Customer Reviews

Part Asian, 100% Hapa

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've never come across a book like this and I've looked for one all my life. Having grown up Hapa in the midwest in th 60's I often felt like I was the only one around. Then when my family moved to Hawaii (my dad is Caucasian military, my mom Chinese) in my teens I realized that what I had been missing all along was a community.

Part Asian 100% Hapa gives you that. It gives you a sense that you are not alone and that everyone is dealing with the same struggles of fitting in and finding out who we are. I'm 46 now and I showed it to my daughter who is 7 and she loves it as much as me especially the pics of other kids. She doesn't think about race and that's great. She just likes the book because it's about people being who they are (and she thinks it's funny too). I get tired of all the race talk and about who is this and that. This book is just honest and down to earth.

I also saw the accompanying photo show at the Japanese American National Museum in L.A. and it is phenomenal.

This book is really quite amazing. It brings a few good questions to mind, as well as realizations. It is interesting to read the responses to the question "What am I", especially from the children who all have a beautiful, raw way of expressing themselves, some in pictures, some in scribbles and some in blatently obvious answers, as if the kid would look at you and say "what am I, I'm a kid, duh" It really makes you think twice about asking people "what are you".

This is an amazing piece of work: Simple yet sublime. For those of us, especially in CA, fortunate to live in a multi-cultural environment this book speaks volumes and provides deep, yet subtle, insight into "the great melting pot of America".

i felt a very immediate and personal connection to this book, being hapa myself, and think that it is a must have for any hapa, young or old. however i also think this is an amazing book, period. it is funny and engaging and beautiful and something that anyone who has ever been pigeonholed or struggled with identity(which i would guess is pretty much everyone) can relate to.

it is hard to sufficiently explain how great and filled with 'hapa pride' this book made me feel, so you will just have to buy it.

A friend recommended this book, and it just arrived from Amazon. It's a picture book of a few hundred people of various mixed race. I highly recommend it for anybody that's ever asked a person of mixed race "what are you?"

It's already spawned a couple of interesting conversations with my wife and four-year-old daughter. Even though she's only four, she's already encountered the stupidity of strangers and well-meaning-ignoramus-friends as they question whether or not I'm really her father (I'm hapa and she has her mom's lily-white complexion and blue eyes/blonde hair).

Part Asian, 100% Hapa shines a much needed spotlight on the changing face of America.

Though multiracial individuals comprise at least 7 percent of the U.S. population, according to the 2000 Census, people who are mixed or "hapa" nevertheless tend to be ignored in society's ongoing conversation about race and race relations. Kip Fulbeck thoughtfully puts a stop to this wallflower phenomenon by placing the faces of mixed-race people front and center in this intriguing and artistic new book.

The old proverb is true: a picture does tell a thousand words. Here, each face relays an unflinching, often fascinating tale about its owner. The result is a candid glimpse into a growing population, and also, a generous and quite touching photographic exploration of the feelings, observations, and struggles that make each of us -- in the end -- universally connected.

A short time ago, my wife and I had our first child. Our daughter is 25% Irish, 25% German and 50% Chinese. As I understand it, this would qualify her to be included in Mr. Fulbeck's delightful little book as my child is 100% Hapa.

Hapa is a term that I had never heard until recently but one with which I am becoming more and more familiar. I've always felt my heritage to be important and I want my child to be proud of who she is. So I have been making an effort to learn more about the Hapa community.

I don't know how much practical information I picked up from this book. On the other hand, the portraits are beautifully done--I love the consistency of the images which only serves to bring out the uniqueness of each face. I also love the self-expression of the hand-written comments by the portrait subjects themselves on each facing page. It's amazing how much emotion can be expressed in just a few lines.

As the years go by, it seems the distinctions between the races get fewer. As the world gets smaller, we are truly becoming a melting pot. We may be a long way from a color blind society, but it won't be long, I think, before the "mixed" race people become the majority. With them, I celebrate this beautiful expression of their pride.

Kip Fulbeck has created a community for those of us who identify ourselves as wholly members of our communities, but who are often not perceived by others as fully included. We are the exotic, the other, the mixed -- the products of the melting pot. We are as different from one another, as alike, as complex, as unique, as are other people of other backgrounds -- which is to say, as much as is true for anyone (of any ethnic heritage), we hapa can not be defined by our ethnic heritage, nor can we dismiss the great influence our varied heritage has exerted on our personal identities. It is lovely to have these truths acknowledged. Thank you, Kip Fulbeck. This work of art has been carefully crafted, and is deeply meaningful. While some of the references -- visual and otherwise -- may not be fully understood by those who have not experienced life as a hapa, or as a hapa of a particular generation, nevertheless I think that everyone will discover something new and beautiful within these pages. This is a rare gem. Not to be missed!

For so many years I felt like I never fit in, mainly because I grew up in the midwest. I wish I had this book back then. Now I live in California and see why hapa's feel more at home here.

This book is great for all of the Hapa's of the world. The photos are real people, no airbrushing, no runway models. They are beautiful people of mixed race. My daughter is a Hapa so I wanted her to grow up with the book in the house so she can be proud of her mix.