Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Hawaii Someone who is half Asian, usually half Caucasian

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Hawaiian

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Examples

  • His “Pacific Surf Dog” could even be called hapa-esque, with its soy-sugar glaze, miso mustard and jicama and cabbage slaw.

    The Great Hot Dog Cook-Off ‘09 2009

  • All of this is to say that the promotion of the term "hapa" wasn't necessarily a group effort to create a "third" or other identity separate from the monoracial identities from which hapas derive.

    SeeLight: 2006

  • All of this is to say that the promotion of the term "hapa" wasn't necessarily a group effort to create a "third" or other identity separate from the monoracial identities from which hapas derive.

    Multiraciality 101 2006

  • The "hapa movement" is not called such by most of those involved, because of our awareness that there was no common mission among all hapas, and that the word "hapa" needs to be protected as something that anyone can use without declaring a political stance.

    Multiraciality 101 2006

  • The need for "hapa", as opposed to general, non-API-specific multiraciality, arose from the fact that mixed race Asians/Pacific Islanders in the US (mainland, of course) were only a small proportion of the overall multiracial population.

    SeeLight: 2006

  • That is what the organization of Hapa Issues Forum was about: not a new, monolithic "hapa" identity, but rather creating a space for discussion around issues of multiraciality.

    Multiraciality 101 2006

  • I first heard "hapa" in a conversation with one of my friends at Stanford who's from Hawaii.

    slayground: Interview: Justina Chen Headley Little Willow 2006

  • That is what the organization of Hapa Issues Forum was about: not a new, monolithic "hapa" identity, but rather creating a space for discussion around issues of multiraciality.

    SeeLight: 2006

  • I love "hapa" since one of my intentions with this novel was to show that we can redefine ourselves just as we can redefine labels.

    slayground: Interview: Justina Chen Headley Little Willow 2006

  • The need for "hapa", as opposed to general, non-API-specific multiraciality, arose from the fact that mixed race Asians/Pacific Islanders in the US (mainland, of course) were only a small proportion of the overall multiracial population.

    Multiraciality 101 2006

  • Originally a Hawaiian Pidgin term meaning “half,” hapa is now seeing broader use on the mainland, such as the Harvard HAPA, or the Harvard Half-Asian Person’s Association, one of the first such organizations for hapa students established in 1995.

    Why We Need Better Terms For People Who Identify As Two Or More Races 2021

  • One piece of evidence for this lexical gap is the rise of the term hapa, “a person of mixed-race heritage who identifies racially and culturally as both white and of Asian descent,” especially in Hawaii and California.

    Why We Need Better Terms For People Who Identify As Two Or More Races 2021

Comments

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  • “He is the first president who was a hapa, as they are called in Hawaii, with parents of different races.�?

    The Washington Post, Restless Searcher on an Improbable Path, by David Maraniss, January 18, 2009

    January 20, 2009

  • I am a big fan of hapas :)

    January 20, 2009

  • He's the hapa legomenon of Hawaiian mixed race presidents.

    January 20, 2009

  • legomenon? You know, of course, that neither of Obama's parents was Hawaiian, either ethnically or residentially. His mother was born and grew up in Kansas. His grandparents later moved to Hawaii, which is where he was raised while his mother remained in Indonesia. Neither of his parents, by the way, were mixed-race.

    January 20, 2009