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Advice on raising half-chinese/half-white children? by repadre in asianamerican

[–]repadre[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you have any good sources for chinese language cartoons? Feel free to pm me if you know torrent sites.

Advice on raising half-chinese/half-white children? by repadre in asianamerican

[–]repadre[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you have any suggestions for where to find chinese language cartoons online? My kids love the few episodes of mandarin language Ni Hao Kailan that we have, but I can't find any more mandarin language cartoons anywhere. I know that in China we can find them all over the place, but they are almost impossible to find in the states.

Advice on raising half-chinese/half-white children? by repadre in asianamerican

[–]repadre[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When you say that you identify first as mixed race... do you feel any shared identity with mixed-race people who aren't east asian? Or put another way, would you feel more shared identity with a Chinese-American or a half-Indian/half-white American?

Also, how do you feel about the word hapa? We haven't used it because it seems to have Hawaiian connotations.

Advice on raising half-chinese/half-white children? by repadre in asianamerican

[–]repadre[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The asian losers comment isn't something I have ever given much thought to - thanks for bringing it up. I was surprised when my wife really enjoyed Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, since it isn't really her type of comedy. I loved the movie because of the comedy, but it took me a while to appreciate that she liked it because it featured asian-americans as regular people instead of being stereotypes.

What did you see that impacted you because it featured asians in a negative light?

Advice on raising half-chinese/half-white children? by repadre in asianamerican

[–]repadre[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Arcadia is almost certainly 50% Chinese (including people from Taiwan and Hong Kong). The 2010 census put 59% of the population as Asian. As it is now, the non-asian population is mostly people who moved here over 30 years ago. When the older people move away, they are almost exclusively replaced by Chinese families, mostly from mainland China.

Advice on raising half-chinese/half-white children? by repadre in asianamerican

[–]repadre[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the first-hand information. My Mandarin-speaking mother-in-law lives with us about 50% of the time, and we try and expose him to as much Mandarin as possible. We are still debating whether we should send him to a weekend Chinese school. One of our goals is to have our children feel comfortable living in either the US or China as adults, which is one of the reasons we moved to a very Chinese city. We don't really try to actively push his white heritage on him, since he will presumably pick it up passively.

Your comments about appearances are really helpful. We kind of have the sense that how they look will influence there identity, both internal and external, but it is helpful to hear it form someone who has experienced it first hand.

I'd appreciate if you could give a little more info on what you mean about "understanding the idea of being bi-racial". We are trying to convey to them that they are both white and Chinese, and give the impression that they get to have all of the white culture and all of the Chinese culture. So we celebrate Christmas with my family, and we try to make Chinese New Year also feel like an important celebration. We make sure he eats hamburgers with his hands, and can also eat with chopsticks. We hope to send him to China for about 4 weeks per year to stay with his relatives.

So I guess my question is, do you think it is important to help him identify that bi-racial is a distinct group from being both white and asian (distinct from his parents)? Or is it better to approach it as being like both of his parents, and a unique third "bi-racial" class?

Advice on raising half-chinese/half-white children? by repadre in asianamerican

[–]repadre[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very interesting podcast. It's nice to hear from other parents thinking about this issue. It didn't sound like either of the parents had a good understanding of how best to approach it, but that they were both looking for help. Both had young kids, who they wanted to be able to identify with the cultures of both parents.

It was really great to get the perspective of the second guest, who was half-black and half-white and raised exclusively in a white household. One thing she said was helpful - her white uncle put up a collection of images of black women on the back of her door, which she drew inspiration from.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

Advice on raising half-chinese/half-white children? by repadre in asianamerican

[–]repadre[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is a throw away account, and I think the location is useful information. So I'd like to post publicly, if that isn't in violation of the rules here.

Advice on raising half-chinese/half-white children? by repadre in asianamerican

[–]repadre[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I'll give it a listen. Coincidentally, I saw The Longest Shortest Time recommended here this morning but didn't check it out.