The word h?fu (???, "half") is used in Japanese to refer to somebody who is biracial, i.e., ethnically half Japanese. The label emerged in the 1970s in Japan and is now the most commonly used and preferred term of self-definition. The word comes from the English word "half" indicating half foreign-ness.
Video H?fu
Social context
Fashionable images of the half-Japanese people have become prominent especially with the increased appearance of h?fu in the Japanese media. H?fu models are now seen on television or fill the pages of fashion magazines such as Non-no, CanCam and Vivi as often as newsreaders or celebrities. The appearance of h?fu in the media has provided the basis for such a vivid representation of them in the culture.
One of the earliest terms referring to half Japanese was ainoko, meaning a child born of a relationship between two races. It is still used in Latin America, most prominently Brazil (where spellings such as ainoco, ainoca (f.) and ainocô may be found), to refer to mestizo (broader Spanish sense of mixed-race in general) or mestiço people of some Japanese ancestry. Nevertheless, it evolved for an umbrella term for Eurasian or mixed Asian/mestizo, Asian/black, Asian/Arab and Asian/Indigenous heritage in general. At the same time it is possible for people with little Japanese or other Asian ancestry to be perceivable just by their phenotype to identify mostly as black, white or mestizo/pardo instead of ainoko, while people with about a quarter or less of non-Asian ancestry may identify just as Asian.
Ainoko, however, encountered social problems such as poverty, impurity and discrimination due to the negative treatment of h?fu in the 1940s in Japan. The word was gradually replaced from the late 1950s by konketsuji (???) which literally means a child of mixed blood.
Soon this, too, became a taboo term due to its derogatory connotations such as illegitimacy and discrimination. What were central to these labels were the emphasis on "blood impurity" and the obvious separation of the half-Japanese from the majority of Japanese. Some English-speaking parents of children of mixed ethnicity use the word "double." Amerasian is another term for children of mixed ancestry, especially those born to US military fathers and Japanese mothers.
Of the 1 million children born in Japan in 2013, 2.2% had one or more non-Japanese parent.[70] According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, one in forty-nine babies born in Japan today are born into families with one non-Japanese parent. Most intermarriages in Japan are between Japanese men and women from other East Asian countries, including China, Taiwan and South Korea. Southeast Asia too, also has significant populations of people with half-Japanese ancestry, particularly in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
The 2013 documentary film Hafu is about the experiences of h?fu living in Japan and deals with issues of identity and stereotyping that they face.
Maps H?fu
List of famous h?fu
- Erika Sawajiri, idol, model, actress, singer ( half Algerian )
- Angela Aki, pop singer-songwriter and pianist
- Sayaka Akimoto, television host and model ( half Filipina )
- Mashu Baker, 2016 Olympic gold medallist
- Asuka Cambridge, Sprinter ( half Jamaican )
- Harry B. Harris Jr., four-star admiral in the United States Navy
- Arata Izumi, footballer ( half Indian )
- Jero, first black enka singer
- Sean Lennon, musician and composer ( half English )
- Ariana Miyamoto, Miss Universe Japan 2015
- Isamu Noguchi, Artist, Designer
- Maria Ozawa, actress, model, and former AV idol ( half Canadian )
- Rola, model, talent and actress ( half Bangladeshi )
- Alice Sara Ott, Pianist ( half German )
- Renh?, journalist and politician, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan ( half Taiwanese )
- G?toku Sakai, footballer
- Eiji Wentz, singer, entertainer, and actor
- Priyanka Yoshikawa, Miss Japan 2016
- Stefan Ishizaki, footballer
- Yu Shirota, actor and singer
- Yu Darvish, pitcher for the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team
- Tomio Okamura, politian
- Megumi Nakajima, voice actress, singer
- Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, President of the Pan-European Union
- Mike Shinoda, musician, co-founder of the rock band Linkin Park
- Takeshi Kaneshiro, actor
- Reina Triendl, actress, talent, model
- Sadaharu Oh, famous baseball player
- Miyavi, rock, guitarist and actor
- Keone Young, actor
- Miho Fukuhara, singer
- Don Wakamatsu, baseballer
- Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, sprinter
- Genki Dean, javelin thrower
- Musashi Suzuki, footballer
- Nicole Fujita, model and tarento
- Anna Murashige, idol singer
- Crystal Kay, singer, actress
- Masato David Hayakawa, vocalist of Coldrain.
- Maiko Nakamura, singer
- Meisa Kuroki, actress
- Yuichi Matsumoto, baseball player
- David Silva, footballer
- Joji Miller, YouTube personality and musician.
- Mitski Miyawaki, singer
- Subaru Kimura, voice actor.
- Rie Fujioka, musician and composer.
- Alan Shirahama, singer and member of the Generations from Exile Tribe.
- Mark Ishii, voice actor
- Shota Matsuda, actor
- Takayasu Akira, sumo wrestler
- Naomi Osaka, tennis player
- Taro Daniel, tennis player
- Christel Takigawa, television presenter
- Anna Tsuchiya, singer, actress, model
- Becky, television personality
- Amy Hill, comedienne and actress
- Kyla Ross, gymnast
- Bianca Ryan, winner of the America's Got Talent
- Christian Yelich, baseballer
- Yumi Lambert, model
- Nichole Bloom, actress and model
- Ian Anthony Dale, actor
- Tamlyn Tomita, actress
- Irina Khakamada, politician
- Karyn Kusama, filmmaker
- Sonoya Mizuno, actress
- Anna Akana, YouTube personality
- Elle McLemore, actress
- Louisa Krause, actress
- Issa Lish, model
- Marie Helvin, fashion model and writer
- Sabrina Sato, television personality
- Paulo Nagamura, footballer
- Luma Grothe, model
- Christopher Sean, actor
- Tadanobu Asano, actor
- Mayumi Sada, actress
- Namie Amuro, singer
- Rikako Sasaki, singer
- Marius Yo, singer
- Ayumi Horie, potter and artist
- Nicola Formichetti, fashion director and fashion editor
- Apolo Ohno, speed skater
- Ayana Shahab, idol singer (half Arab Indonesian)
- Ayako Fujitani, actress, and daughter of Steven Seagal
H?fu in popular culture
- Mari Ohara
See also
References
External links
- Hafu Film
- The Hafu Project - By artist Natalie Maya Willer and researcher Marcia Yumi Lise
- Halvsie
- Hapa Japan
- ""This Is Who I Am": Jero, Young, Gifted, Polycultural" -(Fellezs 2012)
- Die Kreuzungsstelle - A voices of half Japanese, mixed race/multiracial or multiethnic persons.
- Biracial Beauty Queen Challenges Japan's Self-Image, NYT
Source of article : Wikipedia
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