Mixed blood, bi-racial and ignorance

“Hùnxuè” literally translates to “mixed blood” and is used to describe my boys. I don’t like it because it’s the same classification Hitler and his Aryan cronies used. It’s almost as if the Chinese language has been stifled concerning this point, for the same expression is used when referring to children of, say, a Taiwanese man and his Vietnamese or Thai bride, though the women, in the eyes of most Westerners, would be considered Asian and of the same race. It is important to point out, though, that the term is not used when speaking of the offspring of a Chinese mainland wife. Some claim that it’s symptomatic of an ignorant Han Chinese sense of superiority. I think that since over ninety-five percent of the population has always been Chinese, the language hasn’t had the need to come up with the variety of ethnic labels that one finds in the States.

When my boys were young, I often took them to Chiayi City Park. At the playground, other mothers would see them and comment on how white their skin was, a status symbol centuries ago separating the tiny upper class from the huge peasant farmer masses and now considered a sign of beauty throughout Asia. Taiwanese females, from mothers to single women to even high school students, have the habit of touching the faces of children, especially those they consider cute. Sometimes with my boys, it was as if they were trying to rub off the whiteness to make some beauty cream.

Most foreigners who have “hùnxuè” children consider this to be a sign of ignorance. They say how unsanitary it is, how no one back home would do that. They point out that this ignorance is not limited to caressing stranger’s toddlers. Chiayi is far from being a metropolis, as well as being far from any good-sized city. I still get the occasional stare from old folk or a child tugging on a parent’s shirt and pointing at me. After my first year here, I remember a granddad hoisting up a baby, pointing at me and telling him that I was a foreigner, as if I were the archetype. At least most parents have stopped telling their kids to look at the foreigner, but, when it does occur, it stills irks many foreigners.

The dictionary states “ignorance” as “a lack of knowledge, learning, information”. Then, sure, put it that way, especially stressing the lack of “information”, these actions could be considered ignorant. The Taiwanese don’t know how Westerners behave when it comes to children. How to use guns, conduct car chases and what to do in disaster situations, maybe. However, the only recent Western movie exhibiting any real interaction between adults and children was Hangover I and III.

So, is “ignorant” the right word to use in describing the anonymous morons writing hateful messages in response to a Cheerios ad featuring a bi-racial family? I’ll take the stares over being spat on. Or worse.