Half-Asians

Last Friday, an article about the future of Asian-American identity, written by Jeff Yang, was published on SFGate.com (the website of the San Francisco Chronicle).

Within the article is this bombshell: by 2020, 20% of all Asians in the U.S. will be multiracial, and by 2050 that percentage will increase to 33%. This, despite the recent decreasing trend of interracial marriages involving Asian-Americans.

Also within the article is another bombshell: Meiko (pictured above), a folk-pop singer who is 25% Japanese, 75% Caucasian, and 100% gorgeous.

The article refers to quarter-Asians like Meiko as “quapas” (which validates my earlier usage of the word – I thought I was just making it up). Check out the list of quapa girls that I’ve featured so far, and you’ll agree that they’re as beautiful as half-Asians though their Asian features may be less prominent.

As the number of multiracial Asian-Americans increases in the next few decades, we are going to see more and more quapas in the U.S., to the point where there may be as many quapas in the future as there are hapas now. It’s on this basis that I’m making the statement in the title of this post (which was inspired by this statement made by Barney Stinson in the pilot episode of How I Met Your Mother). Also on the basis that they’re hot.

Mixing it up: Multiracialism redefines Asian American identity [SFGate]

Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld is the 18-year-old daughter of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother author Amy Chua, whose article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” I mentioned in an earlier post.

In response to the public uproar about her mother’s strict “tiger” parenting, Sophia wrote an open letter to her mom that was published earlier this week in the New York Post.

Think what you want about how awful her mother might be, or that this girl might be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, but Sophia seems to be pretty on-the-ball. (For a more complete picture, check out her public Facebook and Google profiles.) And she’s pretty cute too!

“Why I love my strict Chinese mom” [New York Post]

Last Saturday, the Wall Street Journal published an essay entitled “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior”, written by Yale professor Amy Chua. The essay is excerpted from her just-published book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (here is a review of the book).

I’m not going to comment on the specifics of the article or the book, but I will say that it appears Dr. Chua’s hard-ass Asian parenting techniques, in concert with her Jewish husband’s more relaxed parenting, has resulted in a couple of kick-ass half-Asian daughters who believe that they can excel at whatever they do if they put their mind to it. Of course, the genetic goldmine of having two Yale professors as parents probably doesn’t hurt either.

I may be oversimplifying it a bit, but it seems to me that the presence of an Asian parent is a big factor in why half-Asians tend to be high achievers (as well as have a strong sense of family and familial responsibility). Perhaps some of you have personal experience with this, comments are welcome!

“Why Chinese Mothers are Superior” [Wall Street Journal]

UPDATE: Check out Amy Chua’s response to readers of the Wall Street Journal article, as well as responses from members of Harvard HAPA.

A recent Pew study reports that interracial marriages in the U.S. are at an all-time high, having increased from 6.8% of marriages in 1980 to 14.6% in 2008. For Asian-Americans, an even-higher 30% married outside their race in 2008.

However, as Angry Asian Man noted last year and as the Pew study confirms, we’ve actually been seeing a steady decrease in the rate of Asian-Americans entering interracial marriages (it was 42% in 1990 and 33% in 2000), as they are increasingly tending to marry fellow Asians who may have a better understanding of their cultural roots.

But this does not necessarily mean that there will be fewer interracial marriages involving Asian-Americans. After all, the Asian-American population is growing rapidly. As noted by Asian Nation, U.S. Census data indicates that the U.S. Asian population has surged upward in the last 20 years (it grew 63% from 1990 to 2000 alone) and is expected to continue to grow (as per Wikipedia). So there may still be an increase in the number of interracial Asian marriages in the U.S. even as their rate decreases.

The upshot is, it looks like there will still be plenty of half-Asians in future American generations, but probably fewer relative to the number of Asians and mixed non-Asians.

Interracial marriages at an all-time high, study says [CNN]
Mixed Marriages Decline as Immigrants’ Children Seek Similar Partners [Washington Post]

This headline is no surprise to me, but a recent scientific study confirms it!

Mixed-race people are the most attractive, finds British study [Daily Mail]