Blog
Half and half
Sunday 9 July 2006
Article in today’s Star about mixed-race people in Toronto. The headline bugs me (“latte”, indeed - genetics is more complicated than that) but it’s interesting to hear about other people’s experiences. We do definitely tend to spot each other - a Chinese/Brit-descended friend refers to us as “What the hell are you?” people. Or perhaps we’re just more likely to bring up the subject?
The only person who pegged my background right away was my optometrist. “Are you half Japanese, by any chance? And half British, or European?” she asked, as she flipped little lenses back and forth in front of my eyes.
“Uh, yeah,” I said. “How did you guess?” Were there little flags embossed on my retinas? Was there a particular pattern to my irises?
“Oh, my husband is half Japanese, half French.”
I guess I’ve been lucky - in the very white schools I went to, I never really thought of myself as different from anyone else. Neither side of my family made me out as something “different”, at least that I can remember. Something I should ask my parents: did they ever get the ages-old routine about “why couldn’t you marry a nice [whichever-ethnic] boy/girl?”
The bit about Japanese Canadians and “cultural dilution” is true to a point. In the post-war years, the Japanese just sort of vanished into the woodwork. My mum didn’t grow up speaking the language, and she and my uncle married non-Japanese people.
On the other hand, I’ve been seeing more and more young Japanese people around - it seems like there’s been a new wave of immigration going on, enough so that there’s even a stylish little all-Japanese paper called Bits which covers life in the GTA.
Interestingly, on the other side of the family, we’ve recently confirmed that we’re not entirely Scottish, but probably half Scot, half Irish. Hurrah for more mixiness!
I’ve got a sort of birth mark that makes one side of my face look darker and freckled, with the dividing line going down the bridge of my nose. A few years ago I went to the trouble of masking it off and applying sunblock only to the lighter side, to accentuate the effect. I didn’t have the patience to keep it up for very long, but…
Hmm. Half and half. Maybe I should try it again.