Mixed Britannia, BBC Two.

Last night saw the first in a three part series on BBC Two discussing the issues of being mixed race in Britain. I thought I would give my two cents on the programme due to my photography project about being a half Chinese person living in the UK, but also to express my feelings towards the programme as a mixed race person.

Don't let it be thought that I've ever really thought of myself as mixed race. I mean I knew I was, I can hardly escape the fact that my mother is Chinese and I am incredibly English, although this is more down to geography and circumstance than my Northern Irish 'other half'. I can't remember the last time my 'halfness' wasn't praised as exoticism though, it seems to be pretty cool at the moment, even if it was very uncool for a lot of my school life.

Photo credit: Getty Images, courtesy of the Ah Foo family. (via BBC News)

The programme puts a spin on 'mixed race' that was seen previously in Channel 4's 2009 documentary, 'Is it better to be mixed race?'; the use of a parent who has formed a mixed race relationship and has mixed race children. I really appreciate this perspective, not that I am particularly bothered who George Alagiah is married to, but it was nice to know what he thought about his marriage and children from a genetics perspective (it's 'Wow' btw). I'm sure my friend Gareth Lewis was relieved to know that that the more personal mixed race documentary that he's working on currently has nothing to fear, I really think it's time that a mixed race person steps up to the challenge.

I soon found when carrying out my own project that when it comes to the subject of race, within any medium, it is important for the artist or, in this case, presenter, to have a personal connection, otherwise where does the issue stem from? This episode mainly focussed on the history of mixed-race relationships in Britain from 1910 to the lead up to the second world war. I had never thought about mixed race people existing in Britain as early as that, so it was a history lesson in that sense.

It was an amazing documentation of how far we have come in a little over a century. Mixed race people are now the fastest growing race of people in the world but in the early 1900s violence and riots were breaking out over the relationships between white women and foreign men. I have never understood why that would ever be an issue or how people can still think that it is fine to be against someone's race.

The film talked to a number of mixed race people, ranging in age from their 50s to 80s, who discussed the lives of their grandparents and parents. I found this to be a very interesting twist in the narrative, because as I mentioned before, many would have thought that, considering all the exposure, being mixed race was a relatively new thing. It was also interesting to see the common ground I shared with some of them.

Towards the end of the film there was also a mention of The Eugenics Society, who tried to prove the link between degeneracy and mixed race children - funnily enough, the test results did not support their theory and they eased off slightly, transferring to the still slightly offensive question of how mixed race children could be passed off as British despite their true heritage.

I thought George Alagiah did a really sensitive job reporting on how mixed race children were treated during the beginning of last century. Despite having a slight, understandable dig at those who thought badly of mixed race relationships, his overall performance was accessible and interesting. I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

Last night's episode of Mixed Britannia can currently be found on iPlayer.
BBC TV Blog: Mixed Britannia