Several students revived a club this year because their identities did not quite fit in with the traditional, large ethnic groups on campus.
Their new "half-Asian" club has quietly joined the campus ethnic scene.
President Rebecca M. Weisinger '02 revived the Half-Asian Persons' Association (HAPA) last fall after trying out larger Asian ethnic groups.
"There was certainly a community [of hapa people at Harvard]," Weisinger says. "We felt underrepresented."
Weisinger, now president of the organization, says the group began meeting in October and now has a mailing list of 70 students with about a dozen active members. HAPA meetings are held Wednesday nights at 8 p.m., usually at Herrell's Ice Cream or Loker Commons.
According to the group's Web site, the word "hapa" is of Hawaiian origin. Originally intended to describe individuals of mixed Hawaiian heritage, the word was adopted by the Asian community in Hawaii as a label for children who were mixed-Asian.
Members say that at HAPA meetings they celebrate the racial heritage they all share--identifying with more than one race.
"If you're a hapa...you have two sides to your culture," says Adrian M. Wall '03, the group's secretary. "Most hapas have a tendency to choose one over the other."
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