I Am Hearing Impaired And Half Asian
by Christopher Leise
I met another hard of hearing Chinese student at the Rochester Institute of Technology and enjoyed talking about what we experienced growing up in sunny California and a Hong Kong film "Shaolin Soccer." A moment later, I became relaxed and watched him signing to me, "Chris, you are Hapa. Do you know what it is?" It got me startled and I thought he was trying to joke with me in Spanish since I hate to keep hearing that I am Hispanic. Then, he explained, “Hapa is a slang, meaning Half Asian.” It makes me a hearing impaired Half Asian rather than just a deaf guy.
I didn’t know such a powerful word like that existed until I was 18. I became obsessed with that because it sounds like a unique word. It was almost like looking for treasures buried undersea. I researched it on Internet and found some amazing things about mixed Asian individuals and celebrities. Mixed Asians are quite unique subjects. Though their backgrounds are different, they share similar advantages such as charming and better personal growth and easily getting involved in competition. I was struck with awe from looking at faces of Mixed Asians and began to look back in my past and wondered if I missed something out. My perspective of who I am as just a hearing-impaired person began to change.
When parents find out that their two years old child has hearing loss, they begin to realize that they will live a different life. They become worrisome about their child’s future. This is what happened to my parents. My parents both are graduate students and they want me to get the best education and succeed. I didn’t see what was wrong with me having fun in school and sports until I noticed high school students began to act in weird ways and developed their own priority in what they believe in and what they want people to think. They sometimes approached me in some weird ways because of either my hearing problem or my different look. I started to sense the reality about what was going on in the world, which I haven’t often heard or overheard. When it comes to career life, career opportunities are somewhat limited for me as well as other deaf people. For instance, flying a jet fighter requires good vision and hearing skills.
Deafness is, of course, viewed as a disability by majority of people. It is definitely an insult to deaf people because deaf people see it as a valuable culture with beautiful sign language and expressive body language and gesture which the hearing world doesn't have.
That is how I decided to put my full pride in Deaf Culture by attending RIT in the East Coast with 1000 hearing impaired smart students, I hoped to find others whom I could relate to. I made many good and bad friends because of our deafness. As the years passed, I keep finding most of them either so different or pessimistic. My pride in Deaf Culture began to fade bit by bit.
When Hapa showed up in my mind, I found several impaired Mixed Asians and started observing and comparing them to other deaf people. I noticed almost all of them are the most noble people I ever met. They are fascinating and charming and they can do many things. They can get along with various people, and, they even get some respect from hearing people. They also respect their Asian heritage. But, unfortunately, some of them did not pay attention to exciting things about other Hapas. Only a few pay a little attention to Mixed Asians.
I met a hearing impaired half Thai from Switzerland. I felt little bit sorry for his cerebral palsy and isolation, so I tried to find if there was anything good about him. I noticed he was incredibly handsome like a Hawaiian surfer, and I envied him for that. When I introduced Hapa to him, it made him more proud of himself. I asked him if he thinks Kristen Kruek is gorgeous. He didn’t think so and he preferred Christina Aguilera and we laughed about it. We became almost brothers like the movie "Rain Man." He is the most extraordinary person I ever met because he could answer most of the questions about the history of Gallaudet University which most of the deaf students didn’t know and could play indoor soccer all right, though he has physical limitations.
My article may be similar to other stories at this point. But what I am trying to say is, what kind of sign language you would have and what kind of body language you would have if you were Hapa and deaf. Some of you would like to know. Well I know one half Chinese dude who signs in such a fascinating way. It is hard for me to describe how he signs since most of you don’t know sign language. I would say that he signs in fun, idealistic, charming, passionate, inspiring, motivated, and logical way, while he talks about many things related to culture, history, business, sociology, fashion police, and liberal arts during just a brief conversation. It is like watching him in a quick movie as the US president or an Asian comedian. He is similar to Tom Cruise in some ways; meanwhile, I see my sign language accent and gesture as calm and noble as Keanu Reeves or Edison Chen or a first-class Samurai.
Some of you guys may want to know what it is like to meet a hearing impaired Hapa girl. From my observation, she doesn’t need to impress with her stylish sign language and her cool background, but also she would just use her lovely eyes and white teeth to charm anybody.
There is nothing that you can compare with hearing impaired Mixed Asians. Deaf culture has made them open-minded, friendly, strong, and passionate to learn about anything. Yet, Asian blood has distinguished them with unique style and charm and intelligence.
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An Honorary Hapa
by Frank Y Pak Agostinelli I'm always scanning the sports world for Mixed Asians. You’ll find the likes of Johnny Damon (NY Yankees), Dave Roberts (SF Giants), Tedy Bruschi (NE Patriots), Willie Demps (NY Giants), and Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward to name a few. Ward is my favorite and by far the most vocal when discussing his Hapaness. His Helping Hands Foundation was created for biracial kids in South Korea, his place of birth. Then comes my second favorite "Hapa," Scott Fujita of the New Orleans Saints. He is one of the many athletes leading the sports revival of the city of New Orleans since the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Fujita also "thinks of himself as half Japanese at heart (p.56)." You may ask, "why at heart?" It's because Scott is White and his adoptive parents are Japanese (father) and White (mother).
Scott's adoption is known as transracial or transcultural adoption. Statistics on transracial/transcultural adoption are skewed because the focal point is always on Caucasian parents and whom they adopt. The universal identity crisis that plagues adopted kids (just as most Mixed Asians) never was an issue for Scott. His mantra was and is: "defining for himself who he is (p.56)."
The fact he thinks of himself as half Japanese at heart is due to his paternal grandparents Lillie and Nagao. They taught him everything about Japanese culture. Japanese culture became his culture. They also told him about their time spent in the internment (prison) camps during WWII. The treatment of Japanese Americans remains a sore spot for Scott. His grandparents married prior to the mass internment to keep from being separated. Nagao graduated BYU and joined the army. As Nagao fought with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Rod Fujita, Scott’s father was born.
Many pundits enjoy throwing the issues of race when it comes to transracial/transcultural adoption. But a point many miss is simple and most important, a child given up by his or her biological parents has two people willing to give their unconditional love. There are steps the new parents can take to introduce their child to his/her ethnic background but it is up to the parents, not you or me. Scott’s sentiments on race can be summed up in the following quote: "I know I don’t have a drop of Japanese blood in me. But what is race? It's just a label. The way you are raised, your family, the people you love-that means more than everything else (p.56)."
The Boxers Of Shandong
by Frank Y Pak Agostinelli
The Boxer Rebellion conjures up images of the Chinese historical figure and hero Wong Fei Hung single-handedly dismantling the organization of bandits with his Tiger and Crane fist style. But these depictions are best left in the cinemas. The real Boxer Rebellion was unleashed upon the foreign intruder with a little coaxing from the Empress Dowager Cixi. The following is a brief summarization of the events surrounding the Boxer Rebellion.
Shandong is the birthplace of Confucius and the Boxer Rebellion. The people in this province were fearless, skilled in martial arts, and partook in rituals of spirit-possession. Spirit possession had its roots in shamanism, which was the conjuring of gods or goddesses to protect the Boxer from bullets. The original intent of the Boxers who were made up of the Chinese lower end of society was to overthrow the suppression of the Qing government. This suppression was brought about by the Sino-Japanese War. Shandong was always prosperous and never had a problem fulfilling tax obligations. With the conclusion of the war in 1895, military cuts were made but not completely, due to foreign contingencies mainly Russian, German, and the Japanese. In addition, the province was saddled with an annual obligation of 390,000 taels to repay the debt incurred to meet Japan’s substantial war indemnity (p. 170). This caused great tension between the people of the Shandong province and the Qing government. At the same time the influx of foreigners into China was a constant hindrance because of the foreign flavor they had brought with them, most notably religion.
Wanting to rid China of foreign influences, the Empress saw the Boxers as a means to an end. At the same time she was worried for her post as leader of the Qing government. The Empress cleverly turned the Boxer’s attention in the direction of the foreign influences with the focal being the foreign religion, Christianity. She preserved her position for another day by giving these Boxers a sense of pride in China. The Boxers most common slogan was Fu-Qing mie-yang ("support the Qing, destroy the foreign" (p. 68)). A sense of nationalism took precedence over internal struggles and conflicts. The Boxer's attacks were merciless as Christian missionaries and their Chinese converts were killed and their Christian camps set ablaze. The attacks were answered with gunfire. Unfortunately many Boxers perished believing the spirits that possessed them would protect them. The uprising began in 1899 and eventually peaked in the summer of 1900. The Boxer Rebellion had global ramifications because of trends that took place within China. It is a piece of historical importance on how the Chinese dealt with Western imperialism.
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