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A beauty contest winner making Japan look at itself
- gii2 11y agoJhene Aiko is my second favorite blackanese now... :)
- jpatokal 11y ago> There is no word like hafu outside Japan, but I think we need it here. Welp, she's Japanese alright, she's even mastered nihonjinron: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonjinron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonjinron But more or less the same concept elsewhere: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapa (Hawaiian, and another loan from the English "half") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luk_khrueng https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luk_khrueng (Thai for "half child") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BAnxu%C4%9Br https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BAnxu%C4%9Br https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mestizo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mestizo
- geomark 11y agoThat link about nihonjinron is interesting. I see that affect all the time in Thailand. There is a constant discussion of "Thainess" and what it means to be Thai. The government instituted classes on Thainess that are mandatory for foreigners who teach English here. There are regular initiatives to add Thainess teaching to the already pathetic school curriculum. I didn't realize other countries also had a fixation on their identity.
- droque 11y agoWhile it means mixed, at least in Mexico the concept carries a different connotation. Rather than being an outsider, it's the national identity. See for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_las_Tres_Culturas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_las_Tres_Culturas
- jboy 11y agoHere in Sydney, Australia, the term "halvie" seems to be relatively common amongst those who discuss such things. It's not considered derogatory or offensive; at worst, slightly unsubtle or socially inept (like any labelling of a person by their race). Friends use the term lightly or playfully. Australia is a predominantly-white country that is geographically closer to Asia than to any other white or Western countries. We have a long history of Chinese immigration. Sydney, especially inner-city Sydney and the areas around the four major universities, have large proportions of predominantly-Asian international students, many of whom later settle here. White-Asian interracial dating is very common in Sydney. Especially at the universities amongst students in the Science, Engineering (including Computer Science, of course) and Business schools. And so, there are an increasing number of "halvies" being born...
- Terretta 11y agoDon't forget French métis, e.g. in Canada: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Métis_people_(Canada) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Métis_people_(Canada) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Métis http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Métis FWIW, I learned the word in French speaking Africa.
- jpatokal 11y agoFinland, another country that's traditionally been very isolationist -- before the EU came along, it was second only to Albania in having the fewest % of resident foreigners -- had its own version of this in 1996, when a Finn of half-Nigerian descent was chosen as Miss Finland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_Wallinkoski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_Wallinkoski
- carlob 11y agoItaly has never been very isolationist, but there has been some debate when Denny Méndez [1] won Miss Italia. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denny_Méndez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denny_Méndez
- beachstartup 11y ago> There is no word like hafu outside Japan, uh, what? how about "half", the exact word that 'hafu' is supposed to emulate? you can't borrow a word from another language, and then claim it's unique to yours! i'm fairly confident nearly everyone on earth knows what it means to be 'half', or just mixed race/ethnicity in general. in fact there are even places on earth where mixed race is the norm. try going to brazil. FUN FACT: the largest japanese population outside of japan is there. i think they might have a concept of hafu there. just maybe. if you're paying attention, i think the above statement tells us more about japanese culture than the entire article, on many levels.
- RobAley 11y agoA common, although often derogatory, term here in the UK is "half cast" for people (kids in particular) of mixed race.
- jusben1369 11y agoIt's hard to really answer it based on a relatively short article but I don't think she was being literal in the sense that no other culture has a term for someone of mixed race. My interpretation, and it's just that, is she was saying there's no other country outside Japan that has such a unique situation that you therefore really need a word that describes someone who is Japanese and is yet not Japanese at the same time.
- beachstartup 11y agoyeah, that's also bullshit. just off the top of my head, i can name: hawaii, the caribbean, brazil, parts of europe (italy comes to mind), east asia (especially places with large overseas diaspora like china and taiwan) all have identical cultural concepts, especially those with large populations living in america.
- billpg 11y agoBeauty contests are still a thing?
- mhogomchungu 11y agoWho exactly is a Tanzanian were questions that were also asks also when a Tanzanian of indian descent[1] represented Tanzania in international beauty pageants. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richa_Adhia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richa_Adhia
- hudstew 11y agoThere are a few things to keep in mind: 1) Ariana Miyamoto was chosen as Miss Japan by Japanese people. 2) The critics of Miyamoto are an extreme, vocal minority on Twitter and 2chan. 3) Although Japanese contestants often perform well at the international level, beauty pageants of this sort do not receive much attention within the country regardless of the contestant. 4) "Hafu" is a Japanese word derived from the English "half". It is used to refer to biracial people, but there is no connotation that they are "half" a person. I cannot understand the logic of the author who says that the word sounds derogatory in English -- it's a Japanese word, after all, and is not derogatory in Japanese. The author uses point (2) as well as his short personal experience in Japan to make broad statements to the effect that Japanese people in general do not accept those whose appearance differs from their own. Japan makes an easy target in this regard because of the well-known (outside Japan, at least) concept of Nihonjinron, as well as the persisting sense that Japan is an isolated country where outsiders will never be accepted into the "in group". Due to this, there is an expectation (particularly in foreign media) that Japanese are racist, and any proof, even that of an extreme minority on Twitter, is taken as evidence in support of this. Of course, living in Japan, I remember hearing similar broad statements about racism in the United States concerning the backlash against electing a black president in 2008. The real lesson here is that we should not be basing our impressions of an entire society on a vocal minority, no matter how much their opinions conform to our expectations.
- amirmc 11y agoOn point 4, I'd wonder that it's because the author is British. There's a whole nervousness about referring to anyone using race as a differentiator (lest you be considered racist?). To the point where someone will describe someone else by imaginative means even when 'the black guy with glasses' would actually be the most succinct way.
- kstenerud 11y agoYes, let's forget about all the nightclubs I couldn't go into, being physically barred by guards outside holding their crossed arms, saying "gaijin dame!". Let's forget about the complete lack of upward mobility in any office I worked in. Let's forget about the neighbors who completely shunned me until it was my turn as the block representative, at which point they criticized my lack of understanding of the bureaucracy. Let's forget about the countless times people would cross to the other side of the street as soon as they saw me coming. I just thanked my lucky stars that I wasn't Brazilian. They have it the worst. Now, I had lots of nice experiences there, especially in the countryside where people are a lot friendlier, but by no means can you say that racism does not permeate their entire society.
- cassandranot 11y agoSo this article should confuse the femtards - on one hand she is a strong lady fighting the cause, removing the stigma of hafu, yet the other hand she won a beauty contest, which are usually anathema to femtards...
- soylentcola 11y agoIt's almost as if different people have a wide variety of opinions on different matters (even if they share other opinions).
- vtlynch 11y agoThis entire article is about stereotyping, and the third paragraph is rife with the authors own stereotypes. "My confusion lasts only until Ariana opens her mouth. Suddenly everything about her shouts out that she is Japanese, from the soft lilting tone of her voice, to her delicate hand gestures and demure expression." What is this trash.
- tghw 11y agoStereotypes are shortcuts for us to more easily categorize people. The term "stereotype" has gotten a negative connotation associated with it because often stereotypes are used in a discriminatory manner, but the truth is that we all stereotype to some degree to ease our mental load. In this case, the author is identifying behaviors that are more common among people who were raised in Japan than behaviors you might expect from someone raised in the US. My reading was that, while she is ethnically mixed (to whatever extent that phrase is meaningful), she is culturally Japanese through and through.
- slipjack 11y agoExtra points for Orientalist views of Japanese femininity.
- CurtHagenlocher 11y agoHow is this different from when Miss America 2014 was crowned? (http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2013/09/first-indian-american-miss-america-has-racists-very-very-confused/69439/ http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2013/09/first-indian-am...)
- Nadya 11y agoThis is only just now making BBC news? This took place ages ago. It's not uncommon for vocal minorities (ie. nationalists who take some pride in being "pure" to their race. Not necessarily in a "nazi like" way) to speak up when a "half" wins a contest that is supposed to represent them as a people. If you read through the comments on this thread you'll find several other examples from different nations about this very same problem. How can you say a 50% Japanese person represents a 100% Japanese person? They are not representative of a 'Japanese person' if they are not fully Japanese! That is the logic of the nationalists. Does it sound racist? Yes. Is it racist? To most people, probably... especially to PC-minded liberals. Do I consider it racist? Not really, but it brings a host of its own problems regarding these sorts of contests. How would a ハフ compete in beauty contests? Would there be "African-Japanese" classification? What about people who are a mix of 3 races? 4 races? Do we have to do genetic fingerprinting? Would it be based on a majority of which race you are? Who cares if she was "selected by Japanese people"? A democratic vote does not guarantee 100% of the people agree with the decision. Let's say she won with a 95% approval rating. That means 5% of the people who voted are either unhappy or neutral that she won. If that 5% is vocal of their disapproval... that's to be expected? Her being selected by Japanese people for the contest does not mean there won't be a vocal minority opposed to it.
- addicted 11y agowell, at least the Japanese dont call their country's beauty pageant winners terrorists. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Davuluri#Response_and_significance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Davuluri#Response_and_sign...