{"id":40478,"date":"2025-12-24T16:28:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T07:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/?p=40478"},"modified":"2026-01-07T16:46:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T07:46:54","slug":"%e5%8f%82%e5%8a%a0%e8%80%85%e3%83%ac%e3%83%9d%e3%83%bc%e3%83%88-22-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/news-en\/2025\/12\/24\/40478\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity Beyond Something Fixed – Exploring What I Am and What I Can Become with Kip Fulbeck\u3000ICC “What are You?” Participant Report"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lee Liang Ying\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>School of Culture, <\/span>Media<\/span> and Society<\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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I was drawn to the event \u201d What are You? ~Identifying Yourself with Kip Fulbeck~\u201d because it offered me an opportunity to think about my identity within a community of people who are also asking the same thing. His presentation on his multiracial identity art project Hapa (meaning \u201chalf\u201d), which photographs people of mixed roots and asks them to respond to the question \u201cwhat are you?\u201d was illuminating as a sociological method and artistic expression. Those who participated in his project hold Asian and\/ or Pacific Islander heritage along with some other racial or national identity – subject to scrutiny by wider society or confusion over what they are.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This set off some iffy-ness in me about my identity. On the contrary to the participants\u2019 experiences, my identity is too homogenous, too defined and too privileged. My ethnicity is straightforward, my nationality is straightforward. I can answer both with one word. My life experience is straightforward – I have only lived in one country throughout childhood, stayed with my immediate family, and benefited from the standard education system. I realised I was too comfortable within the well-off majority, which isn\u2019t representative of the diversity of identities in my country.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The professor said that only we can define our own identity but, how can I do that when my identity feels so clear cut and close to the official narrative of a high quality of living? For participants of his project, they struggled with questions about their identity growing up. In a way, they had no choice but to think about it. Compared to that, I didn\u2019t have to struggle with what I was born as. This gap made me feel unqualified to participate in the conversation. However, I think my views on it have changed a little since the event as I interacted with the project exhibit and my group mates during the event.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t