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GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is Honolulu an Asian American Paradise?
magine a place where everyone looks like Jason Scott Lee and Kelly Hu. Where trade winds keep the air balmy year-round, day and night, and the horizon is always piled with dazzling cumulus. Where you can always find a Zippy's for saimin and teriyaki plates heaped with rice and macaroni salad. Where it's the Whites who are the minority.
AA Paradise?
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A stroll through Ala Moana Shopping Center or Kapiolani Park will satisfy anyone that in Honolulu Asians are the majority. This impression is borne out by the numbers. The city's 610,000 Asian/Pacific Islanders comprise 68% of its 900,000 total residents, making the Honolulu area the nation's third largest AA population center. Even excluding about 100,000 native Hawaiians, Samoans and other non-Filipino Pacific Islanders, Asians make up 57%, over twice the percentage for Whites (26%).
Honolulu is also unique in being the only major metro area in which Japanese Americans outnumber all other Asian nationalities. JAs (200,000) are followed by Filipinos (170,000), Chinese (54,000), Coreans (23,000), Vietnamese (8,000) and Indians (1,500). McKinley High, Honolulu's first public school and the alma mater of Daniel Inouye, Hiram Fong and Bette Midler, is known as "Tokyo High".
Racial harmony, marketed as Aloha Spirit, has become the island's trademark, but the various Asian nationalities originally arrrived not in the spirit of multiculturalism but to serve as strikebreakers to help the Big Five keep each preceding nationality of laborers in line. It is only during the past half century or so that Hawaii's Asians have come to see the advantage of joining forces to resist an exploitative white minority.
Asian immigration to Hawaii began in 1789 with the arrrival of a few Chinese artisans. Hawaii was still an independent kingdom. Asians were few until various European and American entrepreneurs began seeing the potential for big profit in sugar cane. They used cold-blooded machinations to gain power over native Hawaiians, then brought over 46,000 Chinese laborers between 1852 and 1899.
As Chinese workers grew in number, they began making demands for better wages and working conditions. The Big Five's response was to recruit 180,000 Japanese between 1886 and 1925. As the Japanese became the islands' largest ethnic group, they too began organizing to fight inhumane working conditions. The plantation owners sought to break them by bringing over 100,000 Filipinos. As citizens of a U.S. territory, they were exempt temporarily from the barrage of anti-Asian legislation directed against Chinese and Japanese immigration. About 3,500 Coreans were also recruited between 1904 and 1905.
The first instance of inter-Asian cooperation on the islands was seen in 1919 when 12,000 Filipinos and Japanese jointly staged a strike. For the most part, however, the Big Five's ruthless tactics and absolute economic dominance remained intact until World War II. Only after Hawaii became a state in 1959 did Asian numerical strength begin translating into political and economic power. Today Honolulu's commercial and professional life is dominated by Asians, though many Whites enjoy above-average affluence thanks to old-money connections and a steady influx of wealthy mainlanders seeking a retirement home.
The surf and luau lifestyle is, of course, only a pretty myth for most Honolulu residents. Like other Americans, they spend most of their days earning a living. Unfortunately, the majority are employed in tourism, an industry that had been stagnating for nearly a decade even before 9/11. The islands' strategic location between East Asia and North America -- not to mention its appealing lifestyle -- has begun attracting a small influx of tech jobs, but Honolulu's economic prospects remain uncertain for the forseeable future.
Is Honolulu an Asian American paradise? Or is it just a remote outpost irrelevant to the most ambitious Asian Americans?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:02:48 PM)
Masa,
So what if I'm a hapa? Does that change what I said about Hawaii?
You must be one of those little rich boys who go to Punahou or Mid Pac. All the regular guys I grew up with spoke pidgin. They'd be shunned and called "mahoo" if they didn't. It's the most annoying dialect because it reinforces stereotypes about Asians not speaking proper English. I'm glad to be outa there.
Pake Girl
Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 09:11:29 (PDT)
Saimin?
Chinese type noodles with Japanese type dashi (broth). Garnish? Chinese charsiu (roast pork) and Japanese kamaboko (fish cake).
The Chinese in Hawaii say that the dish is Japanese while the Japanese in Hawaii say that the dish is definately Chinese.
You will not find such a dish in China because the broth is different. In Japan, the Japanese-tasting broth is NEVER served with Chinese-type noodles.
No matter, to outsiders, Chinese and Japanese all same-same.
Most important is that Saimin is ONO (Hawaiian word for delicious).
Navy LCDR airdale
Tuesday, May 14, 2002 at 13:03:59 (PDT)
Hawaii is more than just nice beaches and nice people.
Pake girl, you're funny. Exactly where did you live in Hawaii, and for how long? The only thing you said that was true was the beaches are nice.
I'm glad you left, we definitely don't need your kind here.
Locals are just like people everywhere, we come in all shades and all shapes. To say the Soles and the Moks are not toned, is retarded. If you go any gym here, you'll see guys from all backgrounds who are toned. Even at the beaches. Asian guys are the same as polynesian guys, because there are untoned asian guys too.
You should call yourself, Haole Girl or Twinkie. Haole girl because you sound like one. Or, Twinkie because (if you're really pake) you're yellow on the outside but white on the inside.
Pake girl, are you Hapa Haole? It just dawned on me that you might be. That would explain a lot.
The only other explanation to say that about the Soles and the Moks would be that you were jilted or ignored by one or more of them.
I'm japanese and I live in Pearl City. I guess you must've lived on Oahu too, since you made that comment about good english. Our family wasn't allowed to speak pigeon in the house, but that doesn't mean I'm better than the other locals here.
Have fun over there, we won't miss you here.
Masa
Tuesday, May 14, 2002 at 02:16:09 (PDT)
Yeah, the weather, the beaches, the greenery... you can't beat it. The boys are tanned and toned (except the Samoans and Hawaiians). There's nothing like being in the racial majority. One little problem though... the Japanese run the islands. They like to look down on the pakes, the portugee, the hapas, the samonkeys, the mokes, the haoles.
Hawaii is great if all you want out of life is to be one of the "locals". For me, it got a little dull. I prefer the mainland where it's an advantage to speak good english and to have a few goals in life.
Pake Girl
Monday, May 13, 2002 at 12:39:22 (PDT)
You people know about Zippyâs Restaurant? Are any of you from Hawaii? This is interesting. Especially about the food. I think saimin originated from the Chinese, but took on a new style in Hawaii.
Planky
Sunday, May 12, 2002 at 20:27:40 (PDT)
[Hey bra, you one haole o what? You know any da kine AA who don't know Zippy's? --Ed]
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