Beyond Ke'eaumoku: Koreans, Nationalism, and Local Culture in Hawai'i

• Published in: Korean Studies Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 191 - 195
• Main Author: Kim, Lili M.
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Honolulu CENTER FOR KOREAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I 01.01.2000; University of Hawai'i Press; University of Hawaii Press
• Subjects: Asian Americans; Credibility; Cultural identity; Culture; Hawaiian language; Immigrants; Independence movements; Islands; Korean language; Nationalism; Noncitizens; Otherness; Race; Racism; Scholars; Sovereignty; Tourism; Working class; Hawaii; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 0145-840X; 1529-1529; 1529-1529
• DOI: 10.1353/ks.2000.0007

[...]of the high rate of outmarriage by second-generation Koreans, "Korean identities became subsumed by Local ones." [...]the large presence of post-1965 Korean immigrants in Hawaii gave "credibility to the perception of island Koreans as monolithically `FOB, 12 with no Local history" (pp. 8-9). Taking the impact of tourism on the lives of the residents of Hawaii, as well as their strong resistance to an unavoidable economic dependence upon tourism into consideration, Kwon concludes, "This overlooking [of Koreans within Local culture] ultimately enables tourism to continue to colonize, for if the act of colonization relies upon the reduction of the Other, then it follows that the obverse-complicating the Other-provides a valuable means of resistance" (p. 9). [...]by insisting on ruptures and hierarchies within Local culture, Kwon firmly rejects the "racial paradise" thesis as a way to resist colonizing forces of tourism. [...]the point Kwon makes by attempting to define Local, albeit precariously, is an important one: "Local" must be distinguished from both the tourist notion of "Hawaiian," which is used to label "everything and everyone connected to the island," and the sovereignty groups' insistence of the term "Hawaiian," which requires indigenous Hawaiian blood and more than simply being "Hawaiian at heart" (p. 6). [...]all Hawaiians, as used by the sovereignty groups, have the potential to claim a Local identity, but not all Locals are Hawaiians.