In my experience, just consuming more media is a good way to become more familiar with the facial features that we might not pay enough attention to differentiate between people. When I first started watching Japanese movies, I had a bit of a hard time grasping who was who, but as time went on it became easier.

Let me tell you an anecdote. I’m Asian and grew up in an Asian country. When I was studying abroad there’s a time when my American friends were watching a Japanese drama series. I was the one asking them throughout the watch session who’s who because I couldn’t tell the actors’ faces apart.

You improve at what you do often and with mindful intent. You’re already doing that; what’s tripping you up is the guilt you feel at getting things wrong because it feels like you’re being dismissive of people.

But you’re not: you’re actively working on a problem you’ve identified you have, and for partially personal but also kind, interpersonal reasons. There’s no timeline or final grade to worry about, so just focus on enjoying your media and discernment will come to you.

Dude, I am asian, and I cannot tell kpop band apart to save my life. Some of them really look very similar; racial bias might make it worse, but I dont think it is completely racial.

I think the best way is just to keep watching more and more. Eventually you should be able to tell.

Stop beating yourself up. We Asians can’t tell them apart too. Just enjoy the music without guilt.

Kpop is cool and all but not a great way to see the differences in people. Kpop idols are routinely made to look like other popular idols to appeal to a larger fan base. This happens in other cultures as well, US actresses for example!

I would suggest you stick with Dramas to get a better mix of people. And mix it up by country. Add some Thai, Japanese and Chinese dramas to your watch list. At some point you will see the vast differences in just one nation, China is quite diverse in looks, Thailand as well. And it can’t hurt to experience music and dramas from other parts of Asia like Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.

And don’t just limit yourself to Asia, really look at humanity. You would be surprised how often you can see the similarities between cultures. American Eskimos having Chinese traits. And I don’t mean eyes, facial architecture varies worldwide.

In America people think anyone Hispanic/Latin is Mexican (which is SOOOOO false). But Central and South Americans are just as diverse. The larger the mix of people from a continent you are exposed to, the easier it is to get a sense of where they may be from.
All of humanity migrated from someplace, and we still do today.

Each culture has a standard of beauty that celebrities try to emulate as closely as possible. As someone who’s lived in an Asian country for over a decade, it’s actually not that hard for me to identify whether someone is Korean, Chinese, or Japanese based on how they dress and present themselves. Where it gets difficult are celebrity groups within those nationalities. I get actors, actresses, and pop stars mixed up all the time because they all try to do their make-up the same way. This isn’t exclusive to Asia though. Westerners do the same thing and can be just as difficult to tell apart. It’s just we’re far more accustomed to it. That lady from Barbie? I have no idea who she is in or out of costume and could probably take a few incorrect shots. I don’t even know if she’s North American or from some country in Europe or Oceania.

The fact that you’re conscious of these biases and are trying to take a thoughtful approach to avoiding them probably means you don’t need to worry too much about it. I think it’s probably unrealistic to be able to memorize and identify every media star, and getting some actors of a certain ethnicity confused doesn’t automatically make you racist. I mix people up all the time, regardless of their background, so don’t sweat it too much. Over time, your recognition will improve, as with any other activity. Good luck!

This makes me think of those memes where people struggle with telling white male celebrities apart

What you are referring to is called implicit bias. It’s the automatic differentiation of tribal heritage. It’s honestly a phenomenon that can’t be controlled. You spend enough time with a certain people, then you are going to prefer that people. IMO that’s why we should drop the cultural walls and just amalgamate

Alright we’re putting you on a strict diet of 8 hours of Kpop exposure therapy no exceptions.

But seriously like most have said, the main features that differentiate faces can differ all over the world so it will come with time, just do your best and it will get easier.

Man, I am white, live in a predominantly white country, and notice even white people looking the same and confusing them for other people. I’m not so sure it’s such a big deal. Humans look pretty close together and is why we constantly bicker about small differences like skin color and eye size; cuz there ain’t much else that’s different. 🙁

Over a decade ago, I dated someone of a different race from me. I remember being anxious that I wouldn’t recognize her in a crowd the first handful of times that we met in crowded places. I’ve become much better at distinguishing people of different races since, but that’s only because I have a lot of racial exposure where I live.

I don’t know any way of changing this natural occurrence other than repeated exposure. Your brain needs practice. You don’t sound the least bit racist. In fact, you sound the opposite because you’re looking for better mental tooling.

It’s an easier task if you’re looking at normal real people, not popstars deliberately selected for ‘ideal’ beauty archetypes, with professional makeup, filters, and editing.

This reminds me of the Korean beauty pageant profile photo discussion 10 years ago.

It’s not necessarily so much a race thing as it is a ‘cultural beauty ideals conformity’ thing. There are a lot of similar looking white celebrities too, the blonde pop princess cloning machine was working overtime in the early 2000’s.

Korean celebrities are the exception. I’m an Asian and can’t tell them apart lol.