The "Donna Chang" effect

[milkman's baby]

Apr 29, 2010 6:02:41 GMT -5 admin said:

(real life Donna Chang x 2)

NFL Linebacker Scott Fujita is Caucasian, adopted by a Japanese Father and Caucasian Mother.

He married a Caucasian lady and their twin daughters are little Fujitas.

Wasn't there a movie called The Jerks or something where a black couple adopts a white boy? I think that's always the big shocker for people. To see ethnic minorities holding white babies. And they aren't just nannies? No way.

[hypeforlife91]

Well I don't know if this is considered to be part of the "Donna Chang effect"...but anyways..

The usual UPS guy was on vacation so this new Asian (he could be Chinese...) guy came. I have a double hyphenated last name (first part is the white part, second part is the chinese, but then again the white last name CAN sound like an anglicized version of a chinese last name lol.)

Today he came again to deliver one package.
So the guy suddenly asked me if I speak Chinese (in a very obvious Asian accent).
I said I spoke a little.
So he was like "I thought you were fully Chinese" *chuckle chuckle*

I'm not sure if he meant that I look full Chinese or he was expecting a full Chinese person to answer the door since everytime he delivers my stuff and leaves an Infonotice, he always neglects to write the white part of my last name. He always just puts the Chinese part even before he met me and knew what I look like and wow...the white part of my last name isn't even long.

Then again...yesterday (which was the first time I met him)..he said he thought I just got married.

[milkman's baby]

Sept 9, 2010 20:52:03 GMT -5 hypeforlife91 said:

Well I don't know if this is considered to be part of the "Donna Chang effect"...but anyways..

The usual UPS guy was on vacation so this new Asian (he could be Chinese...) guy came. I have a double hyphenated last name (first part is the white part, second part is the chinese, but then again the white last name CAN sound like an anglicized version of a chinese last name lol.)

Today he came again to deliver one package.
So the guy suddenly asked me if I speak Chinese (in a very obvious Asian accent).
I said I spoke a little.
So he was like "I thought you were fully Chinese" *chuckle chuckle*

I'm not sure if he meant that I look full Chinese or he was expecting a full Chinese person to answer the door since everytime he delivers my stuff and leaves an Infonotice, he always neglects to write the white part of my last name. He always just puts the Chinese part even before he met me and knew what I look like and wow...the white part of my last name isn't even long.

Then again...yesterday (which was the first time I met him)..he said he thought I just got married.

Haha I frequently get mistaken for Filipino from other Asians because my first name is Spanish. "Figured an Asian-looking person with a Spanish name must be Filipino."

Finnish people often have names that sound similar to Japanese names. There was a Finnish exchange student at my school named Mikko. People often expected to see a short Japanese girl when they heard that name and instead it's this tall husky blond guy.

[toyomansi]

A Filipina once thought that my Norwegian last name was Filipino, so she thought my father was the Filipino one... ^^ Maybe it doesn't sound like the typical Scandinavian last names, when traveling I'm glad it's not hard for people to pronounce and doesn't have the special letters æ, ø or å... It's Sande. Just curious, when seeing that name, would you have any thoughs/ideas of it's country of origin?

[hypeforlife91]

^ Wow Sande is ambiguous to me. Is the "e" silent? Maybe if it was just "Sand" then I would automatically associate it to be European (English) or American. Sande can be Filipino to me or something of Latin origin. xD But I'm no expert.

[hypeforlife91]

Sept 12, 2010 11:19:18 GMT -5 milkman's baby said:

Sept 9, 2010 20:52:03 GMT -5 hypeforlife91 said:

Well I don't know if this is considered to be part of the "Donna Chang effect"...but anyways..

The usual UPS guy was on vacation so this new Asian (he could be Chinese...) guy came. I have a double hyphenated last name (first part is the white part, second part is the chinese, but then again the white last name CAN sound like an anglicized version of a chinese last name lol.)

Today he came again to deliver one package.
So the guy suddenly asked me if I speak Chinese (in a very obvious Asian accent).
I said I spoke a little.
So he was like "I thought you were fully Chinese" *chuckle chuckle*

I'm not sure if he meant that I look full Chinese or he was expecting a full Chinese person to answer the door since everytime he delivers my stuff and leaves an Infonotice, he always neglects to write the white part of my last name. He always just puts the Chinese part even before he met me and knew what I look like and wow...the white part of my last name isn't even long.

Then again...yesterday (which was the first time I met him)..he said he thought I just got married.

Haha I frequently get mistaken for Filipino from other Asians because my first name is Spanish. "Figured an Asian-looking person with a Spanish name must be Filipino."

Finnish people often have names that sound similar to Japanese names. There was a Finnish exchange student at my school named Mikko. People often expected to see a short Japanese girl when they heard that name and instead it's this tall husky blond guy.

Lol that is funneh! Sometimes when I meet people and they know my name before they meet me...they get shocked. They would go like "I thought you were Chinese!" My roommates did that to me and various others.

I wish I had a more exotic first name. Jennifer sounds too common to me. My parents could have named me Ezra, Alira, Chiquita, Taco, Gyoza, Panko, Windex, or Febreze but nooooooooo they had to stick with the ordinary.

[milkman's baby]

Sande could be anything from Spanish to German to some butchered English name. That's very standard in sound.

I guess one thing that's good about having my English surname as opposed to any other European name is that English names have been applied to so many non-whites. Black people have them, many Amerindians have them, and immigrants of all sorts sometimes change their surnames to an English one thinking it will help them assimilate. So it's not too much of a shock to most Americans to see a dark eyed person with a WASPy name. Most people out here don't even pay attention to people's last names anyway. Most of the embarrassing questions I've received have been in Europe.

[toyomansi]

Sept 13, 2010 3:31:54 GMT -5 hypeforlife91 said:

^ Wow Sande is ambiguous to me. Is the "e" silent? Maybe if it was just "Sand" then I would automatically associate it to be European (English) or American. Sande can be Filipino to me or something of Latin origin. xD But I'm no expert.

lol, cool to know that Sande could be anything... It's not uncommon in Norway, it's named after a small town I think... The 'e' is pronounced, but not in the English way - in other countries people usually pronounce it in English as 'Sandy' (which is wrong, lol)...

[penguinopolipitese]

my dad's vietnamese and changed his last name to thomas. So I have 2 english surnames hyphenated together

[milkman's baby]

Those of you with the hyphenated surnames - did your parents decide on that when you were born, or did they divorce later and do that, or did you elect to do that on your own? I am seriously seeking to add my mother's maiden on to mine soon but my parents are firmly against it.

[hypeforlife91]

Sept 17, 2010 8:09:49 GMT -5 milkman's baby said:

Those of you with the hyphenated surnames - did your parents decide on that when you were born, or did they divorce later and do that, or did you elect to do that on your own? I am seriously seeking to add my mother's maiden on to mine soon but my parents are firmly against it.

Well my parents did it but as much as I think my last name sounds incompatible with each other, I don't want to change it until I get married lol.
I think it should be your choice of whether you want to change your name or not since you are a grown woman. Anyhow, you're not even changing it, you're just adding to it. I personally don't find any issue with that. Why are your parents against it?

[mingzayni88]

My cousin's first day of school after the summer break the class had to take attendance.My cousins 1st and surname are Asian (we'll call him C.M.)and my cousin looks full black to most ppl. So the new teacher (we'll say Mr.S) was calling out students names and when he got to C.M.'s name, he answered "present".

Mr. S ignored him and called his name again. so he answered "Present" again. so Mr. S said "thank you, but will u let the real C.M. answer?" so my cousin said "i am the real C.M.!"

and Mr S ignored him again. this went on for sometime then Mr S sent C.M. to the school office for joking around in class. so C.M. explained the whole scenario to the office ppl, and they called Mr S to let him know that my cousin was the C.M. and he was joking around.

So, when C.M. got back to the classroom Mr S says "My apologies, I was looking for an oriental young man."¬¬ my cousin just said it was ok and took his seat. He gets this a lot so he's use to it, but he says this particular scenario was more overwhelming than other times.

[hypeforlife91]

^ All I can say is LOL.

[pelle]

^^That happens to my brother all the time. He's blond and light eyed, looks a lot like my mom. People always assume he's adopted, my dad loves that. ;D

[donger]

My brother's first name is Masami and he married a white woman many moons ago who has a large, extended family. And recently one of his stepchildren had her first child and they named him Noah Masami even though the kid is your otherwise typical white American.