnamese guy took to YouTube and called them out.

Let me tell you about Troy Nguyen, the Vietnamese guy who Ethered every so-called White man in Asia.

Troy Nguyen and Why Every White Guy in Asia is a Loser Back Home (Or Not)

Fast forward three years from Beijing. I was wiser. I had experience as being a homeboy in the buttermilk, and was living in Ho Chi Minh City. I made it through Beijing, Southern China, Taiwan, and even a year in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Don’t get it twisted, there was horrific racism, but usually, it came from people who considered themselves White, and when it presented itself, it was harsh and crippling.

So, in 2016, when a video popped up on one of the expat Facebook groups entitled Why Every White Guy in Asia is a Loser, I found it hilarious, brutal, necessary, and long overdue.

Troy appeared to be a native of Vietnam, but based on his accent, he studied abroad, perhaps in Australia. He still has a popular channel, has relocated to Cambodia, and removed the scathing video.

I can remember Troy emphatically stating that %99 percent of the Caucasians in Southeast Asia were not quality men. He pointed out that the vast majority came to Vietnam or Asia because they weren’t able to develop relationships with women in their own countries.

The video went viral, and there were tons of responses; a lot of White guys were ‘splaining’ and to hide their guilt, many labeled Troy a racist — imagine that.

Here was an Asian man, coherently speaking out against all of the old men who came to Asia and married pretty young things. Here was an Asian man, speaking on all of the Losers Back Home who ventured to Vietnam and stole potential girlfriends and wives.

As a so-called Black man who was not partial to Asians or Caucasians in this subject matter, I felt like Troy’s video, while true, was slightly exaggerated. The “%99” percentile statement labeled all of them as losers, and I didn’t think that was an accurate assessment.

Are all The White Guys in Asia Losers Back Home?

I made a response video as a neutral observer, I spoke on who was who and what was what, even speaking up for a number of so-called White men who weren’t losers. I wasn’t caping for them but trying to keep shit real.

Keeping it real, I’d say %50 are Losers Back Home

This goes for China and all of South East Asia. These are below-average menwho can’t function in their home countries, or even worse, they’ve never had a relationship and have to travel to Asia to get over using their complexion. In addition, many were racists, drug addicts and alcoholics.

The others?

You have another %20 are happy-go-lucky White guys who are experiencing life. They’re young (18- 30yrs) educated travelers. They’re not overtly racist, level-headed and open-minded.

The next group, this %10, are the students or culture warriors. They’re in school or attending a university, determined to master some language. That or they’re studying martial arts. In Thailand, they study Muay Thai, and in China, they learn Kung Fu.

Another 15% are working professionals. They’re credible teachers; they work for companies or Western corporations. They’re probably married, and these men can date or have had relationships with Western women as well.

The last %5, are the hustlers. They’re the guys who figured out how to ditch their corporate jobs in the States or whatever country they’re from and prefer to live in Asia, where they can work four hours a day.

Asia: The Same Song

After being the homeboy in the buttermilk for 4.5 years, I realize that most of what is happening in Asia will stay the same. Much of the colorism that exists and preferential treatment for pale skin is an intricate part of Asian culture.

Some people are waking up, and loser Caucasians who travel to Asia aren’t able to get by on their complexion like they could a decade ago.

As a result, so many so-called White men have now set sails for Africa, where all the big booty sistas don’t know that their new Caucasian friend is probably a Loser Back Home and possibly much worse.

Clarke Illmatical is a writer and director from Queens, New York. He’s lived in Brazil, China, Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Tanzania, Mexico and Guatemala.

He’s the author of the book HOMEBOY AND THE PYRAMIDS: A TRAVEL GUIDE FOR THE SO-CALLED BLACK MAN, which will be available in 2025.