As long as people are active and adamant about saying that they have a right to say who they are, and that no one else gets to tell them who they are. That’s the really important thing. I think that’s—if I have a kid, that’s one thing I’d like to instill in him or her and I think that if you have kids and so forth or if you have friends, that you don’t have a right to tell someone they’re not black enough, or they’re not—you know? You don’t have that right. And if someone says that to you I’m like, “You know what? You don’t know me well enough to say that.” I like people to be able to have—hopefully this project in some small way will help someone do that.
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)