Cultural Upbringing of Multiracial (Hapa) Students: Nature Vs. Nurture

Yu, Michelle

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Description

Title

Cultural Upbringing of Multiracial (Hapa) Students: Nature Vs. Nurture

Author(s)

Yu, Michelle

Issue Date

2008

Keyword(s)

• Multiracial
• Biracial
• Hapa
• Family
• Neighborhood
• Diversity
• AAS199 F07

Abstract

"My research focuses on the subpopulation of part-Caucasian and part-Asian students at the University of Illinois because I was curious as to whether students felt they had to conform to one side or the other and whether they inevitably chose to associate themselves with one racial and cultural background over the other. My research question is: How does one spouse's racial and cultural background become dominant over the other spouse's racial and cultural background and therefore determine the cultural upbringing of their ""hapa"" children within a multiracial family? Some of the key research questions were whether students associated themselves with one racial an cultural background more than the other and why? Were there other multiracial families that they interacted with in their neighborhoods? What were the roles and responsibilites of their parents? of the children in their family? Did gender affect those roles? Was there a certain racial and cultural group they associated with in the school setting? Did their parents prefer one racial and cultural background over another in their significant others? Has there been a change, over time, in the way they express the racial and cultural background they've adopted? I interviewed three male and five females ranging from freshmen to graduate students. I found that although one parent's racial and cultural background may become dominant over the other parent's, inevitably it is the students' environment (i.e. social network, extra-curricular activities and even religious affiliations) that affects the racial and cultural background that they associate themselves with and express the most."

Series/Report Name or Number

AAS 199, Asian American Chicago, Prof. Junaid Rana: The city of Chicago is home to many Asian Americans defined broadly from those that hail from East Asia to South Asia to West Asia. In this course, students examine the multiplicity of the Asian American experience through specific communities and their history in Chicago. By centering on neighborhoods and communities we look at the populations that constitute places like Chinatown, Koreatown, and Devon Street. Expanding our definitions of the city based on the North side, South side, West Side, etc., and the city and the suburbs, students explore the relationship of Asian Americans across definitions of an imagined Chicago and Chicagoland. The course material cover a wide array of topics to examine the changing contours of Asian American communities such as housing, migration, segregation, and racialization. Further this course examines the relationship of Asian Americans in relationship to the historically racialized groups in Chicago. Each student in this class is part of an important research project to document the role of the U of I in student life and the communities they come from. The course syllabus is available at: www.eui.uiuc.edu/docs/syllabi/AAS199F07.doc

Type of Resource

text

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