Do our faces really need to be examined MORE?
JC
Ahhh, Kip. I really want to like this (because I know you must have good intentions — I LOVE your other work, specifically your films — and I know some of the people who are going to be in the book), but I can’t.I mean, perhaps my mind will be changed once I get a chance to see the book (to be released in April), but I have to say, I have had concerns ever since I first heard about The Hapa Project. It’s a book that includes pictures of hapas (from collar-bone up) along with a handwritten statement by each of them about what it means to be hapa or something to that effect.
I was actually asked to participate at a mixed student conference a handful of years ago. When I respectfully declined (because it already seemed questionable to me), the student who was helping Kip looked at me like I was crazy. He might as well have said: “What?! You’re passing up the opportunity to be in a book, pictured in all of your naked-collarbone glory with other hapas? HAPAHAPAHAPAHAPAS forever!!!” 
At the time, the project came off as slightly self-fetishizing to me. I know there is a thin line between that and pride. And it seems that Kip’s intention is to lean more towards pride, but I don’t know whether that will be accomplished — The Hapa Project’s mission statement:
The Hapa Project seeks to promote awareness and recognition of the millions of multiracials of Asian/Pacific Islander descent in the U.S; to give voice to multiracial people and previously ignored ethnic groups; to dispel myths of exoticism, hybrid vigor and racial homogeneity; to foster positive identity formation and self-image in multiracial children; and to encourage solidarity and empowerment within the multiracial/Hapa community.
I am just not convinced that we need a book like *this* in order to increase visibility and give voice. It just seems like another chance for people to obsess and pore over the ambiguous looks of hapas. I can see people using the book like a game — covering over each person’s identifying ethnicities and trying to guess. Perhaps I am cynical, but I doubt that many will come away with a deeper understanding of what it means to be hapa. It bothers me that the visual aspect is the focus. And I don’t think it will be challenging ideas of hybrid vigor — from what I have seen, it looks like there are nothing but attractive people in the book.
And I think this book will only help the exotic/sexual factor to rise. About the collarbone thing:
All subjects are photographed identically from the collarbone up without jewelry or glasses, suggesting the preliminary opportunity of phenotypic speculation – an everyday public occurrence for multiracial individuals.
Why do we need to recreate this opportunity for speculation when we already go through it every day? And seriously, people should have been clothed. The naked collarbone suggests complete nakedness, which suggests sex. Come on. Definitely winds up objectifying and eroticizing (if not exoticizing) the hapas involved. I know there are kids in the photos too…on a baby, it’s different, I guess (but let’s start the objectification early!). The naked collarbone thing just seems a bit unnecessary to me. I mean, the fact that the question “Do I have to disrobe?” is an FAQ on the site rings problematic to me.
I can see how it may give children positive self-image — they will see themselves reflected in a book — but won’t it also give them the message that being hapa is about looking hapa? And being beautiful? So many of us grow up with the feedback that we are beautiful because we are mixed. Isn’t there more to us? I for one am sick and tired of all of the focus on physical appearance. I know that we are a looks-based society, but enough. Do we have to do it to each other? Do we have to do it to ourselves??
Taking a breath, I know that the book has people write a line or two about what being mixed means to them and I am hoping that those words make larger statements than I think they will — my fear is that they won’t have the kind of impact the pictures will.
This will not create solidarity in the multiracial community — it merely focuses on hapas! Again, the appearances of mixed Asians are in the spotlight and praised and given value - a whole book’s worth! And we wonder why people perv out over mixed Asians so much? More of it, we don’t need. 
LBW wrote:
Well, isn’t this what a lot of IR breeding was all about - to produce beautiful designer babies? I don’t know how many Asian women I’ve heard over the years declaring how bad they wanted cuter, half-White babies with rounder eyes and lighter skin.
This coffeebook is the inevitable result - a Mendelian catalog with nothing but moneyshot after moneyshoot of aesthetic IR eugenics. Congrats, Kip.
Posted 19 Mar 2006 at 9:37 pm ¶
Ben wrote:
The project is not without its flaws (bare shoulders? discrete nationalities?) but I agree with the idea and I’m glad to see a book like this out there.
A good friend of mine, a well-educated liberal white woman who is married to a Korean man, recently remarked that there seemed to be remarkable phenotypic diversity within the black/white mixed population, but that mixed Asians all tended to look “pretty similar.” This is a woman who is going to give birth to a hapa, and she thinks they all look the same.
So yes, I think it will dispel the myth racial homogeneity, and that myth is more pervasive than most of us MMW readers are aware of.
(Also, I don’t agree that the average attractiveness of the subjects is higher than any random group of people would look under similar circumstances. So, goodbye exoticism and hybrid vigor!)
Posted 21 Mar 2006 at 6:41 pm ¶
mtevc wrote:
i must agree with our illustrious leader of the site…the book is useless…i would be suspicious too…dropping all hapas into one hat, and making the book, in an attempt to show their diversity, automatically kills the point…besides, why should we assume all hapas see themselves as a collective…what the heck does a half-indian half white, or half korean half black, or half chinese half white person have in common, except for their halfness…come on people…their cultural identity might be tied to “americanness” which we all feel, or their home identity (what their parents taught them about their 2 cultures)…but i hate “lump” projects…
Posted 22 Mar 2006 at 8:58 am ¶
mtevc wrote:
did anyone see the rerun of a pbs special on the half vietnamese half white woman who lived in texas and returned to find her mom in vietnam????
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/daughter/
someone should have talked to her about life in vietnam beforehand! I know she lived there when she was small, and she couldn’t really remember it, but please…she became the ugly American/prissy Texan when she kept talking about the poverty, etc…yes, they are poor, poorer than we could ever know…understand it, but don’t get so grossed out…learn…she was so out of touch with reality…also, her need to reconnect was so sad…she couldn’t see that this woman (the biological mom) couldn’t give her what she needed (a mom 24-7)…can’t really do that long distance, and especially when you have expectations like that of an American woman…
The young woman couldn’t see how her need to create a family instantly impacted all her thoughts about the visit (as her adoptive mother was a horror…adoptive mom told her she should be thankful she “saved” her…adoptive mom was a hitter) …i wonder exactly how the young woman felt about being part vietnamese…sounds like she didn’t get any helpful and positive messages on that end (added to the fact that her biological parents’ union was one of need…american soldier paying desperate and abandoned vietnamese wife with small children to feed)…loaded story…i didn’t see all (but most), but geez, why do this story and leave so many doggone holes…did anyone see this???? the family ends up asking for support…the one half brother in vietnam asks if there is anything she can do for the mom (to send money when she gets back to the U.S)…did anyone see this…the young woman thought she was being used, taken advantage of…i didn’t really see that, knowing asian families (vietnamese) as i do, i think they really were interested in this idea of family obligation, and that they also saw the young woman as the one who made it out to a better life, and it was her obligation to help…goodness knows that if she sent them even 50 bucks a month, it would be meaningful there…did anyone get this drift like i did???
Posted 22 Mar 2006 at 10:05 am ¶
mtevc wrote:
forgot to say about the pbs special…and maybe she mentioned this and i missed it…the biological mom did her a favor by sending her to the U.S. (even though she was adopted by a mean mom)…but staying in vietnam, with the husband to return, and she now has a half white child, in a country that frowns on biracial children, especially one from an american soldier…geez…very hard times…
Posted 22 Mar 2006 at 10:08 am ¶
Anonymous wrote:
“bare shoulders?”- Ben
“Do I have to disrobe?”- Hapa Project FAQ
FOR AN EXCLUSIVELY HAPA PICTURE BOOK?
Unfair or not, one can’t help but question whether this is an excuse for self-fetishizing (even though Kip meant well).
Posted 22 Mar 2006 at 10:53 am ¶
mtevc wrote:
not to go so off topic here…but on the fetish tip…has anyone noticed the growing porn business in half asian half white women…
Posted 22 Mar 2006 at 11:24 am ¶
justin wrote:
Mtevc, I’ve seen the danang thing. It’s just yuck. I know she’s adopted, but she should of never gone there if she didn’t want that responsibility and it’s just basic filial piety ( anyone with a family knows ).
There was another documentary released at the same time about an English TRA. She goes back to her old country in search of DNA, instead she ends up crying for hours with this crazy homeless lady, on film, then she sleeps with her taxi driver takes him back to England and ditches him. It’s more entertaining, the English lady was smart, but neither are positive, unless . . . . Well they made me feel lucky, y’all don’t need to know how great my life actually is .
How can you tell if a porn star is mixed? Are there businesses specialising in that.
So, I will point out the obvious irony of black and white photos of multiracial people or is that meant to be neutral with a glaring white back ground.
Posted 22 Mar 2006 at 12:33 pm ¶
mtevc wrote:
i know what you mean about the ridiculousness of the interracial porn, and porn that plays up “mixed” women…i guess when the old racist notions come up they get unfortunately mixed up with sex…i just really wonder about the women who do that—that is, all the women in the porn biz (of any race) but especially those that appear in movies with racial and racist themes…
Posted 22 Mar 2006 at 4:06 pm ¶
justin wrote:
Have you listened to ATR 10 with Scott Poulsen Bryant? It’s a good place start.
In relation to ‘ how race is gendered’, where black is to asian what male is to female. The popularity of Asian/white females could skew that relationship. They don’t really occupy the corresponding space to Black/white males. It’s because there is no neutrality in gender and race. Everything revolves around the white man.
Posted 23 Mar 2006 at 11:14 am ¶
Marina wrote:
I have a copy of the book and have showed it to many friends (non-hapa’s so far to see what they say). I have yet to see anyone sit there and nitpick on the races and the features that some would generalize as a representation of. Actually, a lot of the people I have shown the book to have been intrigued by the participants knowledge of their background and have had a number run to their phones to find out a little bit more about their own. Being Mexican & Mexican I’m not one to be in any multiracial catagory, but am one to feel the exocism of living in a multiracial world. Yes it is annoying, but I do believe that awareness is the first step to realization in this world. I mean why else do we have an “alternative lifestyle” or “Gay/Lesbian” section in the library? Why else do we have Black History Month? Is it to promote the idea of them as being other? Or is it to educate those who fail to see outside themselves, their bubble or what our “History” classes teach us? To really see what kind of effect this has on Hapa pride, mixed race awareness, or cultural and social reaction…buy the book, and find out what people say! I did, and so far I’ve gotten nothing but good reactions (btw- the book is out already in a lot of places… the myspace kids have already spread the word!).
On another note, I’m happy to see this is even up for discussion. “The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about!” - Oscar Wilde
Posted 24 Mar 2006 at 3:51 pm ¶
Cecelia wrote:
As a white woman, my interest in this book primarily stems from my half asain boyfriend, and hearing the difficulties that he encountered while growing up without a “known” ethnic identity. We have all felt like outsiders before,whether due to physical appearance, financial status, being unpopular, or just being “out of the loop” in a social situation. In speaking with him and other friends who are hapa, (some who before reading the book did not even know what the word meant) I’ve learned that this work has given them a deeper and more fulfilled sense of who they are.
I’m grateful for this book and all other the positively motivated movements to get the concept of “hapa” out there. I think that Mr. Fulbeck is a driving force to helping to bring hapas home.
Posted 26 Mar 2006 at 12:01 am ¶
Lester wrote:
Hapa? Isn’t that a derrogatory term?
Posted 27 Mar 2006 at 12:48 am ¶
Marsha wrote:
I think there is a huge gaping divide between being singled out because of one’s financial status or popularity in school and to be singled out because of your ethnic background.
Posted 30 Mar 2006 at 10:42 am ¶
LISA (TRINHY LE NGUYEN) wrote:
hi all
i was born in vietnam 74or 75 hafe white and viet.i try every day to find out how can i get DNA to find my dad,,i go know pic no ID frome him or name i was pick up by my mom near the church..i looks up all the name of web side maybe i lucky run in some one can help me ..is been so heard to be a mix kids like us,,,in viet nam some of us have a good live and of us like me,,,is not one day worry about how we can find food to eat,,this mix girl with her mom homeless still food pick up food of the flor to eat and at ninght come we find a cemetery to sleep with banana leaves on top of us…so now tell me,,,we ask to be born by American soldiers ? we call that hit and run,,,now we in USA but how can we find our dad?..American think we ask for money or rebay us,,,let me tell you money cant fix this kids life like us,,rebay us like what..you cant fix something is been doen but,,,if any soldiers out there think they sleep with any vietnamese woman you maybe the dad,,,trust me..if we are mix American eather balck or white American will know..like me i am looks so white but guess what ,i still can find my dad know one help search every day on net,,call all pleaces for answear i write so many latter to every one want to know who is a mix kids like me fill about AMerican soldiers make baby and run,,,if any want can help me out ther i am so bless plese call me 817-733-2702-0r 187-306-8452
Posted 24 May 2006 at 9:42 am ¶