Mixed Race Studies

Being Eurasian: Memories Across Racial Divides

University of Washington Press
2004
296 pages
6″ x 9″
Paperback (9789622096714)
Hardcover (9789622096707)

Vicky Lee
Hong Kong Baptist University

What was it like being a Eurasian in colonial Hong Kong? How is the notion of Eurasianness remembered in some Hong Kong memoirs? Being Eurasian is a description and analysis of the lives of three famous Hong Kong Eurasian memoirists, Joyce Symons, Irene Cheng and Jean Gittins, and explores their very different ways of constructing and looking at their own ethnic identity.

‘Eurasian’ is a term that could have many different connotations, during different periods in colonial Hong Kong, and in different spaces within the European and Chinese communities. Eurasianness could mean privilege, but also marginality, adulteration and even betrayal. Eurasians from different socio-economic sectors had very different perceptions of their own ethnicity, which did not always agree with their externally prescribed identity. Being Eurasian explores the ethnic choices faced by Hong Kong Eurasians of the pre-war generation, as they dealt with the very fluidity of their ethnic identity.

Erasure of Euro-Asian: Recovering Early Radicalism and Feminism in South Asia

Women Unlimited
2009
312 pages
8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
ISBN-10: 8188965405; ISBN-13: 978-8188965403

Kumari Jayawardena, Emeritus Associate Professor
University of Colombo

This book, focuses on the interaction between Asia and Europe in the wake of Portuguese, Dutch, French and British imperialism. It emphasises the vanguard role of the Euro-Asian communities in South Asia, the Burghers, Anglo-Indians and Eurasians, in struggles for democratic rights, long before colonial conditions were ripe for radical social and political change. With their utopian vision of a future democratic society, they agitated for widespread reforms such as worker and peasant rights, early radicalism, proto-nationalism, secularism and gender equality. Jayawardena brings the path-breaking efforts of these Euro-Asian pioneers from the footnotes of history into the main text, asks why their contributions have been ‘hidden from history’ and suggests that the obsession with ‘purity’ of race, both in South Asia and Europe, led to erasing the importance of this radical intelligentsia of mixed origin.

Recasting The Half-Caste

Journal of Women’s History
Volume 22, Number 4, Winter 2010
E-ISSN: 1527-2036 Print ISSN: 1042-7961
pages 263-267

Kumari Jayawardena

In Sri Lanka, serious book reviews are not only few and far between, but authors also do not usually reply to reviews of their books. So while it was a real windfall to receive four reviews simultaneously, to comment briefly in reply is a rather unusual task. However, I really appreciate the reviews, and thank Shefali Chandra, Hilary Jones, Shoshana Keller, and Emma Teng for their perceptive insights and for opening up this discussion.

On a personal note, my academic background is multidisciplinary. I am not a “historian” with a degree in history, but a political scientist who specialized in industrial relations. My interests moved on to feminist history and I continue to be active in the women’s movement. Using these experiences, I have written on several issues ranging from working-class agitation to ethno-nationalism, feminism, peasant rebellion, and the rise of capitalism in Sri Lanka. In this book, I combine many of these themes, and as Shefali Chandra noted, I deal with “race, caste, class, sexuality, and nationalism”—a wide sweep, using examples from several countries.

I should also make it clear that my book is not a history of Euro-Asians, but a political study of the roots of colonial dissenting movements, including feminism, and the role of Euro-Asians as pioneers of struggles for democratic rights and against semifeudalism in South Asia. The word “Euro-Asian” is coined to include persons of mixed European and Asian origin in the maternal or paternal line. Emma Teng calls this “an important contribution” and states that the “highly fraught” issue of nomenclature “has been of great symbolic importance for those struggling for recognition,”—especially, if I may add, since those of mixed origin have historically been referred to by derogatory names. In Sri Lanka, the Euro-Asian “public intellectuals,” who had been educated in English, were inspired by the French Revolution and the European “Enlightenment.”…

Read or purchase the article here.

Development and Initial Validation of the Biracial Experiences of Discrimination Inventory

University of La Verne, La Verne, California
March 2010
329 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3430242
ISBN: 9781124295695

Amanda L. Y. Rivera

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Psychology University of La Verne College of Arts and Sciences Psychology Department

The purpose of this dissertation was to develop and initially validate an instrument that measures multiracial individuals with Asian and White descent experiences of discrimination. Results from the principal components analysis using data from a web-based sample of 185 multiracial individuals with Asian and White descent yielded a five-factor simple structure of the Biracial Experiences of Discrimination Inventory (B-REDI): Biracial Response to Monoracial Context (6 items), Racial Microaggressions (6 items), Confusion of Interracial Family Relations (4 items), Assumptions of Marginality (3 items), and Internalized Multiracial Racism (3 items). Initial evidences of internal reliability, convergent validity and known-groups validity were found. An evaluation of internal consistency suggested that the B-REDI reflected dimensions of multiracial racism and supported initial evidence of the reliability of the five factors that emerged. In support of convergent validity, multiracial experiences of discrimination were positively correlated with perceived general ethnic discrimination, Asian American racism-related stress, a universal-diverse orientation, awareness and acceptance of others similarities and differences, as well as awareness, sensitivity, and receptivity towards racial diversity and multiculturalism. Also in support of convergent validity, multiracial experiences of racism were negatively correlated with colorblind racial attitudes. Evidence for known-groups validity was demonstrated through statistically significantly higher levels of multiracial experiences reported among multiracial individuals with Asian and White descent (n = 184) than monoracial individuals (n = 325). However, multiracial individuals with Asian and White descent (n = 184) did not report multiracial experiences of racism at a statistically significantly higher level when compared to multiracial individuals of other ethnic backgrounds (n = 263). This finding suggests that having a mixed race background may represent a factor that exerts an overall greater impact compared to the specific ethnic group make-up of an individual. Study limitations as well as research and clinical implications are discussed.

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“War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art”

Critical Ethnic Studies Association Conference
University of California, Riverside
Critical Ethnic Studies and the Future of Genocide: Settler Colonialism/Heteropatriarchy/White Supremacy
2011-03-10 through 2011-03-12

Laura Kina, Associate Professor of Art, Media, and Design and distinguished Vincent de Paul Professor
DePaul University

Wei Ming Dariotis, Associate Professor Asian American Studies
San Francisco State University

Gina Osterloh, Artist
Silverlens Gallery, Manila Philippines
François Ghebaly, Los Angeles

“War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art” investigates the construction of mixed race/mixed heritage Asian American (or, controversially, “Hapa”) identity in the United States. As an increasingly ethnically ambiguous Asian American generation is coming of age in an era of “optional identity,” “War Baby/Love Child” examines how, or even if, mixed Asian Americans are addressing their hybrid identities in their artwork.

For more information, click here.

ASNAMST 173S: Transcultural and Multiethnic Lives: Contexts, Controversies, and Challenges (AFRICAAM 173S, CSRE 173S)

Stanford University
Spring 2011

Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu

Lived experience of people who dwell in the border world of race and nation where they negotiate transcultural and multiethnic identities and politics. Comparative, historical, and global contexts such as family and class. Controversies, such as representations of mixed race people in media and multicultural communities. What the lives of people like Tiger Woods and Barack Obama reveal about how the marginal is becoming mainstream.

For more information, click here.

Steelers and Ward nominated for Positive Peace Awards

Pittsburgh Steelers News
2010-12-06

Celebrate Positive announced today that the Pittsburgh Steelers and wide receiver Hines Ward have been nominated for the inaugural  2010 United Nations NGO Positive Peace Awards in the Professional Sports Team and Professional Athlete categories. This award, viewed as a 21st century peace prize, honors and recognizes individuals, businesses, athletes, sports teams, entertainers and schools around the world for their positive contributions.

…The nomination of Hines Ward came from Pearl S. Buck International Inc. [for] his critical work in Korea which has changed the perception of the biracial population in the community. His involvement has attracted influential Koreans to join him in his efforts.

“Hines Ward changed the cultural landscape of Korea,” said Janet Mintzer, President/CEO of Pearl S. Buck Intl. “After Japanese invasions, Korea placed high value on being pure-blooded Koreans, creating prejudice of biracial people. As a successful biracial Korean-American, he returned to Korea, creating media attention which sparked a cultural shift.”…

Read the entire article here.

The whole story on being ‘hafu’

CNN International
CNN Go
2010-11-29

Daniel Krieger

The movie ‘Hafu’ explores the limbo world of people who are half-Japanese and half something else, as they try to find their place in society

What does it mean to be half-Japanese in 21st-century Japan?

This is what filmmakers Megumi Nishikura and Lara Takagi set out to explore in their documentary film, “Hafu,” of which they showed a preview screening last month at the Kansai Franco-Japanese Institute in Kyoto.

The film, which is not yet completed, is an offshoot of the Hafu Project, which was set up in London two years ago by sociologist Marcia Yume Lise and photographer Natalie Maya Willer, both half-Japanese.

The project profiles hafus with photos and interviews that shed light on the experience of living between two cultures.

“We wanted to create an opportunity to discuss contemporary Japan through the lens of half Japanese,” says Lise…

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Will there ever be a rainbow Japan?

CNN International
CNN Go
2010-12-01

Tracy Slater

Government statistics suggest multiculturalism is on the rise, but social organizations for mixed-race Japanese say ‘hafus’ still face challenges

Japan, which closed its borders from 1639 to 1854 and later colonized its neighbors, has an uneasy history with foreigners, national identity, and multiculturalism.

Yet government statistics and grassroots organizations say multiculturalism in the famously insular country is now on the rise…
Japan: The new melting pot?

Japan’s national government recently announced it is turning to travelers in a foreigner-friendly mission to boost diversity — at least in tourist spots — by paying them to provide feedback on how to increase accessibility for non-Japanese speakers.

David Askew, associate professor of law at Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University, identifies more profound changes.

In 1965, a mere 1 in 250 of all marriages in Japan were international, he notes. By 2004, the number had climbed to 1 in 15 across the nation and 1 in 10 in Tokyo…

Celebrating diversity

A handful of new organizations are tied, at least in part, to the increase in multicultural marriages.

Groups such as Mixed Roots Japan and Hapa Japan, founded by children of mixed-Japanese couples, aim to celebrate the broadening scope of Japanese identity, both nationally and globally.

“There is a real need now to recognize that Japan is getting more multiracial,” says Mixed Roots founder Edward Sumoto, a self-described “hafu” of Japanese/Venezuelan ethnicity. “The Japanese citizen is not simply a traditional Japanese person with Japanese nationality anymore.”

The issue of the identity of hafu is also being explored in a new film titled “Hafu,” currently under production by the Hafu Project.

In support of multiracial families, Mixed Roots holds Halloween and Christmas parties, picnics and beach days…

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What are you? A qualitative study on multiracial identity development

The Wright Institute
June 2008
115 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3351317
ISBN: 9781109073614

Luana M. Coloma

A dissertation submitted to the Wright Institute Graduate School of Psychology, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Psychology

The current study explored essential themes of multiracial ethnic identity among six Asian-White women. Participants were between the ages of 19 and 27, and self-identified as having a White mother and an Asian father. Participants were interviewed face-to-face using a semi-structured questionnaire. Interviews were then transcribed and coded for themes using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Five primary themes emerged: The Continuous Journey of Ethnic Identity Development, Situational Identity, The Maternal Relationship and its Effects on Identity Development, The Comparison of Multiracial Experiences to Monoracial Experiences, and the Asian-White Experience. A number of subthemes also were identified. Although some of the themes mirrored findings from previous multiracial research, such as identity being situationally based, new themes also emerged. In particular, themes related to the relationship between the White mother and her multiracial daughter were brought to light. In addition, preliminary results relating to the unique experience of the Asian-White subgroup when compared to the larger multiracial subgroup were identified. Implications of the findings and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Statement of Purpose
  • Definitions
  • Historical Background of the Presence of Multiracial Individuals in the United States
  • Current Research on the Multiracial Population
  • The Asian-White Multiracial Experience
  • Identity Development
    • Ethnic Identity Development Models
    • Multiracial Identity Development Models
    • Multiracial Identity Development Models for Asian-White Individuals
  • A Closer Look at the Mother-Daughter Relationship
    • The Mother-Daughter Relationship
    • Multiracial Daughters and Their Relationships With Their Mothers
    • Multiracial Daughters and Their White Mothers
  • Summary
  • Hypotheses
• Methodology
  • Participants
  • Procedure
  • Instruments
  • Data Analyses
• Results
  • Demographic and Biographical Information
    • Participant 1
    • Participant 2
    • Participant 3
    • Participant 4
    • Participant 5
    • Participant 6
  • Interview Themes
    • The Continuous Journey of Ethnic Identity Development
    • Situational Identity
    • The Maternal Relationship and its Effects on Ethnic Identity
    • The Comparison of Multiracial Experiences to Monoracial Experiences
    • The Asian-White Experience
• Discussion
  • Discussion of Results
    • Hypothesis One
    • Hypothesis Two
    • Hypothesis Three
  • Limitations and Confounds
  • Recommendations for Future Research
• References
  • Appendices
  • Appendix A
  • Appendix B
  • Appendix C
  • Appendix D

Puchase the dissertation here.