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MIXED BLOOD, MIXED MARRIAGES
The Chinese are fascinated by mixed children, but just what
does it mean to be in a mixed marriage?
By Mina Tenison
Whenever I walk around Shanghai with my two children, people often
come up to me and ask whether my children are "hunxue"—mixed
blood. I cannot help but smile at their quaint question because Shanghai
is an international cosmopolitan city and now choc-a-block with foreigners.
It has mixed children running all over the city, mixed up in every which
way. There are some children that are culturally mixed—half European
and half Chinese; some that are nationally mixed—as in half French
and half American; some that are racially mixed—as in half Caucasian
and half Asian; and some that are linguistically mixed—as in Shanghainese
and Cantonese. And in between there are all variations and permutations.
I myself am Korean-American and my husband is British. We live in Shanghai
and my children speak Mandarin and English.
So it comes as a surprise when people still ask whether my children
are mixed—"hunxue." Of course this preponderance of
mixed children and mixed families in Shanghai was not always the case.
Shanghai 10-15 years ago had a fewer number of foreigners and to have
a mixed-blood kid always meant one thing and one thing only: a marriage
between an Asian woman (i.e. a local woman) who was lucky enough or
ambitious enough to secure a foreign man (a laowai). Whether she was
a passport-grubber or an economic opportunist, it didn't matter; what
was important was that she was smart enough to secure the deal and lock
in the partner by producing children. Now, not all the mixed-marriages
were like this, but I did live in Shanghai 11 years ago, and I couldn't
help but notice that a great 95% of the mixed marriages that I encountered
always went one way—a foreign male with an Asian female. Back
then, I had just arrived from America and didn’t understand how
this was a real eyesore to the indignant locals. When I used to walk
around with my husband, random guys would spit on the ground and spew
out angry comments I couldn’t understand. When one guy glared
at me and said something that sounded particularly nasty, I asked my
husband what he had just said. My husband translated it for me: "he
said, 'what does it taste like?'"
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From ORIENTAL OUTLOOK (DONGFANG ZHOUKAN) March 21st & 28th 2008 Print Edition