Tag Archives: identity
Edward Hong’s powerful declaration of identity, “I Am Korean American”
Asian Americans as a group share identity issues being stuck between cultures — not quite accepted by the country of our heritage, and not quite always accepted as “American” either. We’re still finding our place in society. Each culture can have a specific spin that colors our identity. Japanese Americans carry baggage from internment and […]
Hapa Voice celebrates mixed-race Asian identity
Erica Johnson is a woman on a mission. Earlier this year, she launched a blog called Hapa Voice where she posts submissions from hapas — mixed-race Asians — with photos and short autobiographies that explain a little about themselves. The titles of each post are a simple rundown of the submitter’s ethnic mix. This elegant, […]
Japanese don’t draw anime characters to be white
I’ve written before about Japanese anime, or animation, as well as the genre’s characters and their large eyes, and wondered if they symbolize a desire to look more Caucasian. But this brief guest post by Julian Abagond on the blog Sociological Images titled Why Do the Japanese Draw Themselves As White? that offers very interesting […]
Do we still call ourselves “Asian American?”
With Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month about to end, I thought I’d write a bit about the terms we choose to describe our identity. Like other ethnic groups, the labels we use for ourselves seems to be always evolving. Hispanic evolves into Latino; Negro to Black to African American; Native American to American Indian. […]
Sites like I Am Korean American & Discover Nikkei collect stories about identity for our communities
Every once in a while, people ask me about the name of my blog, because they only hear the word “Nikkei” when it’s used for the Japanese stock exchange. “Nikkei” is also so the word used to describe people of Japanese ancestry outside of Japan. I’m a Nikkei-jin, or Nikkei person. When my blog first […]
