hapa

my experience? ask ten language experts the same question and you’ll get at least five answers…. but, here are my two cents.

others are correct by posting that the word, “hapa”, is only the first part of the original, “hapa haole” — a term that is mostly misunderstood and subsequently, mistranslated.

firstly, “hapa” is not a hawaiian word; it is the hawaiian pr-nunciation of the english word, “half”. there are only a few consonants in the hawaiian language and they do not include “f.” secondly, the word, “haole (which is a hawaiian word)” translates to “foreign” — not necessarily “caucasian”. if one were to be called, “hafu gaijin” in j-pan that would carry an almost identical meaning: “half-foreign”. yes, language evolves and meanings change but — strictly speaking — anyone who is not hawaiian is “haole”. even asians.
“i’m hapa.”

“really? where’s the rest of you?”
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ha•pa (hä’pä) adj. 1. slang. of mixed racial heritage with partial roots in asian and/or pacific islander ancestry. n. 2. slang. a person of such ancestry. {der./hawaiian: hapa haole. (half white)}
kirk hammett is hapa.
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1; of mixed racial heritage with partial roots in asian and/or pacific islander ancestry. 2; if an individual has one parent whom is asian/pacific islander, and one parent whom is of an ethnicity outside of asian/pacific islander, they would generally be considered hapa. 3; d-mn good looking people
tina: g-d i love hapa guys

jennifer: who doesn’t?
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hapa is a hawaiian word that was originally part of the full phrase: hapa haole, which was a derogatory term for someone half hawaiian and half “white foreigner.” today, the phrase has been shortened to simply “hapa” and genreally refers to anyone part asian or pacific islander and, generally, part caucasian. however, the definition of “hapa” has come more and more to mean “half” or “of mixed blood” in which case many different racial combinations are beginning to fall under the umbrella of “hapa”.
white + asian = hapa
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it literally means half in hawaiian. it was originally meant to describe someone who was part hawaiian, part whatever. but the term hapa has come to mean half asian, half white to a lot of people.
she’s hapa haole” (a common term in hawaii that means half white).
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a child born with one asian parent and one non-asian parent.
the singer, amerie, is one of the many beautiful african-american/asian hapas in entertainment.
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in literal terms, hapa means half, or part. in the past, the term was coupled with the term haole, which means caucasian or foreigner, to categorize a person as half-white. as such, being a hapa was akin to being a half-breed, a somewhat negative notion. however, in contemporary usage, hapa has taken on the meaning of anyone of mixed ethnicities, especially in hawaii where more than half the population is of mixed race. on the mainland, however, the half-breed connotation still prevails in some circles.
you know the kind, hapa
she/he is a hapa
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“half” in the hawaiian language. originally used to describe someone who was half-hawaiian but came to more prominently refer to someone who’s half-asian or pacific islander. increasingly used to describe people who are of any racial mix, but this is still generally misunderstood as referring to a half-asian; also, increasingly used to describe people who are of a partial asian ancestry, e.g three quarters non-asian, one quarter asian. however, the term is fairly recent, and many hapas would not necessarily know that you are referring to them if you were to describe them as hapa.

some hapas have tried to claim that the use of the term is equivilant to n-gg- in the black community, i.e. that one hapa can refer to another as hapa and it is good, but a non-hapa cannot, and it would be insulting. most other hapas think these people are r-t-rds and are just happy to have something that isn’t as patronizing as halfie or halvsie and easier to say than half-chinese/j-panese/korean/whatever.
“if magnus karlsson and yuki fujiwara have a kid together, it’ll be hapa.”

“my dad is chinese and my mom is black, and so i’m hapa.”

“did you know that karen is a hapa? i had no idea, but i guess i can see it now.”
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