hapa.me – 25 Years of The Hapa Project

About the Exhibit

Artist and author Kip Fulbeck started The Hapa Project in 2001, photographing over 1,200 individuals who identified as multiracial, including their handwritten response to the question, “What are you?”

hapa.me – 25 years of The Hapa Project features Fulbeck’s photographic portraits as he revisits the cultural and artistic significance of the work, its impact on the participants, and the changing awareness of multiracial identity in the United States. Nearly 25 years later, Fulbeck has re-photographed 130 of the original participants and asked them to write new personal statements, exploring how our self-definitions and perspectives change over time.

A selection of portraits from The Hapa Project were first featured at the Museum of Us in the exhibition Race: Are We So Different? In this expanded exhibition, visitors are invited to reflect on what it means to be you.

Etymology of Hapa

Hapa is a Hawaiian language term meaning “half” or “part.” It is a transliteration of the English word “half.” Much of its current usage derives from the Hawaiian phrase "hapa haole", meaning “half white” or “half foreigner.” The phrase was originally coined by Native Hawaiians to describe people of mixed ethnicities resulting from encounters between islanders and White settlers.

After the Kingdom of Hawai’i was overthrown by the U.S. government in 1893, and as migration increased between the islands and the continental U.S. in the 20th century, the word Hapa gained popularity in conventional English. In subsequent years, Hapa has come into popular usage away from the Hawaiian Islands, most frequently embraced by Asian and Pacific Islander Americans of mixed descent.

Although racial mixes are common today, there was a time not too long ago in our collective past when the races remained separate and intermixing was rare, even illegal in some parts of the world. But we cannot imagine not being Hapa today. Nor can we imagine having no Hapa people of any combination of races in our communities today. Perhaps this is the bit, the hapa of solice I can offer to anyone of mixed heritage who struggles with feeling comfortable in their own skin. It is inconceivable that you should not exist. Not in this day and age. - Keao NeSmith, PhD, Linguist, Educator, Kanaka Maoli

About the Artist

Kip Fulbeck has exhibited and performed in over 20 countries and throughout the U.S., and has been featured in The New York Times, The Today Show, Voice of America, CNN, MTV, and numerous NPR programs. He is the author of six books including Part Asian, 100% Hapa; Mixed: Portraits of Multiracial Kids; and Hapa.me – 15 Years of The Hapa Project, and the exhibition artist and designer of Perseverance: Japanese Tattoo Tradition in a Modern World.

Fulbeck teaches as a Distinguished Professor of Art at UC Santa Barbara, where he received the Faculty Diversity Award and the Distinguished Teaching Award, and has been named an Outstanding Faculty Member five times. He attended UC San Diego for both undergraduate and graduate school and has worked over 30 summers as an ocean lifeguard in San Diego County. He is also an avid surfer, guitar player, tropical fish enthusiast, and multiple-time national champion in U.S. Masters Swimming.

Exhibit Images

Participants in The Hapa Project, including San Diego residents, provide their own personal statement responding to the question, "What are you?"

Partners

The Hapa Project was developed by artist and author Kip Fulbeck.