(NAME-MCE) 'Hapa' now means pride in ancestry

[Anselmo Villanueva]

http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2666/107

'Hapa' now means pride in ancestry

“Hapa,” derived from the Hawaiian word for “half,” used to  be
considered a derogatory word.

Today, however, it has been embraced as a term of pride by many whose
mixed-race heritage includes Asian or Pacific Rim ancestry.

Portraits of Hapa from across the United States will be displayed
beginning Wednesday (July 1) at the FedEx Global Education Center at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The 80 photographs by
artist Kip Fulbeck will be on view through October 31, 2009, at the
center, located at the corner of McCauley and Pittsboro streets,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Fulbeck is slated to attend a reception at the  exhibit at 7 p.m.
Sept. 17. He has planned a short performance.

The exhibit, “kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa,” is part  of The
Hapa Project by Fulbeck, which includes a book
(http://www.seaweedproductions.com/hapa/default.htm.)

 A slam poet and filmmaker, he also is an art professor at the
University of California, Santa Barbara, where he has received a
distinguished teaching award.

Fulbeck, who is part Chinese, traveled the country photographing more
than 1,200 Hapa of all ages and walks of life. He also gathered the
subjects’ handwritten statements about who they are, which are matched
in the UNC exhibit with each person’s portrait.

“This exhibit invites all of us to consider how our physical features
influence how we identify with one group or another,” said Laura
Griest, curator of exhibits in the global center.  “It also challenges
our perceptions and assumptions of others based on visible
characteristics. I’m very excited that UNC is hosting this
thought-provoking, meaningful exhibition.”

To prepare for the show’s opening, Griest and two of her colleagues
picked up their paint brushes. As a background for the photographs,
Fulbeck designed intricate murals of orange squares with abstract
black birds and vines, adapted from traditional Asian brush strokes.
Susin Seow, associate director of development for global education,
and Tripp Tuttle of the UNC Center for Global Initiatives joined
Griest in recreating Fulbeck’s designs on the walls of the global
center.

With a daughter who is Hapa, Seow is especially  excited to see the
exhibit come to UNC.

“I’m just happy my daughter will see that there are many other Hapas
like her; that she’s not the only one who’s limited to ‘Other’ as a
category,” Seow said.

The exhibit is hosted by the UNC Office of International Affairs and
organized by the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles, with support
from the James Irvine Foundation. For more information, visit
http://global.unc.edu/ and click “events,”  or call (919) 962-2435.

Media note: Griest can be reached at (919) 451-0180 or
lauragriest at unc.eduThis e-mail address is being protected from spam
bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  .

UNC Global Web site: www.global.unc.edu.
Fulbeck’s exhibit website: http://www.janm.org/exhibitions/kipfulbeck/home

News Services contact: LJ  Toler, (919) 962-8589