Marcia Yunmi Lise
I was born to a Japanese mother and an American-Italian mother. Like many other ‘racially’ or if you prefer ‘ethnically’ mixed individuals, I often think about my identity and how I sit in society. I was born and raised in Japan. I therefore consider myself to be predominantly Japanese. That is, culturally. The issue with my experience in Japan was that I was often regarded as ‘non-Japanese’. This had a great impact on my identity. Exploring the experiences of the half Japanese in relation to Japanese society somehow became a sort of a passion or a habit. I came to London in 2001 to study Sociology at university. My undergraduate thesis was on the marginalisation of Hafus, the Japanese word to refer to half Japanese people. I also recently completed a qualitative research project (submitted for MA), which was also about the half Japanese but this time focusing on how they are considered to be the ‘other’ in Japanese society.
In summer 2005, I agreed to be photographed by Natalie Maya Willer, a London based artist who was also a Hafu. She has a slightly different background with a Japanese mother and a German father. She was brought up in Germany and tells me how she had the same problem of not being recognised to have Japanese connection due to her very German look. Earlier this year we decided to put a project together combining her photography (visual arts) and my research work represented by the spoken words of the participants. The result was a one week exhibition at the Bodhi Gallery in east London last month. It was well received with over 450 visitors, half of whom I estimate to be Hafus.
The exhibition was accompanied by three events: a seminar with guest speakers from SOAS and LSE, a Hafu social night, and a Hafu family art workshop. I’m certain that the exhibition together with these events created an important contribution to the cultural dialogue about identity, culture, ‘race’ and nationhood.
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