Hey, are you Chinese or something?

[kimpossible]

This is borrowed oh so kindly from Kip Fulbeck.

Ha·pa (hä´pä) adj. 1. Slang. of mixed racial heritage with partial roots in Asian and/or Pacific Islander ancestry. n. 2. Slang. a person of such heritage. [der./Hawaiian: hapa haole (half white)]

We all know we ain't all white/asian and we're getting more mixed than straight up half n' halves. Some of us with multiple non-Asian ethnicities instead of dual and some of us with multiple Asian identities, e.g., China Chow.

How do you like to describe yourself and do we form sub-hapa communities?

[thaite]

I dunno. I try not to have to get into that kind of conversation with people who aren't already hip to hapas -- just because it always involves some long explanation.

I used to try to get by with just saying I was hapa, but then I'd have to explain what that meant.

Then, in a cutesy way, I'd just say I'm Thai-ite, as in Thai and white. That doesn't always fly, except with other hapas who all have at one time or another made up their own word to describe themselves.

Coming away from the Hapa Issues Forum conference I attended in July, my impression was that the Hapa 'community' is imaginary and arbitrary. This is not meant as a criticism, but it is a recognition of the diverse population that Hapas are coming from. To pull ourselves out of our communities and come together as a unified Hapa community is difficult if not impossible, and contrived. We're not all the same.

[SunWuKong]

i'm not mixed but i have hapas in my extended family tree. my great-great-grandmother was english. so that makes my grandmother 1/4th english and everybody else a little trickled down english. my great-aunt (grandma's aunt) married a caucasian guy and then her son married an indian woman. i've never met them but i think their kids are probably in their late 30s or early 40s.

[deez nuts]

I think it deends more on how you categorize yourself. I mean HH how do you categorize yourself? You've said your japanese and irish mix; married to a Taiwanese guy. Hey that works.



<!--EDIT|Chasiubao_Boy|Sep 5 2002, 08:10 AM-->

[kimpossible]

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Sep 5 2002, 05:01 AM
I think it deends more on how you categorize yourself. I mean HH how do you categorize yourself? You've said your japanese and irish mix; married to a Taiwanese guy. Hey that works.
How I categorize myself in my relation to my marriage may surprise you. I think my husband is a sell out who picked a white girl Asian enough, educated enough, and traditional enough to meet minimal parental approval. He's voiced some rather interesting opinions about Chinese women in general and the result is, many times I am torn. While I'm happily married, the things he has said have made me come to realize that he was aware of and counted on a limit to my Asian-ness. Additionally, his inability to relate to wholly Asian women is a bit troubling to me.

That's as far as I want to go on the topic of my identity in relation to another person. Mr. HH is totally up for discussion, but we should put it in another forum. Start it in men or something and I can continue there.

As for my identity on an individual basis, buoywonder already summed it up quite well. If he and I were to sit down separately and write lists associated about being mixed Asian, much of what we wrote would be similar. At the same time, we could probably talk cultural circles around one another because we have different ethnicities, experiences and ways we think about ourselves.

Hapa identify together on a level of passing recognition, like "Hey, you have to deal with the same stuff too, huh?" I don't think it goes much beyond that.

We're all interested to hear from other mixed Asian people as well.



<!--EDIT|Hello_Hapa|Sep 5 2002, 09:42 AM-->

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by Hello_Hapa@Sep 5 2002, 10:45 AM
How I categorize myself in my relation to my marriage may surprise you. I think my husband is a sell out who picked a white girl Asian enough, educated enough, and traditional enough to meet minimal parental approval. He's voiced some rather interesting opinions about Chinese women in general and the result is, many times I am torn. While I'm happily married, the things he has said have made me come to realize that he was aware of and counted on a limit to my Asian-ness. Additionally, his inability to relate to wholly Asian women is a bit troubling to me.
i kind of feel the same about HK girls. but not because i don't feel like i can relate to them. but because HK girls are impossibly high maintenance princesses. :P and it also seems to me that most of them have self-esteem issues.

if i went back to HK i would probably stick with Overseas Chinese or girls who went to international school.

[johnny]

HH,
I'm just shocked how you happen to marry and fall in love with a taiwanese rather than a caucasian man... usually women like you tend to marry a white man but kudos for you.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by johnny@Sep 5 2002, 03:49 PM
HH,
I'm just shocked how you happen to marry and fall in love with a taiwanese rather than a caucasian man... usually women like you tend to marry a white man but kudos for you.
"kudos for you"??

that's kind of... "patronizing" i guess? i don't know... as if it would be morally wrong for her to fall in love with a causasian man.

[kimpossible]

I'd like to think he's saying something more along the lines of kudos for not automatically ruling out an Asian man, but then again...

edit: I covet your title Mr. Celestial Dragon. Very humble.



<!--EDIT|Hello_Hapa|Sep 5 2002, 01:20 PM-->

[johnny]

Originally posted by Hello_Hapa@Sep 5 2002, 09:19 PM
I'd like to think he's saying something more along the lines of kudos for not automatically ruling out an Asian man, but then again...

edit: I covet your title Mr. Celestial Dragon. Very humble.
correct,
it seems as though it's the really cool and "superior" people who truly get the underlying meanings under my statements ;)

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by johnny@Sep 5 2002, 05:58 PM
Originally posted by Hello_Hapa@Sep 5 2002, 09:19 PM
I'd like to think he's saying something more along the lines of kudos for not automatically ruling out an Asian man, but then again...

edit: I covet your title Mr. Celestial Dragon. Very humble.
correct,
it seems as though it's the really cool and "superior" people who truly get the underlying meanings under my statements ;)
doh! i feel like i've been bitch-slapped. :P

[kimpossible]

There will be no bitch slappings of monkeys or dragons. Only the feeding of bananas and the occasional crunchy human.

edit: Now back on track about hapa identity



<!--EDIT|Hello_Hapa|Sep 5 2002, 04:48 PM-->