Wasian
Shorthand term for half Asian, half white individuals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wasian is a portmanteau referring to someone who is of half Asian and half white descent.[1] While the term has been in use for several decades alongside terms like hapa and Amerasian, it especially gained traction in 2026 due to visibility of celebrities like Alysa Liu and Hudson Williams, as well as commonplace usage by Generation Z on social media.[2][3]
History
As TikTok became popular with younger generations in the 2020s, the platform spawned the trend #WasianCheck, which led to a proliferation of content about the experiences of people who are half Asian and half white. Rebecca Chiyoko King-O’Riain, in Beyond the Frontiers of Mixedness: New Approaches to Intermarriage, Multiethnicity, and Multiracialism, observed in 2022 that the term "has emerged relatively quickly largely spread and institutionalised through social media interactions on digital platforms like TikTok" and supplanted older, more antiquated terms like hapa.[4]
In 2026, NPR's It's Been a Minute podcast reported on the increase in Wasian representation thanks to Alysa Liu's return to ice-skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics and Hudson Williams' role in Heated Rivalry. While the hosts acknowledged that "there are different waves of Wasians in U.S. history," tracing a history of the hapa term and white-Asian intermarriage in the twentieth century, they stated that "the one we're in right now is the most culturally powerful, let's say, of all of them."[5]
The Huffington Post stated that the rising popularity of the term in 2026 is "an example of how attitudes around mixed-race identities are evolving, but there is still more progress to be made...For now, the rise in on-screen media representation of Wasians is one small step forward for Wasians seeking community online."[2]
South China Morning Post pointed out that Liu and Williams, as well as Lola Tung, Eileen Gu, and Megan Skiendiel from Katseye, "have all been the focus of heavy media attention" in 2026, thus leading to newly popular discourse that "has frequently fixated on their racial identity. Specifically, they are all part-Asian and part-white – or 'Wasian' in Gen Z language." The Post also interviewed LeiLani Nishime, a professor of communication at the University of Washington, who attributes the term's trendiness as proportional to "the economic rise of Asia" and "greater international interest in Asian narratives" in general.[3]
In popular culture
- "Madwoman"—a song by half-Icelandic, half-Chinese singer-songwriter Laufey, with a music video featuring several Wasian celebrities[6]
- Wasia Project—an English pop band consisting of two half-Chinese siblings[7]