3. • The story of Lou Jing, dubbed Chocolate Girl
and Black Pearl, reminds us that claiming
one’s own identity, as Tiger Woods and
President Obama have done in the United
States, is not as easily done in many parts of
Asia.
4. • Indeed, many people have publicly questioned
whether Lou Jinghad a “right” to even
compete in a show for Chinese contestants.
Time Magazine ran the headline, “Can a
Mixed-Race Contestant Become a Chinese
Idol?”
5. • Lou Jing was born in Shanghai. She speaks
Mandarin. She has never met her American
father. The only identity she has known is that
of a young Chinese woman.
• In the same way, the only identity I have
known, for many years, is that of an American
woman. It is only through my most recent
trips to Asia that I can see I am no more
American than I am Asian.
6. • In my recent trip to Japan, a short trip to Osaka,
most people started off the conversation with me
in Japanese. It was only when I halted did they
switch to English. Perhaps pops stars such as
Crystal Kay have paved a way for me, making it
easier for Japanese people to expect a mixed-race
person to understand a language that has
become foreign to me.
•
8. • But then, this same rationale would not
account for my treatment in Vietnam, where
most people assumed that I would speak
Japanese. In both of these cases, I felt more
Asian than American. This feeling, though
perhaps obvious to some, was unexpected,
yet welcome
9. • For many years, I have tried to disassociate
from a country that disowned my Japanese
mother, first for being a prostitute – and then
for marrying a black man. It would not be a
stretch to say that some readers, judging from
their online comments, would like to see Lou
Jing do the same thing.
10. • Thankfully, Lou Jing seems to remain steadfast
about one thing: She is Chinese. She speaks
Chinese. She lives in China. And her mother is
the most loving person she knows.
11. • This bond between mother and mixed-race
child offers further proof that a key factor in
forming racial identity is through the
relationship between a child and his parent or
parents, as noted in an important study on
racial identity published in the Journal of
Counseling Psychology in 2005:
•
12. • Without a doubt, parents seemed to be the single
most influential people in the development and
expression of participants’ racial identity. … In
general, it seemed that participants adopted the
racial– ethnic label of the parent to whom they
felt emotionally closest or whom they viewed as
most dominant in the household.
• Miville, Marie L. and Constantine, Madonna G. Chameleon Changes: An Exploration of Racial Identity Themes of Multiracial
People, Journal of Counseling Psychology by the American Psychological Association, 2005, Vol. 52, No. 4, 507-516
13. In my home, I culturally and ethnically bonded
with my Japanese mother, even though I was
forbidden from speaking the language after
the age of three or four.
14.
15. • And it is the Japanese culture that I bond with
most now, so many years later. Even though I
look African American or an amalgamation
thereof, I feel Japanese. Indeed, on my recent
trip to Osaka, I felt more at home in Japan –
than I do in Palo Alto, Orange County or
Sacramento, California.
16. • So in my home, I bonded with some elements
of my Japanese culture, and some elements of
my African American culture. Mostly, I became
a little lost in who I was, and where I
belonged. Mostly, I tried to fit in with society
by becoming “American.”
17. • And yet, I remained very close to my mother,
feeling very much the daughter of a Japanese
mother, a woman who was somewhat
reserved but caring.
18. • And this is where I see the connection
between Lou Jing and my own story: the
strong bond between mother and daughter:
If anything, their enduring bond as mother and
daughter only seems to have gotten stronger. After
all, for all their critics, there were just as many
supporters.
Emily Chang, CNN
19. • Indeed, some people are calling Lou Jing
names, telling her to get out of China or that
she's not really Chinese. Some, mostly
anonymous, are saying even harsher things,
and many in the media are focusing on the
issue of racism against blacks in China and
throughout Asia.
20. • And so, while it would be easier to say that
the story involving Lou Jing is another clear
example of racism in Asia, and a factor in
explaining why mixed-race people do not feel
truly at home in Asia, the story is much more
complicated than that – and the story is
evolving.
21. As China continues to open up, this kind of
phenomenon will become ever more prevalent,"
says David Zweig, a professor of humanities and
social sciences at the Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology. This is part of the process
of internationalization, but we can only hope that
Chinese people, including netizens and the people
whose views tend towards extremism, can come
to accept that there are many mixed-race people,
both in China and worldwide.
Time Magazine
