New CBB

is there another fellow Latin American here?
also, I'm interested in knowing if there are condoers [conlangers, conworlders] from neither europe nor america, like Africa... I don't think I've heard of an african conlanger/conworlder other than Tolkien

There is a tribe from Australia that made the first conlang, which also happens to be the first conlang turned into natlang and the only natlang outside Africa with click sounds.

really? like they decided to make a language for a specific purpose? that's cool.
not especially relevant xD, but cool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damin


Anyhow, though I was born in America, I'm Asian. Vietnamese, to be precise. In fact, despite the fact I was born in an English-speaking country, I only properly learned English when I started Kindergarten, so my English is occasionally off (for instance, I can't pronounce dental fricatives for my life). And I'm a conworlder. So I qualify as a conworlder from neither Europe nor America. Sort of.

One thing I do wonder about is whether my Asian-ness has had any influence on my conworlding/conlanging, and if so, what differences it made compared to stuff made by white conworlders/conlangers. Or other non-white and non-Asian conworlders/conlangers.

_________________
I now have a blog. Witness the horror.

I think I think, therefore I think I am.
- Ambrose Bierce

I don't think so... in my own experience, conworlding shows more one's own biographical features, so I presume class, personality, SES, education, politics and familial history will be more determining than whether or not you're 'asian'. Vietnameseness will surely show, though. I haven't got enough conworld in my head to throw that as a sure thing, tho, and in that mental spreadsheet the nationality of the creator tends to go amiss, and if someone points out my conworld is especially latin-american, I'd not be surprised.

maybe americans and europeans [the two biggest groups] do show some differences, tho, perhaps europeans have more realistic conworlds? tho that might be the quality of basic education each recieves... i dunno

really? no one ever heard of an african conworlder?

True; I didn't mean to imply my Asian-ness was the be-all-end-all influence, but I surely think it has made its dent here and there. Perhaps the most obvious influence I can think of, although a somewhat superficial one, is that in my conworld white people aren't the "default" race, as they would be in a number of conworlds (mostly those in the mass media, though, admittedly) - rather, in my conworld, the defaults would be white and asian people, perhaps the latter a tad more so.

However, come to think of it, my religious beliefs (Buddhist) - though very tamed and close to agnostic - have made an impact, though, again, not that deep. Reincarnation exists - well, rather, it is definite -, and the religion of my foscus conculture bears great similarities to some forms of Buddhism.

The reason I suspected this a while back was because I noticed some differences between fantasy made in Asia compared to fantasy made in the West. From what I figured, fantasy in Asia is more so a re-imagining of Western culture (sort of like what Hollywood does with ninjas and China-Japan-same-thing and martial arts) so it often has a... I wouldn't say idealistic, but more of an idealized feel to it, while fantasy in the West is... I dunno, not more realistic, but it doesn't carry, in my opinion, the same "ooh-let's-imagine-what-awesome-white-or-ambiguously-in-between-white-and-asian-people-are-like" vibe I get from Asian fantasy. I thought perhaps my conworlds had a bit of that in, somewhere.

Although I suppose on the whole you're probably right; I think the strongest influences on my conworld have been my "biographical features".




Nope. Or, heck, I've never heard of a fantasy story written by an African for that matter, although I would find it interesting. For instance, how would they deal with the white-people-default-race syndrome in most fantasy? Black elves, maybe - now that would be really interesting.

_________________
I now have a blog. Witness the horror.

I think I think, therefore I think I am.
- Ambrose Bierce

you're quite right, I hadn't noticed that particular trait of asian fantasy, but that's a very keen analysis, I like it. I shall steal it mawahahahahaha

also, black elves has been done puhlenty

Steal it for a sociological research project or something?



Really? Guess I've just been unlucky.

What about black dwarves? Or Hispanic elves or something?

_________________
I now have a blog. Witness the horror.

I think I think, therefore I think I am.
- Ambrose Bierce

Hispanic elves? they'd only make any sense in like shadowrun, no? I mean, having black skin is somethig that should happen to alternatively evolved [or seeded and re-evolved] humans, melanin and all that. Being from a country that was invaded by spain not so much

Amerindian elves? (I spelled that right, right...?)

And Asian elves... well, that's been done enough.

_________________
I now have a blog. Witness the horror.

I think I think, therefore I think I am.
- Ambrose Bierce