Hapa和Pachinko

今天下午阳光暖暖，懒洋洋地普照在大地，我家弟弟在门口带邻居小朋友打篮球。

我家two doors down的邻居一家半年前刚从湾区搬来，爸爸是ABC，妈妈是白人。 他家老大是个可爱的小男生，今年刚上kinder。 既然就在一条街上，我跟邻居妈妈们说，就让弟弟每天放学护送这几个kinder小毛头回家吧，反正顺路。 之后更逐渐演变为每个礼拜二、四两个下午弟弟在家门口教他们打篮球。 据邻居妈妈们的夸张赞誉，五年级的弟弟在这几个小萝卜头眼里俨然如天神般的存在。

邻居妈妈的妈妈正从加州来看孙子。 她先把我家弟弟夸了一个天上有地下无，然后小声告诉我，一开始其实挺担心我们德州都是红脖子，结果这次来正巧遇到我们开block party，没想到我们街上这么多元。 这阿嬷挺有趣的，说大儿子娶了越南女孩，二儿子娶了韩国女孩，老三是唯一的女儿，就是我邻居，嫁给了中国人。

我跟老太太说不用担心，我们这条街的mixed couples多去了。 从左到右数过来，意大利和日本混血、东正教印度人、美韩混血、白人和越南人、中印混血、荷兰、伊朗、德国跟菲律宾、白人老婆和墨西哥老公、加拿大法语区。。。 平常我也都没注意，仔细想想，真的很多元化耶。

老太太一脸放心了的表情，顿了顿说，嗯，在加州不好叫人家mixed，都说hapa. 我忍住了没说，人家夏威夷人都不高兴非夏威夷人自称hapa，是cultural appropriation... 

刚巧我上周刚读完Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.  这本书是去年的National Book Award finalist. The book depicts a Korean family who moved to Osaka, Japan during Japanese colonization, spanning 4 generations and nearly a century of time. I was unaware of the discrimination Koreans suffered in Japan and how the laws disallowed Koreans born in Japan (they're called Zainichi) to have citizenship. Up until recently they had to apply for alien registration cards that required fingerprinting every 3 years. 说的是一家四代韩裔在日本跨越约一个世纪的故事。 之前我对于日本韩裔（Zainichi）的了解几乎是零，这本书的主题就是在日韩裔的坚韧奋斗，一方面更突出日本对韩裔、或者说其他东亚人的排外，i.e.即使几代人都在日本生活，他们始终被视为外国人。 虽然通过勤奋积攒了财富，却仍然被视为二等公民，就算出生在日本也不能入籍，没有日本护照，在求职、婚配、社交方方面面被歧视、被排斥。。。 直到不久前还每三年就要去警局按手印，而在美国一向被视为勤奋向上的韩裔在日本却被归类为“坑脏懒惰犯罪分子”的族群！

这本书里有一段很刺心，第三代的Noa在日本出生，在大学跟日本女朋友在一起，突然明白女朋友只是因为他是韩裔而跟他在一起。 “Noa stared at her. She would always believe that he was someone else, that he wasn't himself but some fanciful idea of a foreign person; she would always feel like she was someone special because she had condescended to be with someone everyone else hated. His presence would prove to the world that she was a good person, an educated person, a liberal person. Noa didn't care about being Korean when he was with her; in fact, he didn't care about being Korean or Japanese with anyone. He wanted to be just himself, whatever that meant; he wanted to forget himself sometimes. But that wasn't possible. It would never be possible with her.” 我们在大学的时候都有见识过那种有Asian fetish的白人同学有没有？真是心酸的恍然大悟啊。“She could not see his humanity, and Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human.” 

我有很多问题，真希望爷爷还在世（他在1920年代，16岁就被送往日本留学，10年后才回国）， 能问问他当年在日本的经历。 而作为第一代或者第0.5代移民的我们，也有很多能够跟书中人物感同身受的地方。

“Living everyday in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.” 不知道今日的日本对于移民的态度是不是有所改善；回头看弟弟和这群小萝卜头玩的热火朝天，还是挺庆幸我们所处的是这样一个多元丰富包容的社区。