Hapa
From the blog abagond:
"To be hapa in America is different than being either White American or Asian American. For one it means having to deal with two different worlds, one white and one Asian American, belonging to both and yet belonging to neither.
Some can pass easily between the two worlds or at least within one of them, but others feel like outsiders forever in both, never fully accepted by either whites or by Asian Americans. That is the biracial experience. On top of that your parents do not understand what you are going through. So it helps if some of your friends are hapas too."
There it is, that thing I've been having a hard time articulating all my life. The fact that your parents will never really get it.
To make matters worse, I'm beginning to worry that a lot of Asian languages might not even have a term for people that are partially Asian. The only reason I say this is because I don't hear them use it. The first full-length sentence I learnt to say in Chinese was 我母是越南人, that is, "My mother is Vietnamese" because I didn't know any other way to put it.
But whenever I've been introduced to Chinese nationals by other Chinese nationals, they use the exact same phrasing. They say the same thing if they switch to English. The fact of the matter is, that is just how it is, no more, no less. You are not "half-Asian." You "have an Asian parent," point-blank. Vietnamese people say the same thing. "Oh, you have Vietnamese mommy?"
You're not one of them, and you never will be. Every association with you is strictly done as a favour to your Asian parent. You'll get asked if you can use chopsticks, or worse, "Do you need help with [picking up] that?" You'll get asked, even by young Asians, if you eat their kind of food. They seriously think you're Whitey McWhiterson and nothing else. This is plenty insulting to caucasian people that are well-versed in Asian cultures, but imagine being half-Asian and getting that treatment.
The only reason I can think of to make peace with the situation is to really stand back and think, "You know, this isn't so terrible, because quite frankly, one Asian parent is more than enough."
I don't know if there's a "half black, half-Asian" and coordinating "partial" page in that blog, because it would be keen to see one listing people like Kelis Rodgers-Jones and Kimora Lee Simmons.
"To be hapa in America is different than being either White American or Asian American. For one it means having to deal with two different worlds, one white and one Asian American, belonging to both and yet belonging to neither.
Some can pass easily between the two worlds or at least within one of them, but others feel like outsiders forever in both, never fully accepted by either whites or by Asian Americans. That is the biracial experience. On top of that your parents do not understand what you are going through. So it helps if some of your friends are hapas too."
There it is, that thing I've been having a hard time articulating all my life. The fact that your parents will never really get it.
To make matters worse, I'm beginning to worry that a lot of Asian languages might not even have a term for people that are partially Asian. The only reason I say this is because I don't hear them use it. The first full-length sentence I learnt to say in Chinese was 我母是越南人, that is, "My mother is Vietnamese" because I didn't know any other way to put it.
But whenever I've been introduced to Chinese nationals by other Chinese nationals, they use the exact same phrasing. They say the same thing if they switch to English. The fact of the matter is, that is just how it is, no more, no less. You are not "half-Asian." You "have an Asian parent," point-blank. Vietnamese people say the same thing. "Oh, you have Vietnamese mommy?"
You're not one of them, and you never will be. Every association with you is strictly done as a favour to your Asian parent. You'll get asked if you can use chopsticks, or worse, "Do you need help with [picking up] that?" You'll get asked, even by young Asians, if you eat their kind of food. They seriously think you're Whitey McWhiterson and nothing else. This is plenty insulting to caucasian people that are well-versed in Asian cultures, but imagine being half-Asian and getting that treatment.
The only reason I can think of to make peace with the situation is to really stand back and think, "You know, this isn't so terrible, because quite frankly, one Asian parent is more than enough."
I don't know if there's a "half black, half-Asian" and coordinating "partial" page in that blog, because it would be keen to see one listing people like Kelis Rodgers-Jones and Kimora Lee Simmons.