Student Activities Center

I am a Chinese American woman married to a Caucasian. A white man. We have a child – a baby girl. A product of miscegenation. Today, I guess we'd be considered a trendy couple. Even ask Jerry Seinfield.

When we walk together down the street, passersby are curious to see what our daughter looks like. Afterall,Amer-Asian babies are supposed to be gorgeous, aren't they? I wonder if they know that it would've been illegal for us to be a family if we lived in Delaware in 1967. In Florida. In Virginia. At one point in history, 40 out of 50 U.S. states had anti-miscegenation laws. As late as 1967, these statutes prohibited Africans, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese,“Malayans,” and Mongolians from marrying Caucasians in 16 democratic U.S. states.

Would these passersby be just as curious about our baby if laws “to preserve the racial integrity of its citizens,”and to prevent “the corruption of blood”were still present? How fortunate I am that times have changed.

The series expresses my mixed emotions about living in America as a Chinese American. On one hand, I am happy that I was not living in the U.S. prior to 1967 – bearing my daughter would've been breaking the law. On the other hand, I am bitter that these laws even existed in America, the Land of the Free. On one hand, I am glad that some people find my marriage intriguing. On the other hand, I am bitter that it even matters to them that we are mixed. We should just be considered a married couple and not qualified as an interracial one.
“Miscegenation”is a compilation of photos that depicts an interracial marriage between an Asian and a Caucasian. At another level, it depicts a couple's life in a small one bedroom apartment in Manhattan with a baby. It is a personal series that was driven by those who see us not as a married couple, but as a mixed married couple.