Learned a brand new spanking word yesterday. Hapa. Yeah, I know… I’ve been sheltered.
But after an interview with Kina Grannis, I realized that I had no clue what this word meant and asked. When you got right down to it, it basically it meant that you were half-white, and half-asian. Dang. There’s a word for that too? “Wow, that’s pretty cool,” I thought.
So in looking it up some more, I found that it originates from Hawaiian and while it used to have a derogatory connotation, it seems that over time there are enough hapas out there that have turned it around and made it a word that was to be proud of. Like Kina, there are entire communities and organizations proud of being hapa.
That in itself is pretty dang cool. Then another thought dawned on me. There are many of whom Hollywood made to be as asian which are in fact hapa. Off the top of my head, Russell Wong and Maggie Q come to mind.
Wow. I knew they were exotic looking, but I never knew there was a name for it. Learn new things every day I suppose.
Photo Credit: (nayrb7)
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Toro wrote:
I thought Hapa was any kind of mixed Asian or Hawaiian race and Hapa Haolie was mixed with caucasian, no? I myself being Mexican and Japanese consider myself hapa.
Which reminds me. Have you ever seen the PBS doco on mixed race children? The darker the children the more racism they experienced both in Asia and on the mainland US. However, in HI they found complete and total acceptance. I myself have always been treated like gold when in the islands. A friend of mine who tried living there, a white guy, experienced painful interactions from everyone from the bank teller to the grocer.
Posted on 08-Mar-08 at 12:00 pm | Permalink
ancient one wrote:
Here’s another amusing term I heard from my teenage daughter - “wasian” (White and ASIAN). Lots of hapas of all types where we live in the Bay Area.
Posted on 08-Mar-08 at 4:42 pm | Permalink
Dave wrote:
I also want to point out a good article I read recently that discusses the origin of the word “hapa.” While many biracial (white and Asian) individuals have embraced the word as representative of their identity, others have called into question the appropriation of the word “hapa” from Native Hawaiians. I am no expert on the matter, but I check out this link for a better discussion of this subject.
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/features/web_exclusives/rethinking.php
Posted on 08-Mar-08 at 11:53 pm | Permalink
RayU wrote:
@Dave
Thanks for the link. That article links to realhapas.com which added to the education for me.
I was born & raised in Hawaii (of 1/2 Chinese, 1/2 Japanese heritage), and I think I first learned the word ‘hapa’ sometime in the late ’70’s in middle school. I was told that it meant 1/2 Haole, 1/2 Japanese, and ‘hapa’ was a concatenation of the two words. And I’ve never encountered a situation to doubt what I was told, although the usage that I seen over the years had it evolve to not only Japanese, but covering all Asians. This is quite new to me, that ‘hapa’ is an actual Hawaiian word, and realhapas.com (and the hyphen article) has a valid point of the appropriation of the word.
Ben has just learned a new word, I just learned that I’ll have to reconsider how I use that same word. (I don’t use the word to describe myself, but those who are part Asian, part Caucasian - now that will have to change.)
Posted on 09-Mar-08 at 8:47 pm | Permalink
Jason wrote:
Found this post to be pretty amusing. The writer has just discovered the word “hapa” now that it is no longer politically correct to use it to mean “half white / half asian” Bad timing, dude. You’ve still got some learning to do…
If you don’t want to be accused of raping Hawaiian culture, you can only use “hapa” to refer to someone who is half-Hawaiian.
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/features/web_exclusives/rethinking.php
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archives/2007/12/hapa_featured_i.html
Hawaiian hapas don’t want to be associated with other mixed asians in other locations, and they don’t want to donate the word “hapa” to be broader mixed-asian community.
Posted on 10-Mar-08 at 1:22 pm | Permalink
darkmoon wrote:
In all actuality, the Hyphen article is taking a purist stance. It’s no different from the African American culture using the “n” word and then saying that the “n” word has bad origins when others use it.
The point is that it’s not as much about being half, as much as the etymology of the word shifting. Note that you’re defining the word as non-PC based on one single assistant professor of AA studies views.
I purposely didn’t mention the Hyphen article due to the fact that while you have native Hawaiians out there that wouldn’t care for that, there is also a large part of the Socal community that does use this word in the fashion stated.
It’s no more as correct as the fact that Hollywood bastardizes the use of “feng shui” because of the fad and quaintness of it. In fact, there are many people that supposedly practice it without actually knowing what it even means. So does that make it raping of culture? Nah. Just another perspective.
Posted on 11-Mar-08 at 5:16 am | Permalink
hadashi wrote:
with apologies to any Native Hawaiians for the cultural piracy, the word Hapa was a godsend to me. being a mixed-race kid — Chinese & various Caucasian — who grew up in Japan, i fit into absolutely none of the tidy racial or cultural boxes that America seemed to put me in. then i discovered the word Hapa, and i suddenly found i had a community, an understandable ethnic identity, and much less pressure to Be Asian or Be White.
i’ve got a sticker on my car that says “100% Hapa.” it gets an equal measure of curiosity & knowing thumbs-up responses.
Posted on 11-Mar-08 at 10:47 am | Permalink
Jason wrote:
@Darkmoon
Using “hapa” to mean “half asian” isn’t the same as a non-African American calling an African American the “n” word. It’s more like asian kids calling each other the “n” word because they are appropriating African-American culture. As far as the kids are concerned, they are paying homage to a culture they like and want to be a part of, but I’m sure there are some African Americans who would think that wasn’t right.
It doesn’t matter how many non-Hawaiian people in SoCal or NorCal want to use “hapa” to mean “half asian” — if we want to respect the wishes of Hawaiians (see the realhapas.com website) we should only use the word to mean “half Hawaiian”. You need to do more research if you think that is only the view of author of the Hyphen article.
Personally, as someone who is half Japanese and half white, I don’t want to refer to myself as hapa anymore after reading realhapas.com and discovering how much hatred a lot of Hawaiians have for Japanese Americans. Let them have their word. Let them play by themselves in the corner of the room while the rest of the mixed-asian community hangs out together.
Posted on 11-Mar-08 at 11:10 am | Permalink
darkmoon wrote:
@ Jason:
I figured this would have been missed out on, since you’re picking on points to justify your side. Which is fine. To each their own perspective.
As I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again. You’re choosing a side. Fine. Good for you. Hope you feel better about it. The point of the writing was that I didn’t know that there was even a word out there. Regardless of where the origination of the word comes from, the etymology of the word is that it’s been transferred into another culture and diversifying the meaning.
Point being, regardless of perspective, it’s still an interesting word and if we took to the point of justifying origination of language, then we might as well quit speaking English since we’ve also bastardized romantic languages.
Posted on 11-Mar-08 at 11:31 am | Permalink
Jason wrote:
No problem. I was just trying to provide a little warning, because you could unintentionally offend a Hawaiian person by using “hapa” to mean “half asian”… but it appears that you already knew that and it doesn’t worry you.
Posted on 11-Mar-08 at 4:45 pm | Permalink
Catherine wrote:
I’ve never met a half American.. American is a nationality.. either you’re an American or not.. now, hapa as in half asian half caucasion is more realistic.
Posted on 07-Aug-08 at 10:25 am | Permalink
darkmoon wrote:
@Catherine: Out of curiosity, where did you get “half American”? Been a while since I’ve read my own post, and re-read the comments but I don’t see that being used anywhere?
Posted on 07-Aug-08 at 12:47 pm | Permalink