Introduction

Almost everyone in the United States has powerful images of “Hawai’i.” But few people know that the current governor’s parents came from the Philippines; the lieutenant governor’s from Japan; a state supreme court justice’s from Korea; a leading businessman’s from California. Most of the images are from Hollywood, travel ads, and other media sources or, for the more fortunate ones, the direct view from the tourists’ perspective. But even among people who have visited Hawai’i, the images are too often misleading or false. The goal of this lesson is to help students develop the critical faculties needed to detect stereotyping and bias and to form independent and responsible judgments by studying Asian Americans in Hawai’i.

Objectives

To appreciate diversity. Hawai’i is a wonderful site for teaching about the diversity of peoples and cultures within the United States. While there are ethnic and racial problems as everywhere, people tend to “get along” rather better than in other places. How does this work? Do some groups benefit or suffer more as a result?

To detect bias and stereotyping. Hawai’i is also an ideal subject to demonstrate to students that much of what we see in the media or elsewhere is oversimplified and/or distorted. In this lesson, however, the fact that Hawai’i has been so hyped and glamorized makes it easier to see the distinction between stereotype and reality.

To show how Hawai’i can become part of a useful teaching strategy for students to learn about their own “local” region and culture. Moving from the outside-exotic to the inside-familiar will help students understand that the world is tied together in many ways. Wherever you are, the local, regional, and national media (TV, magazines, MTV, films, newspapers) will have a “shorthand” means of informing their clientele that your “place” is to be featured—in music, costume, landscape, etc. What is the message being transmitted about your “home”? And how can you influence that message to make it more authentic?

Methodologies

There are as many methodologies as there are skilled teachers. But we have some assistance here. In 1992 and 1995, the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency, cooperated with the Historic Hawai’i Foundation and the Ethnic Studies Department of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, to sponsor a summer workshop on Hawai’i’s history for secondary teachers. Each participant was required to create several lesson plans and these are available through ERIC and, in hard copy, from the Historic Hawai’i Foundation. Most are very detailed because they are done for a semester-long course and contain valuable information, perspectives, and resources. The following format is for a much shorter period of study and would allow students to focus on Hawai’i for several weeks while continuing to read their textbooks or other assignments covering the broader range of your curriculum. In the meantime, various skills will be enhanced: reading for comprehension and with critical ability; collaborative group work; research; planning and implementing projects; use of computers; use of local resources; and designing finished products to persuade peers of a “message.”

1. Provide a deceptively “easy” and entertaining method of entry into the lesson. Form groups assigned to produce images of Hawai’i. Depending on technologies available, students might use a bulletin board collage, slide show, videotape, or CD Rom. Provide little assistance except to suggest families, magazines, travel agencies, video rentals, etc., for general access to images of people, places, and events. This phase is designed to show the dangers of swift, subjective, and shallow judgments. Have them begin the research for phase two so they may write or call for more information but give them a minimum amount of time to complete this phase so that their completed projects reflect existing impressions of Hawai’i. Have the groups present findings to the class and provide time for discussion of each presentation.

2. After the initial presentations, at least some students will recognize or can be prompted to recognize that these images may not be complete or sensitive. As a next assignment, form groups to research and report on Hawai’i from the “insider” perspectives. These might be occupational such as journalists or refuse workers or politicians or teachers (in Hawai’i, teachers are predominantly Japanese American females while university professors are largely white males) or ethnic groups such as the indigenous Native Hawaiians, European Americans called “haoles,” or larger groups of people descended from Asians: Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese, and/or Koreans. These ethnic groups have books and documentaries recording their histories. Most communities have ethnic or racial groups associated, whether in reality or as images or both, with particular jobs or economic class. Hawai’i is no different. This phase of the lesson will require more time for in-depth research. Group presentations should be much more sophisticated than the first set, in terms of complexity of issues and diversity of the “real” Hawai’i.

3. Finally, have them assess and report on your own community/“local” issues using the insights gained from the previous assignments. This last section will do two things: first, reinforce the point that ethnic and other groups do have different cultures and histories but are dealing with similar issues like jobs, discrimination, traditional values, the environment, politics, international pressures, etc; and second, it will demonstrate that all communities are subject to oversimplification and stereotyping and that we can be trained to detect these problems.

Evaluation

Have students write, individually, a personal reflection of the activities and significance of the lesson. It may be useful to require a daily journal, even if some entries are minimal, to assist in the final evaluation.

Resources

Consult, first, the ERIC entries for the NEH Summer Institute. The Wong Audiovisual Center in Sinclair Library at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa has an extensive list of films and videos dealing with Hawai’i and its groups. Individual faculty of the Ethnic Studies Department research and write about the various groups including Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, African American, European American, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islander communities. The Hawaiian Studies Center focuses on Native Hawaiians. The Geography Department has references to maps of the region. The address for the University of Hawai’i at Manoa is: Honolulu, Hawai’i 96822. For general visitor information, contact a local travel agency or the Hawaii Visitors Bureau. Two general histories, outdated but still the best available, are Gavan Daws, Shoal of Time, and Lawrence Fuchs, Hawaii Pono. For literature, contact Bamboo Ridge Press, Box 61781, Honolulu, Hawai’i 96839. The address of the Historic Hawaii Foundation is Box 1658, Honolulu, Hawai’i 96806.

Asian Americans in Hawai’i: Are There Any?

This essay provides background information for anyone interested in learning or teaching about the experiences of Asian Americans in Hawai’i. The subtitle of this essay calls attention to the fact that, in Hawai’i, most people descended from Asian immigrants do not use the term “Asian American.” Instead, many refer to their specific ethnic “nationality” backgrounds, such as “I am Korean” or “I am Chinese-Hawaiian.” Or they use the term “local” to designate those who are descended from the Native or Asian immigrant working class to mark them off from the Caucasian elite (haole) who owned or managed the plantations of old. This is noticeable in situations ranging from everyday conversation to political discussions regarding public policy and to literary criticism of poetry, novels, and plays written in the islands.

At the same time that Hawai’i is interesting for its unique characteristics, it is important to all Asian Americans for several reasons. Since the 1850s and for over a century, more Asian Americans have lived there than in the rest of the United States. As a result, some of that history has set the pace for the rest of the nation. For example, Hawai’i is the only state that has never had a majority of whites. Is it one model for the future in many parts of the country? The total population is about one million people. The largest single group is Caucasian—about one-third of the total population. Japanese Americans make up another one-fourth. Native Hawaiians (overwhelmingly part-Hawaiian) are just under 20 percent while Filipinos are about 12 percent and Chinese about 5 percent of the total. There is a sizable military population, primarily white and African American although with important numbers of Latinos.

The Native population is descended from Polynesian voyagers who settled in Hawai’i in at least two separate major waves beginning almost two millennia ago. They developed a complex society sustaining a large population, variously estimated as between 300,000 to 800,000, before being “discovered” by the English explorer, James Cook, in 1778. Hawai’i thus became one of the numerous indigenous peoples to fall under European and, then, American, control. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Hawaiian leaders were largely under the influence of foreign elements and their numbers as well as ability to assert self-determination rapidly declined. Sugar production became the dominant economic activity between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The dramatic increase in need for cheap labor led to the importation of thousands from China, Japan, the Philippines, Korea, Puerto Rico, Portugal and a few other parts of Europe, and sections of the United States, creating a multi-ethnic working class that eventually had tremendous influence over Hawaii’s future—hence the importance of the concept of “local.”

Hawai’i logically becomes the site of debating the merits of a “melting pot society.” Why do we want one? How would that happen? Is this a desirable goal? It is also the home of intermarriage, where more people marry outside of their ethnic group than with each other. How does this affect inter-racial relations? What happens to ethnic identity? Hawai’i helped give birth to the notion of Asian Americans as the myth of the “model minority”—a minority group once oppressed that succeeded in assimilating into mainstream America through its own efforts. Thus, there are a variety of larger issues confronting the United States that may be usefully engaged through the study of Asian Americans in Hawai’i.

Franklin Odo is chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at the Unviersity of Hawai'i, Manoa. He is asistant to the provost for Asian Pacific American Research and Public Programming at the Smithsonian Institution and, in 1995-1996, visiting professor of history at Columbia University.