Message from mhogan

As a hapa myself, I find it very interesting to see how others define themselves. When I was young, I was constantly asked about my heritage. "What are you?", or my favorite, "I'm normal. What are you?" When I was young, there weren't many hapas in the area, so "hapa" was not an acceptable answer. In order to help me, my parents armed with with knowledge. By the age of 5, I could explain my ethnicity, nationality, and race and also explain the difference between all 3. I don't think my peers understood my answers, but they did stop asking.

My grandmother always hated us to use the word "hapa", because when she was young, it was considered a derogatory word. She preferred us to call ourselves "ai no ko" - children of love. (Obviously, only those overwhelmed by love would allow themselves to marry across racial lines.)

In terms of ethnicity, I never really belonged to any one group, but I chose to identify myself through other channels. As I started to travel, my look allowed me to quickly identify the majority asian group of the area I visited, for I would always be mistaken as that ethnicity.

In today's time, hapas are far more common. I've had numerous hapa students, and the term "hapa" has entered the mainstream. I suppose there are enough of us, that there can actually be an exhibit dedicated to us