GYOPO

Gyopo /kyo·po/ (Korean) noun: ethnic Korean who lives outside of Korea, esp. those with Korean heritage who were born and raised in another country

What does it mean to be of two worlds? I first came to know myself as a mixed race person not through my own self-proclamation, but through the eyes of others. Their pointed questions; their contorted faces; their innocent jokes; their slurs.

Much of what it means to be racially different in America has been explored in popular culture, in serious and in humorous ways. But what I’m interested in is not about bringing a school lunch that smells different from pizza. It’s the deep ache of nostalgia for a home that is not yours. The code switching madness of both proving

My sense of identity as a queer person deepened my understanding of diaspora

HAPA is an exploration of one queer, mixed race, Korean American