"Renpin" explains elder acceptance of mixed marriages

• May 17, 2011 5:19am

New America Media journalist, Rong Xiaoqing spoke to Colleen Fong, Cal State East Bay professor of ethnic studies, for the article, "Why Asian Elders Sometimes Support Mixed Marriages."

Fong said that "when people think about cross-racial marriage, everybody worries about cultural differences, but the focus is too narrow and it overlooks the concept of homogamy."

Fong explained that "homogamy,"a sociological term, means marriage between people with similar perspectives and experience. Many seniors who are happy with their "foreign" children-in-law translate "homogamy" into "renpin," a Chinese word that loosely means the combination of morality and personality.

The renpin factor worked in Fong' own family. When she asked her husband, Carl, how he'd feel about inviting her parents, ages 87 and 84, to move in with them, he was very agreeable because he, too, grew up in a multigenerational family.

KL