Half Asians and Genes (and a small question about age and school)

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EzzyAlpha

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Would it be possible for someone who's half-japanese to have blond hair? Or someone who's half-korean to have blue eyes?

I suppose the chance would increase if they had european ancestors?

Of a lesser importance, would it be possible to start elementary school at 5, almost 6, years old?
 

ViolettaVane

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a) It would be improbable, but possible. It would also be very, very clichéd.

b) yes, it's common to start elementary school (kindergarten) at 5 years in the United States.
 

jaksen

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Yes to the first question, keeping in mind that 'blue eyes' are believed to have been a spontaneous mutation that happened in Europe (the area of Poland? Correct me if I'm wrong) a few thousand years ago.

I started elementary school at age 4. Where I live the customary age is age 5 for Kindergarten (must be 5 by September 1 in most towns and cities). This means children start first grade at age 6.

But you always get a few older (they were held back or their parents held them back) or younger (they went to a private school or academy for Kindergarten or they went to one of the few towns that allow children to start Kindergarten at age 4.)
 

EzzyAlpha

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a) How would it be cliché? It's just a character design choice. (It's for a comic by the way)

b) I meant the first grade.
 

ViolettaVane

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Because blonde hair and blue eyes are such desirable traits for white people, so sometimes when (especially white) people make Asian characters, they seem to think, "I'd like to make them stand out more and be cooler if they're natural blonds and blue eyes," which leads to a ridiculous preponderance of naturally blond and blue-eyed half-Asians in comics and books.

I'm half-East Asian myself, have met plenty of other half-Asian/half-white people, and almost every single one of us has brown hair and brown eyes. I guess we're too boring though, sigh.
 

EzzyAlpha

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I think it's mostly because of design. A cast full of dark haired, dark eyed people is visually boring (and rather boring to color I must add) so you make some blond, some blue eyed. I know that's why I made those design choices *shrug*

And I don't really know of many half asians with light colors in fiction.
 

jaksen

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Well your Asian cast can have a few who color their hair. Many people do this regardless of hair color. I have a blond daughter who wants to go dark. (Yeah I hit her when she says that.) And there's a very well-known blond actress who dyes her hair red.

So have them dye, or shade their hair - some of them - and get the color variety you want that way.
 

EzzyAlpha

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The blue eyed girl does partially dye her hair but it doesn't fit the blonde's personality.
 

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Hair color is quite unimportant. If you wish to portray a character as East Asian, then the person almost certainly has dark hair and dark eyes. It isn't boring, nor are blue eyes and blond hair more desirable traits among people of European ancestry.

Children do start first grade at five sometimes.
 

EzzyAlpha

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I beg to differ. Colors are very important in character design.
 

LJD

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I'm half-East Asian myself, have met plenty of other half-Asian/half-white people, and almost every single one of us has brown hair and brown eyes. I guess we're too boring though, sigh.

yup, same here.

edit: in the simple model of eye color (it's actually controlled by more than one gene, I think), you need a blue-eye gene from both parents to get blue eyes because it's recessive. Both parents don't need to have blue eyes, but they need to carry the gene.
 

EzzyAlpha

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It's not boring by itself, but I already have five dark haired characters and four dark eyed.
 

Stlight

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Oh, now I get it, you mean a graphic novel. Visual is important there. But eye color is hard to get at a glance. You might think of giving one character a streak of white caused by a trauma or shock to be explained at some point.
 

EzzyAlpha

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It's a comic strip not a graphic novel, but yeah, that character in particular has red highlights in her hair.
 

bickazer

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Are the rest of the cast full Asian? Is that why they're all dark-haired, dark-eyed? Because they're not, I don't think there's a problem in giving some of them different hair colors than making the unfortunate decision to make the half-Asian character blonde.

And honestly, I think that differences in body types/clothing styles/hair styles matter more than differences in eye color and hair color. If each character has a unique build - a unique silhouette, even - that can be an even more effective way of distinguishing them.
 

Lhipenwhe

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Half-Asian/Ashkenazi Jew here. Wanted to pop in and say that yes, those colors are possible -- there are even pure Japanese people with red hair (although it's incredibly rare). My grandmother, my mom, and I have/had hints of red hair, and it didn't come from my Jewish side.

As an aside, I have jet-black hair and brown eyes.
 

Debio

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I am not asian. But I have lived in Japan for 15 years. My son is half American half Japanese. He has dark hair and dark eyes. ETA I have dark hair and blue eyes.

And anecdotally. In fifteen years in Japan, I have not once met or even seen someone with Japanese genes that has naturally blond hair. I have met one person who had naturally blue eyes. But he was not half asian. Both his father and maternal grandfather were blue eyed Americans.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just that in my experience it would be incredibly rare. Rare enough that they could probably become a famous TV celebrity on that trait alone.

But...

It is not at all rare for people to dye their hair blond or to wear colored contacts. It is actually rather popular in some segments of the younger population.
 

CEtchison

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My cousin, who has blonde hair and blue eyes, married a man from Hong Kong. Their son, when he was a toddler, had white blonde hair and brown eyes. As he has aged, his hair has darkened, but is still blonde.
 

Bing Z

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Make your character an European mix. Then he/she can plausibly have the color of eyes/hair you like and he/she can still live a normal life, especially childhood.

If his/her parents are both East Asians, his/her mother will have to live through endless accusations of adultery, especially prior to DNA paternity test era. His/her family may be battered at best. He/she will be discriminated and bullied severely at school and will not have a happy childhood. Chances are he/she will have a very complex personality.
 

shaldna

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Would it be possible for someone who's half-japanese to have blond hair? Or someone who's half-korean to have blue eyes?

If their parents both carried the necessary genes, then yes, it's possible. The most likely senario, though, is if both parents were half Korean, half European - this would double the chances of blue eyes - given that blue is a recessive gene.

Of a lesser importance, would it be possible to start elementary school at 5, almost 6, years old?

This is one of those weird situations where it's possible, and in some areas common, and in others, no so much. Here, Ireland, we usually start school in the calander year that you would turn five - so you get a lot of four year olds starting school. However, depending on when your birthday is, you could already be five (the summer cut of date is some times in July as far as I remember).

The school boards take into consideration other factors at that time too - such as long term illness etc, and may let you keep your kid back a year, or if they are very young for the year - ie. born in June and would only just have turned four before school, sometimes you can defer for a year.
 

EzzyAlpha

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It's not about making the characters look distinct, everyone has different body types and faces. I insist on making them look absolutely different from each other.

I rather like these designs and I wouldn't want to change it for genetics.

Thanks for your answers everyone :)
 

AndreaGS

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Another half-asian chiming in. I'm half Chinese, half Scottish. It's possible. I've seen a half-asian boy with red hair and dark blue eyes.

My dad has blue eyes and black hair. Me, my brother, and my sister all have black hair and brown eyes, though my brother was born with blue eyes. They gradually darkened, and are now a very light brown.

All my half-asian (and one quarter-asian) friends have either black or brown hair and brown eyes.

So, while it's possible, it's unusual.
 

jaksen

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If their parents both carried the necessary genes, then yes, it's possible. The most likely senario, though, is if both parents were half Korean, half European - this would double the chances of blue eyes - given that blue is a recessive gene.

Eye color is actually controlled by a group of genes, not a single gene pairing (one from Mom, one from Dad.)

I have dark eyes and dark eyes; so does my husband. I have two dark-haired, dark-eyed children and one blond with very pale blue eyes. My parents were dark; so were my husband's parents. We scratched our heads a lot when I had a little blond girl.

And that same blond girl is married to a dark haired guy and they have a little redhead, almost a carrot-top.

Genes and how they are expressed are funny things. Many of them work in groups. The ones Mendel studied were fairly simple. Two dominant reds, you get red-flowered pea plants. Two recessive whites and you get white. A red and a white, you get pink. Not every organism works quite that way, however.

I'd still just go with having some of the characters dye their hair. It gives you the color you're looking for without having to haggle about the genetic details or possibly insulting someone who thinks you don't know your genetics (and thinks you should.) You don't need to know anything about inheritance if your characters dye their hair.
 
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