tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204727386532339291.post6334612237549051134..comments2023-12-10T13:16:58.731+09:00Comments on Axis of Abraxas: A Poetry Blog: "Hafu"Jessica Goodfellowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07561656986278259434noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204727386532339291.post-29144400783321106212011-11-14T08:25:05.545+09:002011-11-14T08:25:05.545+09:00Chris, that's exactly how it was for us too. I...Chris, that's exactly how it was for us too. I was super vigilant about what my kids were being called, and they were surprised to hear me ranting about half and double, because they saw it as a Japanese word having nothing to do with numeric values, and they thought having to tell everyone around them to change the word exacerbated the situation, creating a problem where they didn't see any. They just wanted to get along and were doing fine without my intervention. <br /><br />When they are teenagers and more interested in group identities, they might have different feelings, but my friends with older kids say that they are generally fine with being called "hafu" too. We'll see.Jessica Goodfellowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07561656986278259434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204727386532339291.post-15636855232478760102011-11-14T08:20:36.875+09:002011-11-14T08:20:36.875+09:00True, I have never considered how Zen feels about ...True, I have never considered how Zen feels about the word because he'S too young. At this age (a month shy of 7), he just wants to be treated as himself without being lavished with extra attention for being different. He doesn't consider himself different, he says, so why should anybody else?chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204727386532339291.post-51191745085959933012011-11-13T09:37:49.262+09:002011-11-13T09:37:49.262+09:00Chris,
This is a really interesting point that has...Chris,<br />This is a really interesting point that has been discussed a lot in a group I belong to of non-Japanese women married to Japanese men. I used to be a big advocate of the term "daburu," or double, which emphasizes that children like ours have two nationalities, heritages, and cultures, not half a nationality or culture, or identity or value. This term has not caught on with the children it was designed to describe, because they largely feel that "hafu" is not understood as "half" by Japanese people, and they are far less sensitive to its usage than their parents seem to be. They are less inclined to want to go around educating Japanese that they should switch terms than they are interested in being accepted for who they are, or so it seems.<br /><br />On the "Hafu Project" website, there's a discussion of the history of words used in Japan to describe children like ours. It's an interesting (and sad) read. It ends with the paragraph "In order to correct the negative nuance of half foreign-ness, a new term was created in the 1990s: “daburu,” deriving from the word double. It emphasises that Hafus are not half anything but one person with two different heritages. However this word has been rarely used by the Hafus themselves due to its overemphasis of positive self-assertion, and many feel that Hafu is acceptable."<br /><br />It's an interesting discussion, but I am willing to let the inidivduals who fall in this category decide what they want to be called rather than argue for it myself anymore. They've got my support, whatever they decide.Jessica Goodfellowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07561656986278259434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204727386532339291.post-60364726624151321202011-11-13T08:46:58.682+09:002011-11-13T08:46:58.682+09:00One start would be to avoid the pejorative term &q...One start would be to avoid the pejorative term "hafu" for "both", which much more accurately describes the reality of kids like yours and mine.Chrisnoreply@blogger.com