Eurasian (mixed ancestry)

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Eurasian, in English vernacular, is a term that refers to those of mixed European and Asian ancestry, regardless of continent of origin.^[7][8] The term Eurasian may also be used among those of mixed European and Pacific Islander ancestry, although the term Euronesian is becoming more popular in usage. ^[2]

The word was originally coined during 19th century British India to refer to persons born of European fathers, primarily British, and South Asian mothers, primarily Indians. Nowadays, more precise descriptions of Eurasian may make mention of the specific European and Asian origins of the individual such as the Filipino and White Mestizo, as well as the Thai and White luk kreung.^[9]

Contents 1 Overview 1.1 Philippines 1.2 United States 1.3 Netherlands 2 Appellations 3 Languages 4 Culture 5 Identification in the Modern West 5.1 Self-Identity 5.2 Identification by Others 6 Terminology 7 Fun Fact 8 Notes 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] Overview

In the period of Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, and Dutch colonialism in Asia, many Eurasians became clerks or supervisors in business or government. Eurasians tended to marry Eurasians, particularly in India where their numbers increased to over 300,000. They became a separate social and economic stratum between the ruling Europeans and the Indian local populations. "Eurasian" became a derogatory term in India, and "Anglo-Indian" was substituted. When colonialism ended, many Eurasians, particularly in Burma and Indonesia, suffered because they were distrusted as alien and closely allied with the displaced colonial rulers. In the Philippines, following the defeat of the Spanish, the mestizos were able to place themselves in a position previously occupied by the Spanish colonial rulers, and remain so to this day.

As seen with the given statistics on the ethnic group template, there are more Eurasians living in the Malay Archipelago as a region, more than any other region in the world.

Today, many relatively small Eurasian communities exist in Singapore, Malaysia, The Hague, Macau, and in Hong Kong.

[edit] Philippines

The country with the largest total of Eurasians is the Philippines, where they are known as mestizos (a term also occurring in Latin America, in both cases deriving from the period of Spanish rule). They comprise about 3.6% of the entire Philippine population.

The Eurasians of the Philippines form a very tightly knit relationship with Amerasians and due to their cultural similarities and common Western worldview. Both are considered as overrepresented in the entertainment industry, and are widely held in high esteem due to a generalized colonial mindset among Filipinos. Eurasians are viewed positively in the Philippines, and those with European phenotypes in particular are widely promoted as the standard of beauty. Most of the European introgression among Eurasians in the Philippines are of Spanish origin, while some, to a lesser degree, are of British origin. Meanwhile, contemporary immigration from Europe and the United States continue to result in an increasing number of Eurasians, particularly part-American, Austrian, British, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, among such others. A recent genetic study suggests that around 3.6% of the Filipino population is Eurasian, although the real numbers are not known.

The Philippines also has large Amerasian populations, having the largest population of American citizens in all of Asia. ^[10]

[edit] United States

According to the United States Census Bureau, concerning multi-racial families in 1990:

In the United States, census data indicate that the number of children in interracial families grew from less than one half million in 1970 to about two million in 1990. In 1990, for interracial families with one White partner, the other parent...was Asian for 45 percent...^[11]

According to James P. Allen and Eugene Turner from California State University, Northridge, by some calculations the largest part white bi-racial population is white/American Indian and Alaskan Native, at 7,015,017, followed by white/black at 737,492, then white/Asian at 727,197, and finally white/Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander at 125,628.^[12]

[edit] Netherlands

In the Netherlands, most Eurasians of Dutch and Indonesian descent settled after the overthrow of Dutch colonial rule. Eurasians were seen as having collaborated with the European colonists by many Indonesians. Whereas the Indonesian revolutionary leaders were seen as having collaborated with the Japanese invaders by many Dutch. These Eurasians are called Indos or Indo Europeans and are the largest ethnic minority in the Netherlands.

[edit] Appellations

Most Eurasians in Southeast and South Asia carry European surnames, and the possession of such surnames sometimes indicates European descent; except in the case of the Philippines and certain Hindu/Sikh/Catholic communities in India.

The most common European ancestry among Filipino mestizos is Spanish. While the majority of the small mestizo minority in the Philippines possess Spanish surnames, these surnames are also the most common among the rest of the population as a result of a royal decree ordering they be adopted by all Filipinos. As such, in the vast majority of cases, possessing a Spanish surname in the Philippines does not always indicate Spanish ancestry.

The most common ancestry and surname of Eurasians is British for those in South Asia; Portuguese for those in Malaysia, Macau, East Timor, and Goa; Dutch for those in Indonesia and French for those in Vietnam. In Burma, the Anglo-Burmese reflect the most diverse lineage and include British, Irish, Dutch, French, Portuguese, German and Spanish surnames.

The oldest Eurasian community in the region is in Malacca, in Malaysia; it began when the town was a Portuguese settlement, and many of its residents later moved to Singapore. There were also numerous Eurasians in the Netherlands East Indies, but following Indonesian independence most emigrated to the Netherlands. East Timor, also in Southeast Asia, has a significant and active Eurasian minority known as mestiços (of mixed Portuguese and Tetum ancestry).

In India, the term Anglo-Indian is used and often preferred rather than Eurasian, although this may not only also apply to people with British ancestry, but also Portuguese or Dutch. While ostracised by many Indians during the British Raj, Anglo-Indians enjoy the same rights as other Indian citizens, and there are still seats reserved in parliament for them. Many have emigrated to the UK or Australia. In the UK, well-known Anglo-Indians include Academy Award winning actor Ben Kingsley and singers Cliff Richard (who never confirmed it) and Engelbert Humperdinck, though the latter later moved to the United States, while TV personality Melanie Sykes has an Anglo-Indian and Anglo-Burmese mother. The late Hollywood actress Merle Oberon was also Anglo-Indian.

Burma (prior to independence) had a large and generally prosperous Eurasian community known as the Anglo-Burmese. They tended to dominate various sectors of colonial and post-independence society in Burma. In following years, many emigrated from Burma or assimilated into Bamar (Burman) society. Today, many Anglo-Burmese live in English-speaking countries (e.g. UK, Australia, and U.S.). Some also moved to India where they have integrated into the Anglo-Indian community. Indian film star Helen is an Anglo-Burmese, while the British actress Kate Beckinsale also has some Anglo-Burmese ancestry..

In North America, some of the descendents of East Asian refugees as a result of French settlers and soldiers during the French colonial period (1883-1945) or during the Franco-Vietnamese War / First Indochina War (1945-1954) are racially Eurasian. Additionally, the Korean War and Vietnam War of the mid-twentieth century brought immigrants to the United States and Canada. Modern day Eurasian descendents of East Asians include Maggie Q, Kristin Kreuk, Melissa O'Neil, and Michelle Branch.

[edit] Languages

Eurasians will usually speak the native language of their home country, and may or may not speak the language(s) of an ancestral or parental ethnic.

The Kristang and Macanese groups have also formed their own languages. The Kristang language is a dialect of Portuguese influenced by Malay as well as Petjo, a dialect compromised of Dutch words based on a Malay grammatical structure.

[edit] Culture

In Den Haag (The Hague), Netherlands, an annual Eurasian festival is organized under the name Pasar Malam Besar.

[edit] Identification in the Modern West

Eurasians, like everybody else, are entitled to define themselves as they see fit. While the discourse on multiculturalism seems capable of conceptualizing societies composed of diverse racial and cultural elements, it does not yet seem to be able to do so with individuals, without pathologizing them.

Eurasians in Asia sometimes encounter discrimination because historically many of their mothers were impregnated by Westerners with the woman often having been raped or forced to sell herself (the father often having been a soldier). Thus, the children are viewed as illegitimate and something that serves as a shameful marker for many people in that society. While this is not usually the case for Eurasians in the West, issues may also arise there, such as issues around one's cultural loyalties, values, and perceived racial ambiguity (the latter is especially true in the U.S. because of the rule of hypodescent).

Other multiracial people, regardless of the specifics of their background, can often empathize with Eurasians in various ways (people interpreting physical appearance as ambiguous, and so on), as can open-minded one-racial people if they make the effort.

[edit] Self-Identity

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Most Eurasians have one Asian parent and one white parent. Historically, East-West marriages have taken place much more frequently between Western men and Eastern women, for a number of reasons:

1. The Western presence in Asia was made up almost entirely of men [soldiers, government officials and businessmen],
2. the Asian women in the West (many Chinatowns in the U.S. were composed almost entirely of men, for example),
3. and the Asian men who did live in the West were often prevented from marrying Caucasian women by anti-miscegenation laws.

Thus, the only Eurasian relatives they would have are their own siblings. Due to the lack of connectivity amongst Eurasians, racial identity is usually a result of self exploration, rather than of nurture. How one Eurasian defines himself may be different from how another Eurasian defines herself. This in turn causes a lack of cohesiveness in what some would call the Eurasian Community. Nicole Terrio claims the Eurasian community in Thailand is a very tight knit one.^[9]

Chief observable factors that can contribute to how Eurasians decide to identify themselves include, but are not limited to:

1. Degree to which one looks Asian or White. (Anglo-Indians for example may look more European).
2. Races of parents. (For example, Eurasian A has an Asian mother, while Eurasian B has an Asian father. Eurasian C on the other hand, has 2 Eurasian parents.)
3. Ethnicities of parents.
4. Native language. (The language one is most proficient in)
5. Place where one was raised.

Some Eurasians will identify themselves as White, others will identify themselves as Asian, and still others will identify themselves as something in between. Often among those who choose the third option, there is a debate between deciding if Eurasians are both^{[citation needed]} or neither.^[9]

[edit] Identification by Others

Eurasians who may identify a certain way are not always identified in the same way by everyone else. Often, the one factor that determines how total strangers identify a Eurasian is the degree to which one looks Asian or White. But there is also the problem or possibility of being mistaken for a Eurasian by others, when the subject actually happens to be "one-racial". This is due to some perception of stereotype of what a person of a particular region or ancestry is "supposed" to look like. Among those who are familiar with the Eurasian however, other cultural and social factors add to how they would identify the Eurasian. As these are less observable, it is difficult to compile a concise list. In regions where Eurasians have historically been the result of U.S. servicemen, Eurasians have been discriminated against. Eurasians in Vietnam, such as Henry Phan, claim that many of the one-racial Asians consider Eurasians to have been born from prostitutes which is considered negative. Eurasians like Asha Gill (Indian/White) claim one-racial "Asians despise us because we get all the jobs" and media portrayals.^[9] The same holds for Philippine as well as Thai Eurasians, who are often held in envious contempt for the same reasons.

Sometimes societies have certain criteria in defining the ethnicity, race or nationality of a person. More than one of these criteria may apply to a Eurasian, causing confusion.

[edit] Terminology

There are many other terms that apply to Eurasians.

• Amerasian (America + Asian) connotes the children of U.S. servicemen with Asian women.
• Anglo-Indian refers to people of British and Indian descent
• Bo KaBya/Anglo-Burmese - is the Burmese language notion that is an interracial mixture of Westerner and Asian, in this case, people from Myanmar (Burma).
• Burgher People People of mixed Sri Lankan and Portuguese or Dutch decent.
• Hapa haole, or simply hapa, originally meant part-foreigner/part-Hawaiian - later revised to part-Hawaiian Japanese/part-non Hawaiian - and finally the modern usage is part-Asian/part-non Asian.
• Haafu, which is derived from the Japanese word and their English pronunciation of "half."
• Konketsuji, the Japanese term for Amerasians.
• Ai no ko, in Japanese literally means "child of unlike things put together."
• Bui doi, is the Vietnamese term for the children of U.S. servicemen and Vietnamese women and literally means "dust of the earth."
• Con lai, is Vietnamese for "half-breed" or "mixed race."
• My lai is Vietnamese for "American mix."
• Luk kreung is Thai, derived from luk- child, offspring: son or daughter; smaller sub-part and khreung- half, midway; mid; ½.
• Hùnxuè'ér (混血儿) is Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese) for "mixed blood".
• Honhyol is Korean, derived from honhap-blend, mixture; hybrid; solution, and hyolgi-blood.
• Serani is Malay for "Eurasian." It is based on the Arabic word "Nasrani", meaning "followers of Jesus of Nazarene (Christianity)" since that the majority of Eurasians are Christians.
• Indo is a term for Portuguese/Dutch/English-Indonesian.
• Filipino mestizo, in modern Philippine usage, it applies to those of part-foreign ancestry, often Spanish.
• Tisoy, in colloquial Filipino, refers to people who are of full or part-White descent, though in recent times has begun to refer to indigenous Filipinos of Caucasian features.
• Tornatrás is an archaic term used during the Spanish colonial period which once referred to people of mixed Spanish and Chinese descent, as well as those of mixed Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino descent.

[edit] Fun Fact

Butler from the popular Artemis Fowl Series is Eurasian.

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• List of Eurasians
• List of terms for multiraciality
• Amerasian
• Anglo-Burmese
• Anglo-Indians
• Bui doi
• Eurasian Singaporean
• Luk kreung
• Melungeon
• Peranakan
• Indo (Eurasian)
• Filipino mestizo
• Mestiços (Sri Lanka)
• Burgher people
• Bhowani Junction

[edit] External links

• AngloIndians.com - Anglo-Indian resources & matrimony
• AsiansOfMixedRace.com
• Eurasian Association of Singapore
• Eurasian Invasion
• Resource on Mixed Asians
• Malaysian Dutch Descendants Project
• Maleisie.be article on Malaysian Dutch Descendants
• Tong Tong Foundation, Netherlands
• Indo-Dutch Informationpoint