Japan already has its first black Enka singer, Jero (who’s American) and Thelma Aoyama (born in Japan but is 1/4 Trinidadian). Now comes Himeka who is an anime pop singer. That in itself is nothing remarkable except that her real name is Catherine St-Onge who born in Quebec, developed a strong interest in anime and moved to Japan in 2008 to start a singing career in Japanese, her third language.
Check out this article and this other one for some interesting reading.
This reminds me of the TV personality Da Shan (real name: Mark Rowswell) whom most Canadians have probably never heard of. Originally from Ottawa, he’s a big celebrity in China and speaks perfect standard mandarin.
Yet with all these examples of non-Asians being successful in Asia, racism is still prevalent as evidenced by Chinese netizens racist comments towards half African American, Lou Jing.
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