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{{Short description|Hawaiian term for mixed ethnicity}}
{{About|a term for a person of mixed ethnic heritage|for the Hawaiian genre of music|Hapa haole music|the psychological theory of health behavior change|Health action process approach}}

{{pp-move}}

{{use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{use American English|date=October 2022}}

'''Hapa''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ɑː|p|ə}}<ref name="dictcom"/>) is a [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] word for someone of [[Multiracial people|multiracial]] ancestry. In [[Hawaii]], the word refers to any person of mixed ethnic heritage, regardless of the specific mixture.<ref name=":1">{{harvnb |Bernstein |De la Cruz|2009 |p=723}}: "Thus, for locals in Hawai’i, both hapa or hapa haole are used to depict people of mixed-race heritage."</ref><ref name=":2">{{harvnb|Taniguchi|Heidenreich|2006|p=137}}: "Currently, Hawaiian locals use 'hapa' to refer to any individual who is racially mixed."</ref> The term is used for any multiracial person of partial [[East Asian]], [[Southeast Asian]], or Pacific Islander mixture in California.<ref name="dictcom">{{Cite web |title=Definition of hapa {{!}} Dictionary.com |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hapa |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=www.dictionary.com |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Ho 2015 p. 153">{{cite book |last=Ho |first=Jennifer Ann |title=Racial Ambiguity in Asian American Culture |publisher=Rutgers University Press |series=Asian American Studies Today |year=2015 |isbn=9780813570716 |url=https://archive.org/details/racialambiguityi00hoje |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/racialambiguityi00hoje/page/153 153] |oclc=973052426 |access-date=2018-11-19}}</ref><ref name="Sunakawa Willmore Varner Rosenberg 2015">{{cite web | last1=Sunakawa | first1=Ellie | last2=Willmore | first2=Alison | last3=Varner | first3=Will | last4=Rosenberg | first4=Shannon | last5=Nguyen | first5=Dao | last6=Hua | first6=Bryant | title=31 Things All Half-Asians Know To Be True | website=BuzzFeed | date=2015-05-07 | url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/elliesunakawa/31-things-all-half-asians-know-to-be-true | access-date=2018-11-19}}</ref><ref name="Chew 2016">{{cite web | last=Chew | first=Erin | title=Are we using the word 'Hapa' in the wrong context? | website=You Offend Me You Offend My Family | date=2016-03-22 | url=https://www.yomyomf.com/are-we-using-the-word-hapa-in-the-wrong-context/ | access-date=2018-11-19 | archive-date=July 6, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180706191247/https://www.yomyomf.com/are-we-using-the-word-hapa-in-the-wrong-context/ | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Gamble 2009">{{cite journal |title=Hapas: Emerging Identity, Emerging Terms and Labels & the Social Construction of Race|journal=Stanford Journal of Asian American Studies |url=https://web.stanford.edu/dept/AAS/journal/Old%20Paper%20Pages/agamble09.pdf |first=Adriane E. |last=Gamble |volume= II |date=October 2009 |access-date=2018-11-18}}</ref> In what can be characterized as [[trans-cultural diffusion]] or the [[wave model]], this latter usage has also spread to [[Massachusetts]],<ref name=":Lian Niu 2022">{{Cite news|url=https://dailyfreepress.com/2022/10/11/half-asian-peoples-association-strives-to-connect-through-the-disconnects/|title=Half Asian People's Association strives to 'connect through the disconnects'|last=Niu|first=Lian|date=2022-10-11|work=The Daily Free Press|access-date=2022-10-11|issn=1094-7337}}</ref> [[Ohio]],<ref name="activities.osu.edu 2021">{{cite web |title=Half-Asian People's Association : Find a Student Organization : Student Activities |website=activities.osu.edu |date=2021-01-26 |url=https://activities.osu.edu/involvement/student_organizations/find_a_student_org/?i=e97be5b3-33ed-4411-9930-5d900bbe22df&l=H&c=Columbus&page=0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105181206/https://activities.osu.edu/involvement/student_organizations/find_a_student_org/?i=e97be5b3-33ed-4411-9930-5d900bbe22df&l=H&c=Columbus&page=0 |archive-date=2022-11-05 |url-status=live |access-date=2022-12-10}}</ref> and [[Oregon]].<ref name="The City of Portland, Oregon 2016">{{cite web |title=Hapa, Asian, and Pacific Islander (H.A.P.I.) |website=The City of Portland, Oregon |date=2016-08-01 |url=https://www.portlandoregon.gov/71327 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105181201/https://www.portlandoregon.gov/71327 |archive-date=2022-11-05 |url-status=live |access-date=2022-12-10}}</ref> Both uses are concurrent.{{Sfn|Huynh-Hohnbaum|Yoo|p=437: "The term "hapa" is commonly used to refer to multiracial Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs) and originates from a Native Hawaiian word."|2009}}<ref>{{harvnb |Bernstein |De la Cruz|2009 |p=723}}: "Today, 'hapa' is used to describe any person of mixed East and South East Asian or Pacific Islander descent."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Ozaki|Johnston|2009|pp=53–54}}: "Currently, hapa is often used to refer to anyone of a racially mixed Asian heritage, and even more recently to anyone who is of mixed-race heritage {{harv|Taniguchi|Heidenreich|2006}}."</ref><ref name="Folen Ng 2007">{{cite web |last1=Folen |first1=Alana |last2=Ng |first2=Tina |title=The Hapa Project: How multiracial identity crosses oceans |publisher=University of Hawaii at Manoa |website=soc.hawaii.edu |url=http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/uhtoday/spring2007/j402/alanatina.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918121300/http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/uhtoday/spring2007/j402/alanatina.html |archive-date=2009-09-18 |url-status=dead |quote=Jonathan Okamura, professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa, explained that although hapa is a word that describes all people of mixed ancestry, hapa is primarily used to describe people who are half white and half East or Southeast Asian American.}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Taniguchi|Heidenreich|2006|p=135}}: "In the United States, individuals recognized the term as meaning mixed Asian/Pacific Islander or, more popularly, part Asian."</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/opinion/sunday/in-los-angeles-a-festival-of-love-and-hapa-ness.html|title=In Los Angeles, a Festival of Love and Hapa-ness|last=Downes|first=Lawrence|date=2017-03-11|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-03-13|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>{{Excessive citations inline|date=February 2025}}{{efn|"Asian or Pacific Islander (API)" was a [[US Census]] classification prior to the [[2000 US Census]] subsequently separated into two categories: "Asian" and "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander".<ref>{{citation |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/fedreg_1997standards |title=Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity |author=Office of Management and Budget |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121150512/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/fedreg_1997standards/ |archive-date=2017-01-21 |url-status=live |via=[[NARA|National Archives]] |work=[[Office of Management and Budget]] |date = 30 October 1997}}</ref>}}

== Historical and Hawaiian usage ==
[[File:'Hapa Haole' (No. 206) by Grace Hudson, 1901.jpg|thumb|upright|''Hapa Haole'' (No. 206) by [[Grace Hudson]], 1901]]The word "hapa" entered the Hawaiian language in the early 1800s, with the arrival of Christian missionaries who instituted a Hawaiian alphabet and developed curriculum for schools. It is a transliteration of the English word "half," but quickly came to mean "part," which could be combined with numbers to form fractions. For example, ''hapalua'' is half, ''hapahā'' is one-fourth, and ''hapanui'' means majority.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

In Hawaii, the term can be used in conjunction with other Hawaiian racial and ethnic descriptors to specify a particular racial or ethnic mixture.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> An example of this is ''hapa haole'' (part European/White).<ref>{{harvnb|Easley|1995|p=76}}: "'Hapa haole' is a commonly used phrase in Hawaii, employed by all Asian subgroups, but Hawaiian in origin. The phrase literally translates into "of part-white ancestry or origin.""</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Hapa Haole|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hapa%20haole|access-date=2 September 2013|publisher=Merriam-Webster}}</ref>

[[Mary Kawena Pukui|Pukui]] states that the original meaning of the word ''haole'' was "foreigner." Therefore, all non-Hawaiians can be called ''haole''.<ref>{{cite book | first1 = Mary Kawena | last1 = Pukui | first2 = Samuel | last2 = Elbert | author-link = Mary Kawena Pukui | title = Hawaiian Dictionary | publisher = University of Hawaii Press | date = March 1, 1986 | isbn = 9780824807030 }}</ref> In practical terms, however, the term is used as a racial description for whites, with the specific exclusion of Portuguese. Portuguese are traditionally considered to be a separate race in Hawaii.<ref name="Judd 1961">{{cite book |last=Judd |first=Gerrit Parmele |title=Hawaii : an informal history |publisher=Collier-Macmillan |year=1961 |oclc=1035087443 |url=https://archive.org/details/hawaiiinformalhi00judd |url-access=registration |access-date=2018-11-19 |page = [https://archive.org/details/hawaiiinformalhi00judd/page/136 136]}}</ref>

''[[Hapa haole music|Hapa-haole]]'' also is the name of a type of [[Hawaiian music]] in which the tune, styling, and/or subject matter is Hawaiian, but the lyrics are partly, mostly, or entirely in English.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Kanahele |editor1-first=George S. |editor1-link=George Kanahele |editor2-last=Berger |editor2-first=John |title = Hawaiian Music & Musicians |edition=2nd |orig-year=1979 |year=2012 |publisher=Mutual Publishing, LLC |location=Honolulu, HI, USA |isbn = 9781566479677 |oclc = 808415079}}</ref> Many ''hapa-haole'' songs had their musical roots in the Western tradition, and the lyrics were in some combination of English and Hawaiian; these songs first gained popularity outside the [[Territory of Hawaii]] beginning in 1912–1915,<ref name="Haas 2011 p. 152">{{cite book |last=Haas |first=Michael |title=Barack Obama, the Aloha Zen President: How a Son of the 50th State May Revitalize America Based on 12 Multicultural Principles |publisher=Praeger |year=2011 |isbn=9780313394027 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni2wjBLn_OoC&pg=PA152 |access-date=2018-11-19 |page=152 |oclc=714891924}}</ref> and include titles such as "[[My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii|My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua]]" and "[[Sweet Leilani]]."<ref name="Shepherd 2003 p. 450">{{cite book |last=Shepherd |first=John |title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic  |volume=II: Performance and Production  |year=2003 |isbn=9780826463227 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pJvzEzjahkQC&pg=PA450 |access-date=2018-11-19 |page=450 |oclc=50235133}}</ref>

''Hapa haole'' is also used for Hawaiian-language [[hula]] songs that are partly in English, thus disqualifying them as "authentic" Hawaiian hula in some venues such as the [[Merrie Monarch Festival]].

== Controversy ==
Some see the use of the term to refer to mixed Asian people without any connections to Hawaii as a misappropriation of [[Hawaiian culture]],<ref>{{harvnb|Taniguchi|Heidenreich|2006|p=38}}: "Prominent figures in the [[Hawaiian sovereignty movement]], such as the Trask sisters, have spoken out against the co-optation of the Hawaiian language by Hapa organizations and other 'inappropriate' uses of the term."</ref>{{sfn|Dariotis|2007}} but there are ''[[kama{{okina}}āina]]'' and ''Kānaka Maoli'' who see it as hypocritical to protest anyone using what was originally taken from another culture to begin with.{{sfn|Johnson|2016}}{{sfn|NeSmith|2018}}

Still others take a stronger stand in discouraging its usage and misuse as they consider the term to be vulgar and racist.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Asakawa |first1=Gil |title = Being Japanese American |orig-year=2004 |year=2015 |publisher = Stone Bridge Press |isbn = 978-1611720228 |page = preface page 2 |edition=2nd |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=w-1HCgAAQBAJ&q=hapa+racist+term&pg=PA8 |access-date = 17 March 2016}}</ref>

However, the term, unlike other words referring to mixed-race people, has never been a derogatory term when it is used in its original Hawaiian context, although there is some debate about appropriate usage outside this context.{{sfn|Johnson|2016}} As Wei Ming Dariotis states, {{"'}}Hapa' was chosen because it was the only word we could find that did not really cause us pain. It is not any of the Asian words for mixed Asian people that contain negative connotations either literally (e.g. 'children of the dust,'  'mixed animal') or by association (Eurasian)."{{sfn|Dariotis|2007}}

== In popular culture ==
In 2010, a film called ''[[One Big Hapa Family]]'' was released about Japanese Canadians.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.reelasian.com/reel-asian-news/2010-festival-award-winners/|title=2010 Festival Award Winners|date=2010-11-14|work=Reel Asian International Film Festival|access-date=2018-11-19|language=en-US|archive-date=November 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119060156/http://www.reelasian.com/reel-asian-news/2010-festival-award-winners/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Div col}}
*[[Afro-Asians]]
*[[Amerasian]]
*[[Asian American]]
*[[Asian Canadian]]
*[[Filipino mestizo]]
*[[Filipino people of Spanish ancestry]]
*[[Hāfu]]
*[[Hun-Xue-Er]]
*[[Luk khrueng]]
*[[Multiracial]]
*[[Multiracialism]]
*[[Race of the future]]
*[[The Hapa Project]]
*[[Third culture kid]]
{{Div col end}}
{{Portal bar|Hawaii|Society}}

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
===Books===
* {{cite book |last1= Huynh-Hohnbaum |first1= Anh-Luu T. |last2=Yoo |first2 = Grace J. |editor1-first= Wen-Chu |editor1-last= Chen |editor2-first= Grace J. |editor2-last= Yoo |title= Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Today |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=R_t3yQiWKQEC&q=%22multiracial%20asian%20and%20pacific%20islanders%22&pg=PA437 |volume= 1 |year= 2009 |publisher= Greenwood Pub Group |isbn= 978-0313347511 |oclc=422757556 |pages= 437–443 |chapter= Multiracial Asians and Pacific Islanders }}

===Journal articles===
* {{cite journal |last1= Bernstein |first1= Mary |last2= De la Cruz |first2= Marcie |year= 2009 |title= "What are You?": Explaining Identity as a Goal of the Multiracial Hapa Movement |journal= Social Problems |volume= 56 |issue= 4 |pages= 722–745 |doi= 10.1525/sp.2009.56.4.722 |jstor= 10.1525/sp.2009.56.4.722 }}
* {{cite journal |last1= Easley |first1= Allen Ken |year= 1995 |title= Of Children's Plates, Melting Pots, Tossed Salads and Multiple Consciousness: Tales from a Hapa Haole |journal=  UCLA Asian Pacific American Law Journal |volume= 3 |issue= 1  |pages= 75–80 |url= http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/asiapalj3&section=8 |access-date= 2 September 2013 }}
* {{cite journal |last1= Ozaki |first1= C. Casey |last2= Johnston |first2= Marc|year= 2009 |title= The space in between: Issues for multiracial student organizations and advising |journal= New Directions for Student Services |volume= 2008 |issue= 123 |pages= 53–61 |doi= 10.1002/ss.286 }}
*{{cite web |last1=Taniguchi |first1=Angela S. |last2=Heidenreich |first2=Linda |title=Re-Mix: Rethinking the use of Hapa in Mixedrace Asian/Pacific Islander American Community Organizing |website=Research Exchange |date=2006-06-28 |url=https://research.libraries.wsu.edu/xmlui/handle/2376/12 |series=McNair Journal|access-date=2018-11-19}}

===Articles===
* {{cite news |last1= Dariotis |first1= Wei Ming |year= 2007 |title= Hapa: The Word of Power |publisher= Mixed Heritage Center |url= http://www.mixedheritagecenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1259&Itemid=34 |access-date= 2 September 2013 |archive-date= July 6, 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180706191218/http://www.mixedheritagecenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1259&Itemid=34 |url-status= dead }}
* {{cite news |last1= Johnson |first1= Akemi |year= 2016 |title= Who Gets To Be 'Hapa'? |publisher= NPR |url= https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/08/08/487821049/who-gets-to-be-hapa |access-date=15 July 2019}}

===Videos===
* {{cite news |last1= NeSmith |first1= Richard Keao |year= 2018 |title= The Etymology of Hapa |journal= Japanese American National Museum |time= 44:35-45:10 |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZPa_yyoJc8 }}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
* [http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-09-15/how-hawaiian-word-hapa-came-be-used-people-mixed-heritage How the Hawaiian word 'hapa' came to be used by people of mixed heritage] (audio)
* [http://www.hapahappyhour.libsyn.com/ Hapa Happy Hour] podcast
*{{cite web |title=new work by kip fulbeck |website=hapa.me |date=2018-11-18 |url=https://hapa.me/ |access-date=2018-11-19 |archive-date=November 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119092004/https://hapa.me/ |url-status=dead }} online presentation about the Hapa Project
{{Asian Americans}}

{{Multiethnicity}}

[[Category:Asian-American culture]]
[[Category:Ethno-cultural designations]]
[[Category:Hawaiian words and phrases]]
[[Category:Multiracial affairs in the United States]]