Eurasian awareness

[Ganbare!]

How did it all start for you? Did you ever wish you were not/less aware? Why do you think some EAs have no consciousness or either try/succed assimilating?

I cannot precisely date the genesis of my search for identity but if I had I'd probably say it all started in 2003, because of yet another move, I really started to question where I standed. I started reading various amateur sites on the matter, if it weren't for the Internet no mainstream tv shows, publications, books or media dealing with the subject, few of us would actually be aware. Then 2 years later, I discovered EAN where I lurked for a whole year before registering and timidly starting posting.

When you're 'enlightened', I think it's difficult to go back to denying or ignoring your identity. Therefore, I don't understand why many if not most Eurasians reject the duality of their heritage. In the past several members stated the example of numerous EAs they are acquainted with that were in this case and I my personal experience confirms this.

[Ganbare!]

eh

[Ganbare!]

Do your sibilings care about being EA btw?

[jefe]

Apr 4, 2010 13:15:31 GMT -5 Ganbare! said:

if it weren't for the Internet no mainstream tv shows, publications, books or media dealing with the subject, few of us would actually be aware.

I started at about age 6 before there was any internet and ANY mainstream anything dealing with the subject. I was aware of it at an early age.

Then 2 years later, I discovered EAN where I lurked for a whole year before registering and timidly starting posting.

Ha-ha, well now you are anything BUT timid.

[Ganbare!]

I remember that a couple years ago there was a certain stigma about online conversation with strangers, using the net was for either asocial individual or scammers...

Well you got me here, beyond awareness what I meant is that scientific literature dealing with EA identity, sociological data or even anecdotal experiences are limited nevertheless the recent interest is starting to produce more and more theoritical work about our population and that's great news. I have to admit it must have been hard for older folks to have so many questions unanswered.

[jefe]

^ Europeans have been in Asia since the 16th century and Asians started settling in Western countries since the 17th century. The *modern* EA experience (I am not referring to the central Asian peoples) has been going on for over 450 years. In some locations it has been going on for over 15 generations.

I am sure that each generation in each place had an experience, and most probably survived it one way or the other. The experience of each succeeding generation will be different from the prior's as well as different from the other locations and different family backgrounds.

For example, the majority of the EAs I saw in childhood had fathers in the military and mothers who were Asian war brides. My father had a few Filipino male friends who had married white women, but many of them also divorced them.

When I was in high school, I found a book at the library about the experience of blacks in the USA -- I found out just how thoroughly mixed the European ancestry is into the African-American population and how African ancestry filtered back into the white population. What was thought to be Black and White was actually many shades of grey. I admit that I looked into the experience of mulattoes to get some clue about how to deal with EA-ness.

In my late teens, one of the reasons I went to Taiwan for the summer was just to see how people (Both Taiwanese and Asian-Americans) would react to EAs. Each time, you gain new experiences, and not all of them are bad.

I travelled to Belgium by myself once and that gave me new insights too.

True, internet has helped people contact others on the other side of the planet, but there were always ways of learning and experiencing things.

[Ganbare!]

You're right, in the US or many parts of SEA there were and still are established Eurasian networks but many of us are evolving/evolved in environments with few or no other mixed-race individuals at all. In the West at least, I think your generation indirectly paved us the way in many regards.

Hands-on experience was most certainly invaluable to building your identity since there were very few other alternatives, I bet your parent sometimes were anxious because of their lack of understanding of how you could experience things, my mother seemed to be like that, now mixed-race couples seem to be so race-conscious they know enough to explain decently the whole thing to their kids. I like to theorize things reading surveys, questionnaires and statistics more than actual empirical knowledge, I guess it's a generational thing or maybe that's just me.

I didn't understand what you mean about Belgium, are you reffering to the language or ethnic duality?

[jefe]

There were basically no Eurasians where I grew up and most of the war bride kids in the area were treated just like other Americans-- it seemed like the others simply ignored that they were part Asian -- very differently from me. I never could relate to the war bride kids at all.

When I was born, my parents' marriage was still illegal in about 19 states. It just didn't happen then. The war bride families often got married overseas before coming back to the USA. And, because the west coast repealed their anti-miscegenation laws earlier, they had a couple more decades to start producing EAs. I think EA awareness in the USA really started from the west coast.

By going to Belgium, it gave me another experience about being EA -- without travelling with any caucasians or Asians to influence the situation. Basically, when I told them I was from New York, and flying on to Singapore, NO ONE in Belgium, both local and tourist, believed me that I was from the USA. In fact they told me that I looked more like I was from Singapore than from New York (and I am thinking -- people from either place look like all sorts of different things!). I stayed in the hostel and the guy asked me if I held the Filipino or Japanese passport. When I said USA, he was reluctant to return my passport to me saying that it was impossible. Then when I arrived in Singapore, people wondered if I was from Europe. In the USA, it is much more complicated.

[Ganbare!]

It must have been a long time ago though, a lot people used to believe Americans were all blond Caucasians. I've experienced people doubting I was Canadian while staying abroad, back then Canada was only inhabited by Inuits living in ingloos in the collective imaginary, thank god for globalisation and information technology no one believes that anymore. My conclusion is that xenophobia is slowly but surely disappearing throughout the world plus on a personal level I've started to identify what type of individuals to avoid.

No one else feels like sharing their opinion/experience on Eurasian knowledge or awareness?

[jefe]

Apr 15, 2010 2:09:47 GMT -5 Ganbare! said:

It must have been a long time ago though, a lot people used to believe Americans were all blond Caucasians.

It was in the 1990s, not that long ago.

I had a friend in the 1990s that travelled to Australia and found out that they thought all blacks (ie, of sub-Saharan descent, not Aboriginal descent) were Americans.

My conclusion is that xenophobia is slowly but surely disappearing throughout the world

I guess you'd still be surprised what people believe. I don't think it is disappearing at all.
Non-muslims in the USA think that you cannot be muslim and American at the same time. I don't really feel these perceptions have disappeared.

No one else feels like sharing their opinion/experience on Eurasian knowledge or awareness?

Sorry that you are not generating the discussion that you are looking for here.

[Ganbare!]

^The anti-Muslim sentiment was big in the wake of 9/11, it's long gone, American Muslims are generally well-integrated and successful unlike their European counterparts.

As a kid, I've heard amazing stories like Japanese athletes fare decently at the Olympics because their country was so poor sports were the only way out or that Chinese eat rats. Occurences like these almost completly disappeared and I attribute that to the recent omnipresence of globalized mass media in people's lives.


You mentioned siblings in another thread, I have a sister and she never showed much interest in being Eurasian. Outside of these boards I've met very few race-conscious EAs, I wonder how they view themselves: human beings, White, Asian, EAs, other?

I find their unawareness or denial a little disturbing. I'm unsure if a conscious avoidance strategy or if naiveness is responsible for that.

[toyomansi]

Apr 17, 2010 17:13:58 GMT -5 Ganbare! said:

You mentioned siblings in another thread, I have a sister and she never showed much interest in being Eurasian. Outside of these boards I've met very few race-conscious EAs, I wonder how they view themselves: human beings, White, Asian, EAs, other?

I find their unawareness or denial a little disturbing. I'm unsure if a conscious avoidance strategy or if naiveness is responsible for that.

I'm also curious about this. I grew up with a group of friends of the same mix as me, and while we were small we all shared the experience of having the "crazy" Asian mothers, and our mothers' social gatherings were very cultural with the food, the language, the mah jong and so on. Now that we have become adults and started our own lives, it seems many of them aren't aware that they are EAs anymore. They have mostly assimilated into their local monoracial culture, and it is as if they only see a white person when they look in the mirror.

Often I would think a big reason for this is because they have always been within the "comfort zone" of their small local towns, were everybody already knows them (and have learned to forget that they're not white, because they act white). If they were to go to more diverse places and meet new people, they would probably become a bit more conscious of what they are and how the world sees them.

[Ganbare!]

^I grew up pretty assimilated until I reached the age of 17 and realized it was time for me to distance myself and seek an important but negliged part of who I was. Unlike your friends, I think of assimilation as the Holocaust, never again.

In my opinion the assimilationist model found throughout continental Europe has failed equally as much as American communitarianism. Assimilation is similar to cultural genocide, whether chosen or not it produces individuals with no roots, on the other hand communitarianism is not any more desirable since people don't blend, they live apart, it is unhealthy for the perennity of nation-states and race relations.

What policy makers shoud aim for is integration, not partial like it is in most countries but systematic. People should share a common knowledge of History, geography, sociopolitical institutions, customs and language but still be encouraged to foster their other ethnic identity. There should be compulsory local culture schools for everyone, refugees, immigrants and nationals of any age alike.

[toyomansi]

In Norway these last years there has been many official discussions about the integration of immigrants, and what defines integration. In my experience, people would confuse integration with assimilation. To me and other minorities it was often socially unacceptable to be, do, think or say anything different than the majority group would. The only way to "successfully integrate" into the small local society was to make everyone forget that one was and looked different. My brother has managed to make people (including himself) forget that he actually is a brown man, and he sometimes even makes fun of other brown people/immigrants himself... >_<' But I can tell that within, he is not at peace with himself.

Small places (anywhere in the world) often have their own particular way of living life, talking, acting, socializing and seeing the world, and are not always open to new ways of thinking and doing things. Wherever one tries to assimilate into a local culture, they most likely feel like they are losing an important part of who they really are. It's good to learn the ways of the place you live, but it's equally important to be true to yourself and your own ways (this is perhaps a good way to integrate).

[jefe]

I never felt like I was REALLY anything, so I have nothing to lose.