Interviews

1. Early consciousness of identity

2. Finding parallels through art

3. Refusing to use a Chinese name to identify as Asian American

4. The Hapa Project

5. Perceptions of uniqueness

6. Defusing myths through The Hapa Project

7. Difficulty responding to the question "What are you?"

8. Lessons learned from The Hapa Project

9. Differing responses by gender to the Hapa Project

10. Identity as a conscious ongoing process

11. Japanese Americans are more aware of their Hapa identity

12. Hapa as his primary identity

13. Discomfort at being labeled by others

14. International dimensions of hapa identity

15. Issues of identity outside of America

16. Imposing identity upon others

17. Changing fortunes of "identity art"

18. The right to say who you are

19. Defining the term "Hapa"

Fulbeck,Kip

(b. 1965) filmmaker and artist

Finding parallels through art

Well, I think any artist has the ego to think that what we’re doing is so important everyone else should listen to us. And there’s this thing of like, “Is your art self-indulgent?” But I always felt like the more personal I got with my own stories and the more detailed I got about my own story, the more people would find parallels for their own life. And I thought that was really an important lesson for me to learn. In fact, one of the few fan letters I’ve ever gotten that I’ve kept was from a guy when I performed at Highways Space nearby here in Santa Monica, where he wrote me a letter after I performed there, and he said, “I can’t believe how much you growing up Hapa in Southern California was like me growing up gay in Texas.” And I thought that was a really great compliment because it meant that somehow there was some parallel between us. And that’s what I’m trying to do.

hapa identity racially mixed people

Date: May 3, 2006

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Jim Bower

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

Interviewee Bio

Kip Fulbeck was born in 1965 to a Chinese mother and English/Irish father. At age five, he was told by his full-blooded Chinese cousins that he was Hapa. He never gave much thought to the term as a child. As he grew older, faced with the dearth of knowledge relating to mixed-race identity (or worse, the negative connotations associated with it), he began thinking about ways to promote a more realistic and human portrayal of Hapa identity.

Fulbeck chose to explore this issue by creating the Hapa Project as a forum for Hapa to answer the question “What are you?” in their own words and be photographed in simple head-on portraits. He has now photographed over 1000 people from all ages and walks of life. The project is now a book, Part Asian, 100% Hapa (Chronicle Books, 2006) and an exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum from June 8 through October 29, 2006 titled kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa.

Kip Fulbeck has been making films and art about Hapa identity since 1990. Known as the nation's leading artist on the identity, multiracial/ethnicity, and art and pop culture, he has spoken and exhibited his award-winning films, performance, and photography throughout the world. Fulbeck is currently Professor and Chair of Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is a three-time recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Member Award and also an affiliate faculty member in Asian American Studies and Film Studies. (May 3, 2006)

Read the Discover Nikkei article by Kip Fulbeck:
kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa – an artist’s thoughts