If you grow up in the United States you’re pretty familiar with the fact the divorce rate in the U.S. is close to 50% (meaning 50% of all couples that get married typically end in divorce). So when I came across an article this week that said mixed couples divorce in droves, it got me wondering if mixed race couples divorce more than non-mixed race couples, and if the actual races involved make a difference.
At first blush, it would make sense that mixed couples divorce more, since there’s more going against the couple, different culture, background, family pressure, etc. I did some light research and found it difficult to find actual statistics around mixed race divorces. It was much easier to find statistics that Asian-Asian couples divorce far less than white-white couples, but not much on mixed race couples in the U.S., other than generalities that seemed to indicate mixed couples divorce more often.
I did find one study in China that showed mixed couples (specifically from different countries) divorce more.
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If the Spanish Basketball Team doing it wasn’t enough, now teen/tween star Miley Cyrus of Hannah Montana fame has done it too (pointed out by TMZ):
She got called out on this by the Organization of Chinese Americans, and she certainly didn’t win herself some Asian fans, as witnessed by this conversation I overhead from The Daughter and her friend (also Asian) when they were looking at this picture:
“Oh my God.”
“I hate her. She is such a slut.”
“Yeah, and the only ones at school who like her are sluts.”
Ah, teenagers!
Miley has apologized, saying:
I’ve also been told there are some people upset about some pictures taken of me with friends making goofy faces! Well, I’m sorry if those people looked at those pics and took them wrong and out of context! In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity!
Yeah, right Miley. If that’s true, then why isn’t the one Asian guy in the picture doing the same thing?
But I am not mad at you, Miley. You probably didn’t realize that the stupid eye thing you are doing has been used to mock Asians for generations. You are only sixteen, and like many teens about your age like my daughter, your judgment is not very good. I hope your teen and tween fans or their parents don’t mind seeing you out drinking. That’s probably as equally if not more troubling about this picture.
As for teen stars, I think that some of the stars of the Canadian teen show Instant Star are much better, particularly Alexz Johnson and Asian-Canadian Cory Lee. Too bad the show ended – The Daughter really liked it, and even this old guy thought that it was pretty good.
Shopping With GASP!
If you’re a heavy web-surfer or you work in the Internet Industry you may already know about Cornify – a bookmarklet for web browsers that pastes images rainbows and unicorns on your web browser; mostly good if you’ve just been subjected to watching or reading something graphically disturbing, hence the term Unicorn Chaser.
Enter Ninjafy. Which is really the exact same thing as Cornify, if unicorns were to enter highly specialized ancient schools of assassination and espionage. If you have to cornify a photo gallery of leprosy patients, you ninjafy the Facebook page of your ex-boyfriends shady ass new girlfriend.
So why is this relevant on 8Asians? Because it’s a Friday, and they’re fucking ninjas, for godssake. And for all the cliched imagery that Asian Americans hate, we will eagerly embrace anything that can walk on water, turn invisible in a puff of smoke or kill with two blinks of an eye with a deadly katana blade. Can pirates do that? Fuck no, they just take over weapons tankers.
If you haven’t heard much of nineteen year old Korean American female golfer Michelle Wie in the news lately, it’s because she’s been busy studying and practicing. The San Francisco Chronicle profiles Wie’s life as a student and athlete:
“Wie … now, fresh from earning full-time LPGA playing privileges at Qualifying School in December, she will return to her native Hawaii next week to play in her first event as a tour member… [her] life at Stanford follows a clear routine: She works out every morning at 8:30, attends classes from 10 until noon or 1 p.m. and then practices every afternoon.”
Apparently Wie also lives on-campus at Stanford, while her parents live off-campus but help manage her career. When Tiger Woods was at Stanford, he was not a nationally or internationally known athlete as he is today. Though Wie has yet to win any major titles, I have to imagine that it might be a bit tougher to maintain a “normal” student lifestyle for her relative to most Stanford students. Could you imagine what life for Chelsea Clinton at Stanford must have been like?
(Flickr photo credit: Smaku)
Desperate cheap self-promotion alert: If any of you are in the New York City area next week, come check out the Jammin’ Asian show on Tuesday February 10th, 8:00 pm. It’s a spoken word, live music and stand-up comedy variety show, so all your bases are covered (and for the truly nerdy-inclined, “all your base are belong to us”). It’ll be good folks, good times and one particularly really, really, really hilariously funny stand-up comedian who happens to have the same name as me.
I’ve always been fascinated by North Korea and Kim Jong Il, so when I came across a recent Angry Asian Man posting of an eHarmony spoof with the famous North Korean dictator, I just had to blog about it. Danny Cho does a terrific job mocking the North Korean dictator – in looks, accent and demeanor. The fact that it also mocks eHarmony’s commercial is just a bonus. Grace Su, who plays the love of Kim Jong Il’s life, does a great job as well.
In the world of Korean journalism, there has been an established tradition of protecting the anonymity of those accused of crimes. So when two different, esteemed Korean newspapers went against the grain and published photos of serial killer Kang Ho-Sun, there was a stir.
Both papers — the Chosun Ilbo and Joongang Ilbo — attested that they had good reasons to reveal the identity of the killer and that they did thorough research and interviews and went over the pros and cons before making the decision to print his photo. There are strict laws on defamation in Korea and the two papers, if the man chooses to sue, could be hit with lawsuits.
Should we protect the identity of criminals? No matter how heinous their deeds, should we protect their rights? Is it indeed defamation when they truthfully publish a story revealing the identity of the criminal, or does a person give up those rights when they harm another person?
(Every so often, we here at 8Asians get e-mails asking for advice. This is NOT one of those e-mails, but my co-worker did ask me this question, to which I promptly told her to send this to the blog for additional blog fodder. What? I’m shameless.)
To my wise Asian friend Ernie,
Help! I’ve been dating a guy I really like for about a month. He asked me if I wanted to go to his best friend’s Chinese New Year party this weekend. As a nice Jewish girl, I’m not sure of the etiquette. Should I bring anything special? I usually default to bringing a bottle of champagne to a party. Is that OK in this situation or does Chinese New Year call for something different or unique?
Thanks!
Laura
For me, if this party were to occur over actual Chinese New Years last week, the proper answer is: “you wouldn’t be invited to this party because REAL Chinese New Year is about watching your family argue over petty shit, making you feel bad about yourself.” As this is Chinese New Years party is more Americanized, I told her to bring a bunch of tangerines for ironies sake, and if anyone gave her a hard time about it she could be all, BOOM DID MY RESEARCH BITCHES, and bust out the bottle of Olde English 800.
How would you answer Laura?
(Flickr photo credit: liza31337)
America is a country where race seems to always be mentioned: there are stories about Asians struggling with identity stereotypes, and others not associated with being Asian American. Tiger Woods comes to mind, of course, but there are others: Michelle Branch, Mark-Paul Gosselaar — Yes, Zack from Saved by the Bell — along with Dean Cain (New Adventures of Superman), and Rob Schneider.
Then there’s Hines Ward, whose father is African-American and mother is Korean. Born in Seoul, Ward plays Wide Receiver for the NFL’s Pittsburg Steelers and will play in today’s Superbowl XLIII despite a sprained his knee versus the Ravens. His records include being named 4x to the NFL Pro Bowl, franchise records in touchdowns, consecutive games with a reception, and twice being named to the All-NFL team. In Feburary of 2006, the Steelers won Super Bowl XL (21-10) with Hines Ward being named the game’s MVP.
In April of that same year, Hines Ward would return to South Korea with his mother. During his time in Korea, he had meetings to encourage social change as well as giving hope to the multiracial children of South Korea. Here’s a video about his journey to Korea that was featured on ESPN:
Children of mixed ethnicity are often seen as pariahs in mainly homogenous Asian Countries, and I’m not sure if things have changed much, but being a celebrity always helps. With all the talk lately about identity on this blog, whether it’s Asians in movies, gays, Chinese or Taiwanese, the Hines Ward story is interesting because he has publicly stated that he was once ashamed to be known as Korean. But with his successes he hopes to bring positive changes to others.
He also has some interesting tattoos: one of which has his name written in Korean and the other of Mickey Mouse. But why does he have a tattoo of Mickey Mouse?
“Mickey Mouse symbolizes fun. You never see him sad, and that’s how I approach life. When things are bad, I smile sometimes. People tease me about it, but that’s my approach — a happy guy playing football.”
Looks like a happy approach in life — and some hope — has gone a long way for Hines Ward.
(Flickr photo credit: SteelCityHobbies)
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