Asia is a big region and using "Asian" to describe people from different areas seems overgeneralizating to me at least (though it's the language customs that do that)

I propose Expasia as a name for the kind of Asia Westerners can usually relate to.

East or Southeast asia is often pretty accurate to describe the region that westerners think of.

Well not sure how they would relate to North Korea or Guinea.

Weirdly enough, that's not completely accurate as I discovered from moving to the UK.

In Australia (where I initially moved from), the term "Asian" does indeed refer to people from East or Southeast Asia.

But it turns out for people in the UK, the term "Asian" refers to people from India (and immediate area I guess).

(!) For East/Southeast Asia, they use the term "Oriental".

It sure surprised the heck out of me.

Well, as a "European", I feel your frustration. But in this context I think it's fair to assume that people are talking about the parts of Asia where westerners are likely to go for cheap healthcare. Which basically means SEA + India.

> I always assumed the casual attitude towards hygiene that Asian people have

You're totally right to call me on that generalization. I meant the parts of Asia I've personally spent time in: India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Philippines, and to a lesser extent Malaysia and Thailand.

Other Asian countries like Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Singapore don't deserve this shade thrown at them and I apologize.

I suspect the issue is less of a general attitude and more of a combo of poor resources and poverty. Tons of hospitals in India are spanking clean - though these are often the private ones.

Yeah. And so much staff… I am from Germany where I have the fancy private health insurance and I spent 5 days in a hospital in Bangalore. I think on my fancy-pants hospital wards were 10 nurses on staff per shift for roughly 20 patients, plus support personnel. The quality was very good. I think it comes down to the availability of a skilled workforce for relatively cheap salaries, while in Germany the salaries are higher, staff is incredibly less in headcounts.

No, it's a cultural thing. For sure it came from poverty. But it persists in places where that's no longer an excuse. For example my neighborhood in Vietnam has kerbside trash/recycling collection four days a week. Even if you couldn't pay you could easily put your bags with someone else's. Hell I'd pay for the entire street gladly. And yet several of my neighbors still pile up their trash and burn it. I've ended up shouting at them a few times - unfortunately being polite does nothing in this culture, while getting angry, as a foreigner, is extremely effective no matter how much I dislike doing it.

I know people would say "adapt to the place you're in". But I draw the line in a few places. Burning trash and mistreatment of dogs are what push me past that line and turn me into a shouting maniac.

> Tons of hospitals in India are spanking clean

Private hospitals. Lots of commercial places are kept spanking clean. It's weird though, it rarely extends to the neighborhood. I'll never stop finding it weird to see a stylish hotel with manicured grounds next door to a literal dumping ground that they don't seem bothered by.