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Tag Archives: Korean

My mom is fully and entirely Korean. She was born in Korea and raised in Korea. My dad on the other hand is Russian, Romanian, and British. He was born in New York.

While I was growing up almost everyone identified me as Asian. No one ever had any doubts. I had the eyes, the face, and the straight hair. Growing older the lines blurred though.

My hair became more curly and my face became more of the structure of a white person. If people ask I’ll tell them all the things I am, but usually I mostly go by Korean since it’s the most obvious in my features.

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I have always embraced my Hapa heritage, and fortunately I have never faced any real challenges because of my ethnicity.

My Dad’s side of the family is from Hawaii, and as you can imagine being hapa over there is not uncommon.

My Mother’s side of the family is from the Philadelphia region, so culturally I am all over the place.

Usually people who are one hundred percent Asian have a hard time believing that I am part Korean, while others can usually tell. Read More

I was born in California and lived in Hawaii from the age of 11 to 18.

Being half English and half Korean, it was hard as a kid growing up in SoCal.

Even though my school was very diverse, I was the only Hapa. Moving to Hawaii changed that because it was a place where I didn’t feel like I stood out. Read More

Yes there are more of us Hapas out there and I guess it’s good to share this. I will keep it simple.

I’m Kim-Sung Ariza and I was born in the great nation of Korea in Daejeon and I am proud to be Korean.

Besides being Asian my father is of  French, Dutch and Polish decent, my Mother is just Korean. My father grew up in Iłża in Poland. I also visited there to meet my father’s family but that’s about it for me when it comes to his relatives. Read More

One of my earliest memories is of an inner cultural conflict.

Sitting down with my family to eat a Korean-American meal of rice, gim, kimchi, sausage, and pasta I suddenly felt I needed to make a choice to be either Korean or American.

I felt overwhelmed. I couldn’t have the confusion of being both in my life. As children we are always attempting to dichotomize the things in our lives and ourselves.

Knowing myself, and who I am has always been very important in my life… for a long time I wasn’t accepting of being Korean. Read More

Growing up, I identified more with my Korean lineage since I and my twin brother were raised by both my Korean mother and grandmother. My Irish-American father passed away when I was just two.

Chicago was my birthplace until moving to NorCal in my early 30s. Chicago is still what I consider my hometown (but those winters—ouch!) I definitely was in the minority growing up — a primarily Italian/Polish neighborhood. However, I never once felt out of place. I was lucky. Read More

I am proud to be Hapa because I feel it is becoming the defining American experience, to be multiracial.  The U.S. was founded by immigrants, and continues to be the destination dream country for expatriates around the world. The face of America is one of ethnic diversity and multicultural identity.

Being biracial I am faced with the challenge of having to “choose” between whether I am White or Asian.  I feel that if I was 3/4 of one race, and 1/4 of another, it may be easier for me.  But I have even heard for some, whose racial makeup is so, they still claim the 1/4 of their heritage as their nationality.   Read More

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