Half-half blog

A blog for facts/advice relating to half asians (oriental asian, as in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai etc). Mainly focusing on half oriental, half Caucasian topics.

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Sun

Skin colour has always really puzzled me. What determines whether or not someone is gonna have dark skin, skin that burns really easy or a mixture? We generally categorise it into "white skin", "olive skin" and "black skin" which is quite misleading since there are loads of colours in between.

What I find quite amusing is the difference in skin colour between half oriental/half white people. For example, I have quite 'olive/yellow' skin and my sister has the kind of skin that burns after half an hour in the English summer sun. Why is it that our skin is so different?

When I was younger, I never burnt in the sun and never wore suncream, even on trips to Japan. But me and my mum went on a cute walk near our house for like 3-4 hours and I got burnt! Even just out in English sun. It was like 24 degrees with UV 5 in all fairness, but I just don't see what's changed. Did my skin lower its resistance against the sun, or did it get whiter or what? Would it be different if I grew up in a different country....

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=youtube%20noah%20and%20the%20whale%20five%20years%20time&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CDMQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DT8YCSJpF4g4&ei=4-i_T4rwMoWq8AOfmvHTCg&usg=AFQjCNH-arRMaU0ttMxlaO1FATRrsnmFxw&cad=rja - Five Years Time by Noah and the Whale.

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Cranes (origami)

So today, being my birthday, my best friend gave me a hamper with all the food/drinks I like from Chinatown. She got me Hi-Chews (strawberry, apple and grape flavour), Ramune, Ramune sweets, Shin ramyun, 3/4 flavours of Hello Panda biscuit/sweets, Thai energy drinks, Jasmine tea, a matching tea pot & cup & spoon & soy sauce dish & bowl and Hello Kitty stickers in the cutest box ever. She wrote "happy birthday Christine" in Japanese, using the correct alphabets. It was so cute :). If you don't know some of the items I just listed, I definitely advise looking them up and trying them, despite how unhealthy it all is. I'll promote everything in moderation.

Anyway, so during a free period, this guy drank a whole bottle of sainsbury's own brand brown sauce for £10, it was disgusting but my respect goes out to that guy. After that, I sat in Maths Help with my Chinese friend and I learnt how to make cranes. I know it's a pretty asian thing to do, but I think it's a necessary skill for a half asian. It's also a good pass-time. I advise learning how to do this, there are loaads of videos on YouTube and other video sites, google it.

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Fake tan

Why is it that in the UK, all the fake tan is orange based? I tried out Dove gradual tan for fair-normal skin and although it didn't change the colour of my skin much, it somehow added a tint of orange/brown. I can't tell whether it's just all fake tan that is orange or is it just for people with white skin?

I'm not a fan of fake tan to be honest, it is what it says: fake. However, lots of my friends use it so I was wondering if you could get a yellow based one.

For asians or half asians, I'd definitely advise using a gradual tan to avoid risk and preferably one that isn't for dark skin just in case (unless you have really dark skin). If it turns your skin a bizarre colour, definitely change brands. I heard that palmers does a good gradual tan, and the dove one isn't too bad.

[halforiental-blog]

List of famous half/part asian's

Mixed/part asian: Bruce Lee, Vanessa Hudgens, KT Tunstall, Ann Curry, Rob Schneider, Keanu Reeves, Eddie Van Halen, Dean Cain, Lindsay Price, Phoebe Cates, Kristin Kreuk, Vanessa Minnillo, Lina Teoh (malaysian beauty queen), Lisa Joyner, Lena Fujii, Angelababy.

Half asian: Enrique Iglesias, Yuu Shirota , Karon O (frontwoman of Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack Morris, Saved by the Bell), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Maya Soetoro (Obama's half sister), Tommy Chong, Stacy Kamano, Jennifer Tilly, Meg Tilly, Liz Cho, Jessica Gomes (Australian Model), Nancy Kwan, Michael Wong, Russell Wong, Betty Nguyen, Devon Aoki, Maggie Q, Anthony Neely, Rhydian Vaughan, Daniel Henney, Olivia Munn, Kelly Hu, Ricky Kim, Dennis Oh, Jon Foo, Sean Lennon.

I got a lot of these from http://abagond.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/half-white-half-asian/ but I searched and confirmed each of them. There are probably a lot more though.

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The beginning of an era

So this is the first post on my half-half blog. I regularly browse the internet to find things out or get advice on things (products, fashion etc) and over time, I realised that I hardly ever found anything on half ‘oriental’ and half Caucasian’s.

For example, when I was looking for suggestions of good foundations for half asian and half white skin, I could only find information on asian skin, or half asian and half hispanic. Little things like this have started to annoy me so I hope that I can share my information with you.

Moreover, there are hardly any surveys done on half asian’s generally, like the average height or like scientific research. I guess this is because multiculturalism is a relatively new concept and scientists are not necessarily interested in such a field.

I hope you can support my blog in some way by messaging me suggestions or things you wanna hear about, or ask me questions via the ‘question box’.

NB when I say asian, I’m referring to orientals. However, in the US, it’s apparently considered offensive to call someone oriental so I’ll try to use the term asian as much as possible. Sorry for any offense caused to those asians who are not oriental.