Hapa和Pachinko

今天下午陽光暖暖，懶洋洋地普照在大地，我家弟弟在門口帶鄰居小朋友打籃球。

我家two doors down的鄰居一家半年前剛從灣區搬來，爸爸是ABC，媽媽是白人。 他家老大是個可愛的小男生，今年剛上kinder。 既然就在一條街上，我跟鄰居媽媽們說，就讓弟弟每天放學護送這幾個kinder小毛頭回家吧，反正順路。 之後更逐漸演變為每個禮拜二、四兩個下午弟弟在家門口教他們打籃球。 據鄰居媽媽們的誇張讚譽，五年級的弟弟在這幾個小蘿卜頭眼裏儼然如天神般的存在。

鄰居媽媽的媽媽正從加州來看孫子。 她先把我家弟弟誇了一個天上有地下無，然後小聲告訴我，一開始其實挺擔心我們德州都是紅脖子，結果這次來正巧遇到我們開block party，沒想到我們街上這麽多元。 這阿嬤挺有趣的，說大兒子娶了越南女孩，二兒子娶了韓國女孩，老三是唯一的女兒，就是我鄰居，嫁給了中國人。

我跟老太太說不用擔心，我們這條街的mixed couples多去了。 從左到右數過來，意大利和日本混血、東正教印度人、美韓混血、白人和越南人、中印混血、荷蘭、伊朗、德國跟菲律賓、白人老婆和墨西哥老公、加拿大法語區。。。 平常我也都沒注意，仔細想想，真的很多元化耶。

老太太一臉放心了的表情，頓了頓說，嗯，在加州不好叫人家mixed，都說hapa. 我忍住了沒說，人家夏威夷人都不高興非夏威夷人自稱hapa，是cultural appropriation... 

剛巧我上周剛讀完Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.  這本書是去年的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. 說的是一家四代韓裔在日本跨越約一個世紀的故事。 之前我對於日本韓裔（Zainichi）的了解幾乎是零，這本書的主題就是在日韓裔的堅韌奮鬥，一方麵更突出日本對韓裔、或者說其他東亞人的排外，i.e.即使幾代人都在日本生活，他們始終被視為外國人。 雖然通過勤奮積攢了財富，卻仍然被視為二等公民，就算出生在日本也不能入籍，沒有日本護照，在求職、婚配、社交方方麵麵被歧視、被排斥。。。 直到不久前還每三年就要去警局按手印，而在美國一向被視為勤奮向上的韓裔在日本卻被歸類為“坑髒懶惰犯罪分子”的族群！

這本書裏有一段很刺心，第三代的Noa在日本出生，在大學跟日本女朋友在一起，突然明白女朋友隻是因為他是韓裔而跟他在一起。 “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.” 我們在大學的時候都有見識過那種有Asian fetish的白人同學有沒有？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.” 

我有很多問題，真希望爺爺還在世（他在1920年代，16歲就被送往日本留學，10年後才回國）， 能問問他當年在日本的經曆。 而作為第一代或者第0.5代移民的我們，也有很多能夠跟書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.” 不知道今日的日本對於移民的態度是不是有所改善；回頭看弟弟和這群小蘿卜頭玩的熱火朝天，還是挺慶幸我們所處的是這樣一個多元豐富包容的社區。