Wasian

Wasian is a colloquial portmanteau referring to someone who is of both Asian and White descent.^[1] The term 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]

The term is a portmanteau of "Asian" and "White."^[1] The term is often defined as referring to people of mixed White and East Asian heritage.^[4][2][5] In the United States, "Asian" is usually understood as "East Asian".^[5]

Historically, other terms—like hāfu, hapa, Amerasian, and Eurasian—have been used to refer to people of White and Asian descent.^[4][2][6] Similar terms have been coined for people of other mixed ethnic backgrounds, such as Blasian ("Black" and "Asian").^[4][7][2]

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. Sociologist Rebecca Chiyoko King-O'Riain wrote in 2022 that the term "has emerged relatively quickly largely spread and institutionalised through social media interactions on digital platforms like TikTok" and supplanted terms like hapa (a word specific to the context of Hawaiʻi).^[4] The popularity of Wasian in the 2020s has been associated more generally "the economic rise of Asia" and "greater international interest in Asian narratives".^[3]

Media commentators have credited the popularity of American athlete Alysa Liu and Canadian actor Hudson Williams, among others, for increasing representation of people of mixed White and Asian heritage.

Keanu Reeves has been cited as an early point of Wasian representation in American media.^[8][7] In 2026, NPR's It's Been a Minute podcast reported on the increase in Wasian representation due 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."^[7]

The South China Morning Post noted that Liu and Williams, as well as Lola Tung, Eileen Gu, and Megan Skiendiel, "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."^[3] 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".^[2] CNN noted that the term became popularized alongside a growing fascination with Asian culture in the west.^[9]

'Wasian' meetups were held in Central Park, New York City and Dolores Park, San Francisco in May 2026.^{[9][10][11][12]} The events generated criticism from other mixed Asians for allegedly excluding mixed Asians of non-white and non-East Asian descent.^[5][11][13]

• "Madwoman", song by Laufey, a singer-songwriter of Icelandic and Chinese descent, with a music video starring only Wasian celebrities^[14][2]
• Wasia Project—English pop band consisting of two half-Chinese siblings^[15]