The Amorphous Asian...

Back in college, I had a friend dub me an "amorphous Asian." It was a joke because although I was Korean, no one really knew. My appearance is definitely Korean, but because I don't act Korean (whatever that means) my friends often questioned my background ethnicity. There were some friends who didn't realize I was Korean until 4 years into our friendship. I remember many conversations that went like this:

"You're Korean?!?!...No you're not!"
"I am."
"NO YOU'RE NOT!"
"Uh, okay, I'm not?"

I always wondered why people just had a difficult time believing it. Conversations usually followed with:

"But there's something different about you...I can't put my finger on it."

So then I would respond:

"I'm one-eighth Japanese?"

And they would seem content with that reason for my being not-so-Korean. Yet, one-eighth really isn't all that much. So I'm not sure why it would suffice. But still to this day, friends I've known for a decade will still slip this comment into conversation:

"Oh yeah, I forgot you were Korean...but you're not really that Korean anyway."

Huh? So what am I?

So I wonder what it will be like when Baby Bear grows up. Here's the breakdown on Baby Bear. She's half Chinese, seven-sixteenths Korean and one-sixteenth Japanese. She's more indefinable than I am. I will either have to teach her fractions at an early age, or somehow simplify. I can already imagine the conversations:

So are you Chinese?
Yes.
But I thought you said you were Korean?
Yes.
...and kind of Japanese?
Yes.
No, really, what are you?

Here's to all of us "amorphous Asians" out there. You know who you are.