Session 7: Constructions of Race and Ethnicity
Session 7: Constructions of Race and Ethnicity
Chair: Iain McKenna
A Hapa Future: Creating a New Racial Frontier
Kaori Mori
Cultural Studies Program, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Saitama, Japan
More and more people are now crossing over national boundaries. One of the consequences of this human diaspora is the increase of interracial marriage and the birth of racially mixed children. In an American context, those people of mixed racial heritage are called “Hapa.” The term, “Hapa,” originally came from a Hawaiian slang for racially mixed people with partial roots in Asian and/or pacific islander ancestry, but it now refers to all racially mixed people.
Due to the American racial hierarchy that posits whiteness on its top, interracial marriage, which disrupted racial purity, was banned in the US. Hapas were excluded both from their mothers’ and fathers’ racial groups. This exclusion troubled their identity formation, and the sense of belonging.
On the other hand, Hapas have succeeded in convincing the US government to allow Hapas to mark more than one racial category in the US Census recently. Their multiracial identity is now officially acknowledged. This achievement is significant for Hapas because it enabled them to affirm their multiraciality. Rather than complaining their social isolation, Hapas have started articulating their voices in American society. They not only change social systems but also challenge social consciousness so Americans could embrace diversity in race. Frank Wu, an Asian American political scientist, finds the positive force of Hapa, and notes Hapas “engender confusion about categories, [and] destabilize a universal order in which all know their place and stay here” (Yellow, 285).
This paper examines how Hapa could change the existing racial power structure through confounding Self and Other dichotomy, and empower all the racially and ethnically marginalized peoples with interdisciplinary research methods. This paper limits the discussion only in the case of Hapa in the US. However, the development of Hapa consciousness in the US will benefit all the marginalized people in the world.
Being Female and Ethnic Minority in Hong Kong: The Double Marginalization of Nepalese Women and its Policy Implications
Siumi Maria Tam
Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
This paper examines the situation of Nepalese women in Hong Kong , as members of the smallest ethnic minority in the territory and a highly marginalized community. It looks at the interface of gender and ethnic minority identity as they are articulated within the context of transnational mobility and the double-marginal existence of the female half of this minority population. The first generation of Nepalese women sojourned in colonial Hong Kong as wives of the British Gurkha regiment; as such they lived an isolated life, physically as they were restricted to the army camp, and socially as a colored minority in a predominantly Chinese society. The second generation, daughters of these marriages, experienced a reverse migration back to the mountain kingdom to be raised in a split household. In the 1990s they returned, not as individual migrants but as wives of a new generation of male migrants. A third generation of migrant women is now emerging, as granddaughters of the Gurkhas they seek to settle permanently and demand the right to be educated and to work in their second home. Whatever the circumstance for their migration, the common denominator among the three generations of female migrants was their submission to arranged marriage, parental authority , and familial duty. In their major decisions in different stages of their lives, gender roles as mother-wife have been the most important determinant. At the same time these females have been important building blocks of a transnational network, and today, increasingly, agents of change. As the Hong Kong government begins to pay attention to ethnic relations and their potential impact on social harmony, this paper argues that an in-depth understanding of the lived experience of ethnic minorities is essential, in particular the gendered lives of Nepalese women as a doubly marginalized group.
Puppetry and Race in 20th Century United States
Heidi Louise Cooper
USA
Using examples from early 20th century traditional American puppetry and modern, avant-garde work, this paper will explore both the problems and potentials of racial representation inherent in the art of puppetry. There is a central paradox in the practice of puppetry today that must be addressed. While many puppeteers working in the United States are actively involved in pro-diversity work, many representations, especially of non-White humanity, remain curiously reactionary, especially in light of on going arguments and recommendations about productive representation in Media Studies and other disciplines. Writings produced by puppet artists and the racial nomenclature of puppet sets clearly reveasl a sense of discomfort around racial representation. Yet, little has been written examining this phenomenon or discussing ways to avoid re-inscribing racial stereotypes. One reason for the outdated nature of visual representation in puppetry is the ongoing presence of the nostalgic impulse in the art form, arising both from practicing artists and audience expectations. However, the relationship of traditional puppetry to the art of caricature also plays a large part in the phenomenon. As I will demonstrate, despite the conservative nature of trends in puppetry construction and performance, there are certain works that highlight the art’s ability to trouble popular conceptions of the meaning and reality of race.
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