For mixed race people, frequent external questioning of what and who they are impacts upon their own identity development and self-perceptions. This process often begins when multiracial people first begin regularly interacting with others outside of their family and who bring attention to their difference. George Kitahara Kich, a social scientist who has detailed the development process of asserting biracial and bicultural identities, argues that the "self develops in interaction with others through experiences of recognition, acceptance, and belonging" (Kich, 304). Kich sees three main stages of identity development in biracial people. The first stage begins at a young age, usually at the same time that the individual starts school and experiences increasing levels of social interaction. During this time frame, as others question who they are, an initial awareness of being "different" takes place. At the second stage, typically during adolescence to early adulthood, Kich argues that biracial individuals experience a struggle for acceptance from others. This involves exploring and experimenting with their multiple identities at different times. During this period, biracial people will often "more actively and consciously choose sides" (Kich, 312). Finally, in the third stage of biracial identity development, individuals will typically achieve self-acceptance as a person of mixed race and increasingly assert an interracial identity. At this time, multiracial people will use the interracial label in interactions with others and to answer the What are you? question. Undoubtedly, for different individuals, these stages are not absolute or inevitable and biracial people likely slide forward and backward in the process, depending on life situations. However, Kich's conceptual model is useful for examining the experiences of those who were interviewed for this paper.

Most of those interviewed felt that primary school had some impact on their self-perceptions as people of mixed race. Toby, who is of mixed Chinese / Japanese descent, felt that he was singled out in elementary school due to his appearance as fully Asian, rather than because he was of mixed race. This was intensified by the fact that he grew up in a small Albertan town where there were very few Asians and his difference was more noticeable. Ayesha, who spent her primary school years in Pakistan, explained that because the community in which she lived had a large number of mixed Pakistani / French young people, her status as a biracial individual was not especially conspicuous in a community in which there were many others who were similar. At the same time, she does remember being asked where she was from because her skin was lighter than a lot of the other children with whom she attended school. Daylan, however, reported that there were a few times in primary school when he was made aware of his racial difference and of wanting to look less different:

I remember when I was a little kid when I wanted to be more white. At that time, I got made fun of because I was Asian. I was called something by one of my white friends and that made me wish I could be more like them.

Although she stressed that the community in which she was raised was already ethnically and racially diverse, Amber also noted that she did become more aware of her multiple racial backgrounds when she started to interact on a regular basis with other students through the school system.

I think it is something I became more aware of as I got older. It wasn't really even something that I thought about as a little kid. To me everybody was pretty much the same colour. It wasn't until people started pointing it out to me.

For biracial and multiracial individuals, then, the first stage of identity development begins in interactive situations during which their difference is first pointed out by others. Typically this simply results in an awareness of difference but, as evinced by Daylan's experience, may also produce the desire to conform to certain standards.

This desire to conform is an integral part of the second stage detailed by Kich and it is a period during which a struggle for acceptance within the larger community takes place. By virtue of being multiracial, mixed race people not only have issues of identity to deal with but are also often faced with the external expectation that they must "choose" an identity. Because they are constantly faced with questions of who they are, they often question themselves and feel the need to choose a single race, especially at younger ages. This way, they feel that they can more easily adopt the perceived cultures and behaviours of that group and better blend in with others of similar racial heritage. This pressure in society to choose a single monoracial identity, usually based on physical appearance, is often externally imposed on mixed race people. As has been discussed, Daylan remembers wishing that he could have looked more white because, when he was younger, he looked really Asian. He also states, however, that he didn't want to not be Japanese, he just wanted to look more white. Amber also had a similar experience of wanting to look more white:

I think I probably watched too much TV and I had that kind of blond hair, blue eyed Barbie doll picture in my mind that I wanted to be because that's all I saw. I really wanted to be a white girl in a way.

Ayesha was the most vocal in asserting that she had never really had the opportunity to choose to align herself with one or the other of her racial backgrounds; the way her classmates in high school interacted with her automatically placed her in the Caucasian racial category. Due to the light colour of her skin, she could "pass" as white and, in fact, her classmates preferred to conceptualize her that way because it was easier than dealing with her as a racially mixed person:

Even "passing." I didn't think it was an option not to. I remember thinking in high-school not wanting to bring up too much - not talk about the last few years of my life in Pakistan. I would find myself not doing that because it felt that it would somehow disrupt something that people would see in me or had already seen me as … After awhile it would almost feel like bringing that up too much was disrupting some kind of unity … I felt like people really didn't want to hear it or didn't hear it because they couldn't see it.

Ayesha also noted that later on in high-school, she became involved with a group that was primarily white and, consequently, she felt the need to censor her racial identities to better conform to group expectation. It is important to note here, however, that the desire to be more white is not necessarily exclusive to mixed race individuals. Instead, it may also be partially a function of being a visible minority growing up biculturally in a primarily white society.

After the struggle for acceptance takes place, Kich theorizes that the third stage occurs when an interracial identity is confidently expressed by mixed race individuals. Although all those interviewed are still quite young, they all strongly asserted that, although they may have been less likely to do so in the past, they now identify themselves to others as mixed race individuals. As has been discussed, depending on the context within which the question I posed, this often involves identifying themselves first as Canadian and then as multiracial within the Canadian context. However, all the individuals interviewed said they were comfortable asserting their biracial identities. Only Toby, who looks less ambiguously Asian, said that he rarely has to assert this identity primarily because people usually automatically assume he is full Chinese or Korean. It is interesting to note here that the process of asserting a mixed race identity is not fixed; multiracial people are constantly negotiating and renegotiating their identities at different periods of time and within different contexts and situations. Daylan, for example, noted that although he had become quite comfortable with asserting his biracial status here in Canada, he had to go through a similar process when he recently lived and studied in Japan for a year. Issues that he never felt were particularly pressing while in Canada suddenly became important in the different social context:

Before I went to Japan, my race was never an issue... But when I went to Japan, it was an issue for people. Everybody in Japan is Japanese and I really stick out. At the same time, the Japanese sort of have this fascination with the west and people who are white or half are treated differently. I really felt different at that time … It was really weird because I really noticed it for the first time. My racial identity really was an issue for the first time because people just made so much of it.

Daylan found that the identity and level of comfort that he had secured in Canada had to be renegotiated in the new context within which he found himself. Ayesha too experienced similar feelings whenever she visited her extended family in France. She noted that her biracial status was far more accepted here in Canada than when she went home to France; while there, she said she often felt the pressure to "pass" as white. Kathleen, whose mother is mixed Chinese / European and whose father is full Chinese, also went through a similar process when she went to China for the first time and experienced extensive questioning from others about her status. Thus, the self-assurance and internal confidence apparent in the third stage of identity development detailed by Kich is often challenged, transformed, and adapted as multiracial individuals move through different situations in life.

An important corollary of the negotiation and renegotiation of identity in different situations, is that multiracial identity is never fixed. It is interesting to note that mixed race people often display their identities differently in different contexts and situations; ethnic and racial identity can be fluid, depending on particular geographic and temporal contexts. In this way, Kich's three stage process of biracial identity formation neglects to consider the fact that behaving in particular ways or assuming different identities in different contexts is not necessarily an inherently conflictual process through which racial identity is accepted or rejected. Instead, this may simply be a reflection of the fluidity of multiracial identity. Post-modern perspectives recognize that identity is always shifted and transformed by constant interaction between the self and society. At different times, then, people will assume different identities: "as the systems of meaning and cultural representation multiply, we are confronted by a bewildering, fleeting multiplicity of possible identities, any one of which we could identify with - at least temporarily" (Hall, 598). Although this perspective is applicable to all people, the process is heightened for mixed race people who are often positioned in cultural and social contexts which may be dissonant with the other racial and cultural identities with which they identify. To compensate, multiracial people can often alter their behaviour to better adapt to the contexts within which they find themselves. As Brian Chol Soo Standen writes of the biracial Korean / White experience, "identity is fluid, providing for a 'best-fit' racial identity depending on the specifics of the context" (Standen, 259). This fluidity is not a negative thing; instead, it connotes adaptability and flexibility within different situations; multiracial people can take advantage of this by manipulating their multiple identities to better suit the purposes and goals of different contexts and situations.

All of those interviewed had experienced this to some extent. Toby noted that when he visited his family in Japan, he felt at ease and comfortable with Japanese cultural traditions that he had learned from his mother and was able to perform in such a way that he was more easily accepted within that context. Daylan also noted that his ability to transgress racial boundaries and assume different cultural identities was also useful in Japan:

I could use it [being mixed] to not be like everybody else but I thought that it was because I wasn't like everybody else. Like when I was in Japan, I could when I felt like it speak Japanese near fluently and do whatever. At the same time, because I look half, if I went up to an official guy, like at school or something, and I spoke Japanese with a really heavy white accent, he would totally help me out completely. I did that a lot when I didn't know what to do and I found I could get away with a lot if I didn't speak Japanese very well just because I looked half.

Ayesha also noticed that although she identifies herself as mixed, she also can identify herself in different ways in different situations and with particular groups of people. She noted that her identity shifts not only along racial and cultural lines but, as someone who also identifies herself as queer, shifts her identity across lines of gender and sexuality as well:

So I identify as mixed, I identify as part of the Pakistani community, I'd identify as French if I spoke French here or as part of a French community. Also, I identify as queer now … I really feel like who I am and how I relate to people is always real where I am but it's always different.

Amber also said that she could feel comfortable in whatever environment she found herself. At home, because there were so many Chinese cultural influences, she perceived that some of her non-Chinese friends may have felt uncomfortable there. For herself, however, she felt that she could shift her behaviour and understanding to accommodate different cultural situations between her household and Canadian society. Thus, for mixed race individuals, boundaries of race and culture can be transgressed by the fluidity of their identities.

It is worthwhile noting here that questions of identity are heightened when national boundaries are crossed in the process of growing up; the subject of mixed race crosses typical boundaries of nationality, race and ethnicity. To some extent, the What are you? question and acceptance of multiracial people also appears to be dependent on the community in which one lives. As Robin Miller writes, "identity development process is ecologically anchored" (Miller, 25). Reception of multiracial individuals highly depends on community bonds and relations between the groups that are part of each individual's heritage. For example, multiracial Americans living in Hawaii, where a large proportion of the population is multiracial, typically identify fewer questions of identity because the internal and external dialogue of self-identification is more common and accepted. In contrast, a multiracial person living in an area where there are few visible minorities will often grapple more seriously with these questions, particularly in the face of heightened racism and discrimination. Toby, for example, experienced greater discrimination in a small town where he was one of the few Asians. Jason, although he lived in a small town in northern British Columbia where there were few Asians, noted that racial polarization occurred more along Native / non-Native lines. As a consequence, his difference as an Asian was not as recognized or highlighted and he faced fewer questions of identity.