Hapa混血

I just saw a streaming video film on growing up hapa. To its credit, the video deals with the subject of mixed race children in a balanced and non-political way.

The name always rings of Hawaiian夏威夷 and Japanese日本 cultures to me. I think of the many wonderful mixed race peoples on those beautiful islands and memories of beautiful scenery. But many people, at least on the Pacific Rim of Canada and the United States, apply it to mixed Asian and White children.

Our children are of course mixed race and there are always a variety of reactions of people to them. In Chinese culture, they are viewed as ‘beautiful,’ which I won’t argue with, but that is their perception of mixed race children in general. In American culture, they are seen more generically as Asians亞裔.

Most of the time though, there is no reaction 沒有反應 in either American or Chinese culture. They are just treated like other children in a setting. Both our daughter and our older son seem to easily play with children of different races and cultures. When she brings up the subject, our daughter refers to herself as being from both cultures rather than thinking of herself as ‘mixed.’ I was happy because that is the way we would like them to think of their background, as having the choice of two cultures.

This is our little one, only 2 1/2, posing for an official photo I took. It was hard to get him not moving or smiling.