AA Attitude toward Hapas | Asian American Poll

AA ATTITUDE TOWARD HAPAS
(Updated Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 06:39:10 AM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

Assuming you are Asian American, which best describes your feeling toward Hapas (persons with one Asian parent)?
I find them more attractive than pure Asians. | 38%
I find them less attractive than pure Asians. | 11%
I find them equally attractive as other Asian Americans. | 13%
They put me off by seeming more white than Asian. | 28%
I am never quite sure how to relate to them. | 10%

Assuming you are a Hapa, which best describes your own feelings?
I am most comfortable with Asians. | 38%
I am most comfortable with Whites. | 33%
I am most comfortable around other Hapas. | 6%
I am equally comfortable with Asians and Whites. | 23%

This poll is closed to new input.
Comments posted during the past year remain available for browsing.

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WHAT YOU SAY

[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]

Hey Jay:

Where ya been, man? Just wanted to give ya a thumbs up from one EurAsian to another!

I guess you're just too busy chasing the ladies around, you Happy Horny Hapa!

I'm out...
Andrew Xiaoliang Campbell Wednesday, January 30, 2002 at 07:52:58 (PST)

Vicky,
I'm sorry to hear about your hapa children being this way. It's ashame to see that these hapas have totally forgotten their Asian Heritage. Sometimes it's hard to stand in between, therefore you have to sacrifice the other half. That's why I always proclaimed myself as full-blooded Asian when I meet Asian or Caucasian friends and rarely tell them my other background only if he/she is a hapa also. It gets discouraging when the other side doesn't accept you, especially walking down in Chinatown people look at me like a clown and use English if I don't persist on with my cantonese (not that I have horrible accent). However, the reward of my asian affluence is that once the people accept you, they accept you completely with respect, equality, and closeness.
Young Wednesday, January 30, 2002 at 05:40:32 (PST)

Young,
Actually, I'm not gonna study Fashion Design.I'm gonna study EDM ( Electronic & Multimedia Design ).Yeah, I'll go to Melbourne after I've completed my foundation.Cheong Sam? I would like to wear one some day.But you know, it's so tight that you feel so hot hahhahah........really.What? Take me for a date? Are you kidding me? lol
Malaysian-Eurasian Gal18 Wednesday, January 30, 2002 at 04:17:31 (PST)

Mother of three Hapa children:
"Then one day I woke up and realised it wasn’t my fault."
Well, more or less. Parents have less influence than they'd like over their children's values and development, but by your choice of where to live, what school your child attends, household culture, etc., you get a big head start. If you raised up your children in the middle of a white town, or even a city with many Asian-Americans who don't really know about their culture but cliqued together only on the basis of their race (*cough* san francisco *hack*), then the pattern you describe is perfectly understandable. However, it is not attributable to vague forces like "society" and "the media," but for the most part, your childrens' peer group. I grew up surrounded by the same society and media as your children, with a mother who was verifiably ashamed to be Asian, trying to be upper-class monied white, constantly telling me how advantaged I was to be half-white and hold a non-Asian surname, and I still came out speaking Chinese and calling myself Chinese. How? I ended up hanging out with a bunch of Chinese FOBs in high school. That was possible because I attended a high school with a lot of Chinese FOBs, and because I didn't fall into the Asian-American clique instead.

However, the thing a lot of parents don't realise is that while self-esteem based "Asian pride" and knowing vague bits about your "culture" and "heritage" might make you feel a bit happier in the short-term, language ability is the key to maintaining a stable long-term Asian identity no matter where you go. And language ability is only influenced by parents up until your kid starts making friends outside the house, then, it's almost entirely about peer group (which is why non-English speaking immigrant's children, who often enter kindergarten with ZERO English comprehension, end up fluent in English and incomprehensible in their parents' language by around age 8 or 9).

The fact that Asian-Americans of various stripes don't care about their heritage is because they think it has no relevance to their everyday lives. They think they can get by among their peers with a fake version of Asian culture, or by being "All-American." Your Japanese daughter could end up with the very same desire as your mixed-race children, to be white and belong to white society. It will just be subject to more ridicule because she can't pass for white. Or she could end up socialised to the "Asian-American" subculture and grow up with no real knowledge of what it means to be Japanese, but still convinced she is fully Asian just because of her racial makeup (in the same way that many mixed-race kids are convinced they are NOT Asian because of their racial makeup).
T.H. Lien Tuesday, January 29, 2002 at 20:07:31 (PST)

Silly old man you: Here's my take on this wonderfully interesting terminology game. First, I don't use the word hapa, nor Eurasian, and I probably never would, at least without some other modifier (e.g. hapa Chinese, Eurasian white, etc). Mixed-race is a purely racial identification tag, whereas Asian also refers to socialization/culture. I am mixed-race Chinese because, to spell it out, my parents are of different races, but I belong to Chinese culture, speak Chinese, etc. Other people of my same racial background are not necessarily "mixed-race Chinese." Maybe you think mixed people can't be white or Asian but should follow some "third way," "best of both worlds" kind of bulls*** (or more appropriately, mules***), but some of us out here prefer belonging to an actual culture.

BTW I'm a 3rd year university student, my home institution is in the US but I'm currently on study-abroad in Asia.
T.H. Lien Tuesday, January 29, 2002 at 19:42:50 (PST)

Vicky:

If your kids see themselves as superior to full-blooded Asians, then that’s their problem, not yours. Sooner, or later, you are going to have to allow your kids to grow-up and see how hard life is in this world.
Jimmy Z Tuesday, January 29, 2002 at 15:57:08 (PST)

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