Introduction The Hawai‘i Chinese: Their Experience and Identity over Two Centuries David Y. H. Wu and Harry J. Lamley

David Y. H. Wu and Harry J. Lamley, “Introduction – The The themes of experience and identity have led us to Hawai‘i Chinese: Their Experience and Identity over Two Cen­ visualize the Chinese in Hawai‘i from broader perspectives turies,” Chinese America: History & Perspectives – The Jour- as well. The island Chinese have been affected by affairs in nal of the Chinese Historical Society of America (San Fran­ China and North America and by transpacific contacts. They cisco: Chinese Historical Society of America with UCLA Asian have also been influenced at times by regional and national American Studies Center, 2010), pages 1–11. issues. Concerns relating to the Chinese in Southeast Asia in recent decades, for example, have had a bearing on the ow have people of Chinese descent fared in the island Chinese, particularly those island Chinese who immi- Hawaiian Islands over the past two hundred years? grated from Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia. Moreover, the cur- HWhat has become of them? And who exactly are rent issue of what “being Chinese” basically means, both in the Hawai‘i Chinese today? Questions of this sort were China and elsewhere, involves global matters of significance raised at our 1988 conference on the Chinese in Hawai‘i and has renewed scholarly interest in the present state of the and voiced on occasion during the Chinese Bicentennial Chinese diaspora around the world. We also attempt briefly celebrated throughout the state in 1989. Such basic ques- to relate the recent experience and changing identity of the tions are appropriate at this juncture. The Chinese were the Hawai‘i Chinese to this far-ranging issue. first Asians to reach Hawai‘i, and interest in their long and In this short introduction we are not able to develop continuous presence in the Islands has invariably resulted these dual themes fully in their many dimensions. Our dis- in inquiries about the background and makeup of their cussion of the Hawai‘i Chinese experience over such a long group. In recent years, however, these matters have taken time span is necessarily limited to historical or diachronic on greater relevance for the Hawai‘i Chinese as they have summaries, along with references to specific episodes and become more keenly aware of their roots. As a result mem- events. We likewise treat the broad theme of cultural identity bers of their community are evidencing renewed interest in in a selective manner, for the cultural and ethnic variables their own cultural background and ancestral ties with China are complex. The island Chinese, in fact, have never formed and more concern as to what it has meant to be sojourners, a homogeneous community, and over time their group has settlers, and citizens in a multicultural society overseas. become more diverse and acquired multiple identities. In this introductory essay we attempt to address these A number of factors account for this diversity. To begin interests and concerns by focusing on the experience and with, intrinsic subcultural differences, stemming primarily identity of the Hawai‘i Chinese over two centuries. These from distinctions in dialect and local Guangdong prove- themes of experience and identity are the focuses of this nance, have always tended to set portions of the group apart volume. The theme of historical experience enables us to from one another. In recent decades the influx of new arriv- depict the events and situations that the island Chinese als from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and provinces have taken part in or witnessed, and to trace the chang- of China other than Guangdong has made the community ing conditions they have encountered and the adjustments more heterogeneous. Meanwhile, intermarriage between they have accordingly made. The theme of cultural iden- the Chinese and other ethnic groups has long taken place in tity, on the other hand, allows us to conceptualize from Hawai‘i. This intermarriage has produced ethnically mixed historical and empirical data. This helps us to analyze offspring and created dual identities. In addition, continu- changes in the makeup of the group and gain insights as ous and pervasive change induced by Hawaiian and West- to how the island Chinese have distinguished themselves ern influences, a variety of modernization processes, and and been perceived by others over time. By means of these policies and trends emanating mainly from the United States dual themes we endeavor not only to present a historical and China has also brought about alterations in outlook and overview of the Hawai‘i Chinese, but also to ascertain the identity among members of the community. identity of the group at different periods and under vari- Local Chinese identities were further affected by the new ous conditions. immigrant groups that began to settle in the Hawaiian Islands

1 2 David Y. H. Wu and Harry J. Lamley late in the nineteenth century. Then, during the twentieth early arrivals initially came on board sailing ships captained century, the island Chinese were subjected to strong Ameri- by Westerners who continued to explore that North Pacific canization pressures under U.S. governance. As a result, volcanic chain. One such expedition may have enabled the Chinese old-timers and newcomers alike have faced identity first Chinese to set foot on Hawaiian soil, for it is recorded problems bearing on their ethnicity and on whether they are that a Chinese carpenter was sent ashore to fix a swivel gun still Chinese culturally or have accommodated enough to on a Hawaiian double canoe in March 1789. Possibly one American ways to be labeled “Chinese Americans.” or several of the crew were left behind by the two British The eleven papers selected for this collection relate to vessels, the Iphigenia and the North West America, engaged the dual themes of experience and identity in various ways. in the Hawaiian leg of that transpacific expedition. At any In the course of our discussion we cite evidence or draw rate, a small number of Chinese and Westerners of differ- comparisons from their rich contents and in this manner ent nationalities soon began to frequent the Islands as other endeavor to introduce each study. These papers are devoted ships carrying mixed crews made their way there. to a wide range of topics, however, and represent to some The first few Chinese to reach the Hawaiian Islands were degree the many interests of the town-and-gown mix at our thus seafarers. Their arrival was conditioned to a consider- conference. They yield fresh insights and new information— able extent by Western exploration and the desire to develop much more than we have been able to include in this intro- maritime routes linking China with the North Pacific and the duction. Thus each deserves careful reading as an individual North American continent. Another important factor was contribution to research on the Chinese in Hawai‘i. the decision by certain British sea captains to sign on Chi- nese sailors to complement their European crews. The Iphi­ genia and a slightly larger vessel, the Felice, were perhaps the The Chinese Experience in Hawai‘i first Western ships to take on a sizable number of Chinese crewmen—carpenters, smiths, and sailors—“as an experi- In this section we deal historically with the Hawai‘i Chinese ment” for the transpacific expedition referred to above. Such and trace changes in the general makeup of their group and Chinese seafarers seem to have been accepted when they in the identities they have shared. We depict such changes sojourned in the Islands during the early monarchy. Like the mainly in the context of Hawai‘i’s multicultural, or pluralis- ship’s carpenter who was sent ashore in 1789, they possessed tic, society, which has also altered considerably over time. skills that were needed by Kamehameha I and the rival chiefs. We refer specifically to political change as well, for dramatic More Chinese were gradually attracted to the Islands shifts of rule have occurred during the past two hundred when Hawai‘i developed into a commercial center for the years in the Hawaiian Islands, as they have in the home Pacific fur and sandalwood trade conducted with Canton country of China. (Guangzhou) and the United States. In 1828, at the height A brief political chronology suggests the far-reaching of the sandalwood trade, around thirty to forty Chinese (of change that the Chinese have witnessed in Hawai‘i. The an estimated total of four hundred foreign residents) were first Chinese arrived near the end of the eighteenth century, living in Honolulu, by then the chief port of the Islands. The when Kamehameha I was consolidating his control over the whaling industry, which extended to the North Pacific in major islands in the Hawaiian chain. Thereafter, the Hawai- the 1820s and reached its peak there during the 1840s and ian monarchy prevailed for almost one hundred years. Dur- 1850s, also began to offer opportunities to enterprising Chi- ing much of this period Americans and Europeans gained nese located in major ports on Maui and Hawai‘i as well as increasing dominance in the government. The monarchy was in Honolulu. In these towns they catered to the needs of the overthrown by pro-American interests in 1893 and replaced seasonal whaling population as local merchants and opera- by a short-lived republic the following year. Subsequently, tors of hotels and “victualling houses.” Meanwhile, early on August 12, 1898, the Hawaiian Islands were formally attempts to produce sugar commercially in the Hawaiian annexed to the United States. Almost two years later, Con- Islands involved skilled Chinese sugar masters and experi- gress passed Hawai‘i’s Organic Act, and territorial government enced laborers hailing from cane-growing areas in the vicin- was installed in 1900. Hawai‘i remained an American terri- ity of Macau. tory until granted statehood in 1959. Since then the Hawai‘i The Macau connection is important to note with respect Chinese, along with the other major ethnic groups that make to the early trade between Hawai‘i and the Canton region. up the state’s population, have experienced further change Prior to the Opium War (1839–42) and the existence of Brit- and modern development, often faster than in the past. ish-held Hong Kong, Western ships invariably stopped off at Macau when leaving the Pearl River Delta. This initially allowed the natives of Zhongshan (Xiangshan), the Guang- The Early Arrivals dong county adjoining Macau, more ready access by sea to The Chinese presence in Hawai‘i began a decade or so after the legendary “Sandalwood Mountains” than was available Captain James Cook discovered the Islands in 1778. The to the inhabitants of other parts of the delta or province. As Introduction 3 a result, Zhongshan natives of different walks of life were thousand, a much smaller Caucasian group, and a Chinese the first to emigrate to Hawai‘i in appreciable numbers. By community even fewer in number. In addition, it included all estimates, Zhongshan immigrants constituted the major- a growing number of part Hawaiians, the issue of Hawaiian ity of the early Chinese sojourners in the Islands during the mothers and Caucasian or Chinese fathers. According to the first half of the nineteenth century. The Zhongshan segment 1850 census (the first complete one conducted under the continued to be the dominant subgroup among the island monarchy), the part Hawaiian element totaled 558, exclu- Chinese after 1852, when greater numbers of Chinese began sive of the 1,512 “non-Hawaiian” or foreign residents. The to arrive as laborers contracted for the sugar plantations. 1853 census added somewhat more precise ethnic catego- A discernible Chinese community had emerged in the ries, including Chinese and “Asiatic Hawaiians.” Yet the next Islands prior to the influx of contract laborers. By midcen- official census, taken in 1860, failed to identify the Chinese tury this community was still small: the number of Chinese component satisfactorily or to take into account the interis- residing in Hawai‘i was possibly less than a hundred, dis- land Chinese community. Curiously, in Honolulu the census persed over most of the major islands. Their scattered com- counted Chinese residents as natives, but in the rest of the munity nevertheless had a structure and certain cohesive kingdom it considered them foreigners. qualities. A few wealthy merchants acted as its leaders and spokesmen, while a larger group (mainly of Zhongshan ori- The Monarchy Period gin as well, it may be assumed) shared in the trade networks that the Chinese had developed among the various islands Under the monarchy Chinese sojourners and settlers wit- and port towns. The Honolulu Chinatown, abutting the nessed a series of nation-building efforts, beginning with waterfront and close to the Hawaiian seat of government, the unification endeavors of Kamehameha I. Many of the served as the commercial hub and social center of this inter- reforms were based essentially on Western models that, island community. when realized, proved to be more advanced and successful At this early stage the Hawai‘i Chinese community was than were most of the modernization ventures attempted in composed predominantly of male sojourners, together with imperial China during the nineteenth century. The island their Hawaiian wives and offspring, and was replenished by Chinese did not participate much in the formal political new male arrivals. Its menfolk maintained a distinct Chinese process. Nonetheless, they became directly involved in the identity—one easily detected by outsiders—with respect to profound change brought about by reform as well as by the speech, dress, and food habits. Although the Chinese tended advent of commercialism, a plantation system, and strong to be ethnocentric and in-groupish, they were so few in local Christian and foreign influences. number that they were obliged to socialize with the Hawai- On the whole the Chinese adapted well to the reforms ians and the other foreign residents. Robert Dye’s paper on effected under the monarchy, especially those from which Chun Afong, a wealthy Zhongshan merchant who arrived in they readily benefited. Several acquired ownership of their Honolulu in 1849, reveals something of the early Chinese lands during the Great Mahele (land division) of 1848. community and its subsequent development. Many more gradually gained title to landed property after The Dye paper also indicates that closer ties were form- 1850, when aliens residing in Hawai‘i were given the right ing at midcentury among the Chinese merchant elite, the to own land in fee simple. Chinese individuals were not Hawaiian aristocracy, and the upper stratum of the Western remiss in resorting to the law to settle disputes or profit from community. Chun Afong’s marriage to a Hawaiian woman business and property settlements. A legal suit involving the of the ali’i (chiefly) class and of part English descent illus- probate of a Chinese estate was recorded as early as 1845, trates this trend. So does the famous Chinese Ball of 1856, five years after the Hawaiian court system had been estab- described in Dye’s study. Staged by Chinese merchants of lished by the Constitution of 1840. The island Chinese also Honolulu and Lahaina in honor of Kamehameha IV and his filed suits against one another as well as against Hawaiians new queen, and attended by Hawaiian and Western digni- and Westerners. They even sued government officials, and taries, this gala event in effect signified formal confirmation in one celebrated case the executors of a Chinese client’s of the high social status sought by the Chinese merchant estate filed suit against the trustees of the king (see the Lim- elite. Symbolically, too, it conferred recognition upon the Chong/Ball paper). island Chinese (with the exceptions of the recent contract- Similarly, Chinese sojourners and settlers at times fol- laborer arrivals) as acceptable components of Hawai‘i’s blos- lowed the modern practice of applying for Hawaiian citi- soming multiethnic society. Indeed, it appears that the emer- zenship in order to satisfy their needs. Some 750 Chinese gence of a viable Chinese community with active merchant are estimated to have become naturalized citizens during leaders was an important factor in fostering broader ethnic the course of the monarchy. As many as four hundred of interaction in Hawai‘i. them applied for naturalization between 1840 and 1871, At midcentury Hawai‘i’s pluralistic society comprised a when this formality was required of foreigners marrying declining native Hawaiian population of roughly eighty-two Hawaiian women. 4 David Y. H. Wu and Harry J. Lamley

Intermarriage began early in the monarchy and denotes role with respect to his influence in island politics and the generally good relations between the native Hawai- Honolulu society. ians and the few Chinese and Westerners then living in the The close, familial-type ties that formed between Chi- Islands. Many of these male sojourners cohabited with or nese immigrants and native Hawaiians under the monar- married Hawaiian women. It appears that a large propor- chy are perhaps best reflected by the pake identity applied tion of the early Chinese, those who arrived prior to 1852, to the island Chinese. Pake means “uncle” in Chinese, and entered into some form of marriage relationship. During in its extended usage in Hawai‘i the term initially implied the latter half of the century Chinese immigrants continued familiarity and respect. Apparently it was the first designa- to marry Hawaiians but did so in much smaller propor- tion of the early Chinese used by the island population at tions, given the large influx of Chinese plantation workers. large. It took on a derogatory cast later when anti-Chinese Romanzo Adams has estimated that from 1840 to 1899 sentiment spread in response to the large influx of Chinese there were between eight and nine hundred legal marriages laborers. Nevertheless the term is still in limited use today of Chinese men to Hawaiian women, and also some twelve among local-born Chinese and often conveys a sense of nos- to fifteen hundred “informal” but permanent marriages. talgia for earlier generations and the immigrant past. Among A number of these marriages were polygamous; it was a “locals” in Hawai‘i pake also has long connoted a joking ste- common practice for a Chinese male to take a Hawaiian wife reotypical image of the island Chinese: for instance, thrifty even if he already had a Chinese wife back home in China. and shrewd in handling money. Under the monarchy such marriage relationships were gen- These various usages of the term have been confined to erally deemed acceptable. As Clarence Glick has noted, tra- Hawai‘i. The pake identity has not applied to Chinese individ- ditions of concubinage in Chinese society and plural mar- uals who have left the Islands. Like the Hawaiian word haole, riages in Hawaiian society helped foster this acceptance. which was used to designate the early Caucasian arrivals and Some of these Chinese and Hawaiian wives had a hand in then became more of a derogatory label applied to White resi- raising one another’s children. Chun Afong went so far as dents, the term pake remains a cultural ascription unique to to send the firstborn son of his Hawaiian wife to his Chi- the Hawaiian Islands. Both of these identities were products nese wife in Zhongshan in exchange for his China-born son, of Hawai‘i’s embryonic multicultural environment under the who was brought to Honolulu to be reared. Robert Dye sug- early monarchy. Their subsequent transformation from basi- gests in his paper that Afong’s Hawaiian wife was agreeable cally cultural designations into ethnic labels illustrates the to raising this son because the arrangement accorded with interethnic tension and racial consciousness that had devel- the hanai system of bringing up another’s child, practiced oped in the Islands by late in the nineteenth century. among most ali’i families. Close relations between the island Chinese and the The Late Nineteenth Century Hawaiian people were evidenced in other ways as well under the monarchy. For instance, Chinese immigrants fre- The Chinese in Hawai‘i experienced much more dramatic quently adopted Hawaiian-sounding names, such as Aloiau change over the latter part of the century, both individually for Wong Lo Yau and Akana for Wong Kwon. These Hawai- and as a community. Unprecedented numbers of Chinese ianized names serve as a reminder that many of the early laborers reached the Islands, an occurrence that fostered Chinese learned to speak Hawaiian, at least to some extent, anti-Chinese agitation among local Hawaiian and haole so as to be able to communicate with the local population. elements. This hostile sentiment evoked discriminatory They also used the Hawaiian language as a common medium measures. Meanwhile, Chinese in the Islands began to be when they could not understand each other’s Chinese dia- affected by the arrival of other large immigrant groups, most lects. Judging from accounts of the late monarchy, many of notably the Japanese. Also significant were the closer links the island Chinese still preferred to speak Hawaiian rather beginning to form between the Chinese community and the than English, despite the growing American influence. home country. This development led members of the mer- As indicated in biographical studies such as the Dye chant elite and other community spokesmen to become paper, relationships with Hawaiians enabled Chinese indi- more actively involved in home-country politics. viduals to become better integrated into the Islands’ plural- The initial impetus for much of this change occurred in istic society at that period. As described in several papers the 1840s when efforts were made to expand Hawai‘i’s sugar- in this volume, their acculturation also involved many cane production under the plantation system. The need for other factors, including business acumen, participation in a large, stable workforce for the sugar plantations led to pas- Christian churches, and language facility (in Hawaiian and sage of the Masters and Servants Act of 1850, which enabled English as well as in the Chinese dialects then current). foreign indentured labor to be introduced in the Hawaiian Marriage with Hawaiian women, however, was often an kingdom. Prior to annexation in 1898, many thousands of essential factor. It is significant that Afong married a woman Chinese laborers were contracted at a low wage scale and of ali’i class. His Hawaiian wife, in particular, played a key brought to the Islands under this enactment, particularly Introduction 5 when the demand for Hawaiian sugar and rice increased Chinese community became more diverse as well. With the after the Reciprocity Treaty of 1876 was concluded with the exception of the first two shiploads of contract laborers, who United States. hailed from southern Fujian Province, the immigrants were The first two shiploads of Chinese contract laborers, of Guangdong origin. However, many came from other areas totaling 293 (including some “houseboys”), arrived in 1852. of that province besides Zhongshan. In the peak years of this Until 1876, however, the annual number of Chinese arriv- Chinese labor inflow, especially during 1895–97, sizable als averaged less than this and included “free” as well as numbers immigrated from the See Yup (Siyi, or “Four Dis- indentured immigrants. The most active period of Chinese tricts”) to the west of Zhongshan. Between 1876 and 1898, a immigration, counting all arrivals, was from 1876 to 1898. significant number of Hakkas (members of a distinct speech According to estimates by Clarence Glick, some 46,000 group) also immigrated from Zhongshan, localities closer to Chinese reached Hawai‘i during the 1852–98 period, two- Hong Kong, and more distant areas in eastern Guangdong. thirds to three-fourths of them to work on sugar or rice The Cantonese speakers from Zhongshan still made up plantations. As a result of the continuous inflow of immi- the majority of the island Chinese population. Their domi- grants (which surpassed the number leaving the Islands), nance within the Chinese community was signified by the Chinese in Hawai‘i totaled 25,767 at the turn of the cen- their claim to be bendi (Punti), or “local natives,” the same tury. This increase represented growth from 0.5 percent of identity their people had assumed back in Zhongshan to Hawai‘i’s population in 1853 to 16.7 percent in 1900. By differentiate themselves from the Hakka (Kejia) or “guest” 1900, there were nearly as many Chinese as native Hawai- minority there. The dominant position of the Zhongshan ians or haole yet their number was less than half that of the residents was often challenged, however, for as the com- rapidly growing Japanese immigrant group. munity grew larger and more diverse, it tended to fragment The plantation experience has generally been depicted as into rival subcultural groupings. Competition between a disagreeable episode in the Hawai‘i Chinese past. Hard toil Zhongshan and Hakka interests reflected this tendency. and abuse were the common lot of the laborers contracted Moreover, Zhongshan immigrants themselves commenced for the sugar plantations. Another negative aspect of the to divide into subgroups. During the 1890s this fragmen- plantation system was the plight of aged and indigent Chi- tation became more evident when district (doo or du) and nese laborers discharged or retired from these plantations. village associations began to form on the basis of their local Such pathetic male sojourners, lacking families or relatives Zhongshan origins. Soon thereafter, the first See Yup asso- in Hawai‘i and the means to return to China, became a social ciation was organized. The emergence of these associations problem, as was widely recognized in Honolulu by late in evidenced further competition among subgroup interests the century. within the Chinese community. Despite such lingering effects, the harsh plantation expe- This divisiveness was offset to some extent as the Chinese rience may, in the long run, be reckoned as a passing phase community became more unified under Honolulu merchant in Hawai‘i Chinese history. It appears that a great majority leadership in response to the rising anti-Chinese agitation. of the Chinese contract laborers left the sugar plantations However, unity was achieved only after prominent Hakka as soon as they could. Although many departed from the and, eventually, See Yup leaders joined members of the Islands, a large number stayed on and sought better liveli- Zhongshan merchant elite in a combined effort to defend hoods there. The largest proportion eventually collected in their community against outside attack and discrimination. Honolulu and other towns, where they became domestics, Such concerted leadership was evident among prominent craftsmen, and peddlers. Others competed for construction Zhongshan and Hakka leaders by 1880 and culminated in jobs and worked on buildings and roads. Another portion the formation in 1884 of a formal and more inclusive orga- remained in the countryside and labored on Chinese-man- nization, the United Chinese Society (Zhonghua huiguan) to aged rice plantations or on farms. In addition, many of the serve the needs of all the island Chinese. numerous free immigrants may never have worked on the Strong anti-Chinese agitation fed on the racial prejudice sugar plantations. Most of them immigrated directly from that had begun to develop in Hawai‘i shortly after the arrival China, but some transmigrated from California and the of the first contract laborers. Hostile sentiment bearing on northwestern coast of North America or from more distant the habits and morals of these male immigrants became places overseas. Those who arrived in Hawai‘i with some more deep-seated as the labor force grew. The Lim-Chong/ capital were more readily able to acquire land and enter into Ball paper recalls the invidious nature of such prejudice by business proprietorships. pointing out that from the 1850s on “it appeared to many Enlarged by the continuous inflow of indentured and free that the ‘vice’ of opium smoking and the presence of the immigrants, the island Chinese community not only grew Chinese were inseparable.” As a consequence, problems numerically but also extended into rural sections of most relating to the control and use of the drug became desig- islands. Chinese settlements also spread in the business dis- nated as the “Chinese opium question.” This paper shows tricts and outlying areas of towns. The composition of the that, in reality, all the major ethnic groups and classes of 6 David Y. H. Wu and Harry J. Lamley society were involved in one way or another with opium. tradition. Although they seem to have been apolitical enter- Through a review of a forty-four-year period of legislation prises, as claimed by the Him Mark Lai paper, several of the providing for either prohibition of the drug or its control publishers had supported the Wilcox Insurrection of 1889 through a “Chinese license,” the authors further reveal that in protest of the “Bayonet Constitution” forced upon the the island population was continuously divided over what Hawaiian king two years before. They also numbered among the government’s policy should be and that “these divisions the twenty or so colleagues who joined with Sun Yat-sen in cut across the various ethnic groups, including the Chinese.” November 1894 upon his return to Honolulu and helped Nonetheless, the opium question and other racially con- Sun inaugurate his first revolutionary society, the Xing strued issues adversely affected the reputation of the Chi- Zhong Hui (Revive China Society). Others among this group nese in Hawai‘i. Degrading and even sinister identities were of Chinese activists were concerned about Hawai‘i’s own rev- ascribed to them, despite the efforts of concerned Chinese olution, which had dethroned Queen Liliuokalani in 1893 spokesmen and the United Chinese Society to create a more and given rise to the Hawaiian republic. positive image for their community. It is significant that the first Chinese publishers in Hawai‘i Under these stressful conditions the appointment in were Christians, as were some other early political activists 1879 of a Chinese commercial agent (shangdong) in Hono- among the island Chinese. By the late nineteenth century, lulu was a boon to the Chinese merchant elite and, to an according to the Irma Tam Soong paper, the Chinese Chris- extent, their entire community. This measure, the first for- tians had become a force to be reckoned with. Neverthe- mal accreditation of a local merchant leader by the Qing less, they were still few in number. Most were Hakka Prot- government through its minister in Washington, offered estants (some of a Guangdong Lutheran background) who hope that China would strive to protect the overseas Chi- belonged to missions and Chinese churches formed on the nese in Hawai‘i. Furthermore, Chun Afong’s display of major islands. Other Chinese also joined these Anglican and the Chinese imperial flag (noted in the Dye paper) after Congregational bodies, various Catholic churches, or, on the Hawaiian government approved his appointment as occasion, the Mormon Church in Hawai‘i. the first commercial agent symbolized the emergence of Soong attributes the importance of the Chinese Chris- a nationality identity for the island Chinese. Afong could tians, despite their small number, to the fact that they now represent himself and his community members as adjusted more to Western ways than other island Chinese subjects of a duly recognized Asian state and as a national- did and had especially cordial relationships with haole resi- ity to be treated on a par with the various Western nation- dents. Even in times of racial contention the spirit of Chris- alities resident in the kingdom as well as with the incom- tian brotherhood tended to induce positive interaction ing Japanese. between Caucasian and Chinese Congregationalists. For This link between the island Chinese and their home example, over the years that Goo Kim Fui served as a trustee government soon prompted other merchant leaders to play of the Fort Street Chinese Church and president of the Chi- an active role in politics. They did so more readily after a nese YMCA, he was able to form friendly relationships of a Chinatown community organization endorsed by officials lasting nature with prominent Caucasians, as well as with of China in Washington developed into the United Chinese members of the Hawaiian royalty. His experience indicates Society. Leaders such as Goo Kim Fui then began to function that portions of the haole and Hawaiian populations were as bona fide spokesmen of the entire community and to cap- apt to regard outstanding Chinese Christians as brethren italize on a common nationality identity that complemented rather than “heathen.” Goo’s Chinese Christian identity, like their local influence based on wealth, subgroup support, his more formal Chinese-nationality identity, appears also to and business and marriage ties. Chun and Goo further legiti- have worked in his favor when he acted as a lobbyist for the mized their political roles by acquiring Qing office titles. In entire Chinese community. this manner they nominally assumed the status enjoyed by Soong’s study focuses on Sun Yat-sen’s early schooling in the gentry class in late imperial China as “heads of the Chi- Honolulu between 1879 and 1883, and sheds considerable nese commoners.” The Qing government required them to light on the private Christian schools then operating. There have this nominal overseas status when they performed as was no such institution designed specifically for the needs of Qing functionaries in their capacity as commercial agents Chinese students who desired to learn English and acquire (and when Goo served later as a vice-consul). a Western education. Hence Sun ended up attending two or At the same time new cultural links also began to form possibly three of the private schools near the Honolulu Chi- with the home country. The appearance of Chinese-language natown. Attendance at these schools offered some students newspapers in Honolulu during the 1880s and 1890s illus- an opportunity to receive a higher education abroad. Sun trates this trend. These early Chinese newspapers started as Yat-sen might well have enrolled in a prestigious American commercial ventures to keep the Chinese community bet- university (as did Chun Afong’s two sons), had not his elder ter informed of events, including those relating to China, brother objected to his impending conversion to Christian- and to offer its members more exposure to China’s literary ity and sent him back to his native Zhongshan village. Introduction 7

Subsequently Sun received medical training in Hong came primarily from Guangdong. Following World War II, a Kong. There his early adult life bore parallels to those of number of federal enactments containing immigration quo- some of his Christian-educated contemporaries in Hono- tas allowed more Chinese migrants to enter Hawai‘i. These lulu. In the urban environment of British-held Hong Kong, newcomers stemmed from many parts of mainland China as and with his Western education and Christian and profes- well as from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and countries in South- sional training, Sun grew disgruntled with conditions in east Asia. By the 1980s they constituted approximately one- China and ineffective Qing rule. Consequently he began to quarter of the Chinese population in the Islands. view political affairs from the critical perspective of an activ- Although the Hawai‘i Chinese population more than ist. The identity to which he soon subscribed was that of a doubled after the turn of the century, it grew relatively Chinese nationalist and anti-Qing patriot. This new nation- slowly compared to the other major ethnic groups, except alistic identity was contrary to the nationality identity of for the Hawaiians. New waves of Japanese and Portuguese loyal Qing subjects overseas that had developed in Hono- plantation workers arrived early in the century, followed lulu while Sun was in school there. by large contingents of Filipino laborers between 1910 and 1932. Meanwhile, substantial numbers of Caucasians kept moving to the Islands throughout most of the century. Pro- The Twentieth Century portionate to Hawai‘i’s overall population growth, the island During the territorial and statehood periods the island Chi- Chinese registered a continuous decline; they made up just nese experienced further change. The Organic Act of 1900 7.4 percent of the total population by 1930 and only 5.8 brought an end to the contract-labor system and helped give percent in 1980, when they ranked fifth in size among the rise to a laboring class of mixed ethnic extraction. Mean- state’s ethnic groupings. Only on Oahu did their number while, a haole American oligarchy exercised control over ter- continue to grow. On the neighboring islands, the Chinese ritorial government and island politics and dominated big population had already begun to decrease before 1900. business and the economy in Hawai‘i. The Hawai‘i Chinese The island Chinese community flourished, nonethe- on the whole adjusted to these conditions by entering more less, and early in the century its members began to take into the expanding middle class composed of small business- on a more normal lifestyle as settlers and permanent resi- men and salaried employees. World War II and statehood dents in the larger Chinese settlements that remained. This brought an end to the relatively small haole oligarchy and development was especially evident among the concentra- its dominance in the Islands. A new era witnessed a surge of tion of Chinese in Honolulu, where the number of Chinese Asian Americans in island politics as well as in mainstream females steadily increased. Over the first three decades business and the professions. Capitalizing on the more favor- of the century Chinese males married these China-born able opportunities that developed in the fiftieth state, many and Hawai‘i-born women at a higher rate than previously. local-born Chinese (both male and female) chose careers in By 1930 Honolulu had at least three thousand Chinese these fields. nuclear families, half of which were headed by males of the Under the Organic Act, Congress also extended Ameri- immigrant generation. can citizenship and its rights, including universal suffrage, The old Chinatown area in Honolulu still served as to immigrants naturalized under the monarchy and to all the business and cultural center of the community, even persons, regardless of race, nationality, or descent, born in though the Chinese residents became more dispersed in Hawai‘i under U.S. rule. Racial prejudice prevalent on the other neighborhoods and in suburbs. During the first sev- American mainland and in Hawai‘i, however, led to dis- eral decades of the century additional district and village criminatory enactments and regulations that prevented associations formed in Chinatown, along with a number island residents of Asian ancestry from enjoying their full of surname societies, reflecting both the continuous Chi- rights during the territorial period. Nevertheless, the Chi- nese population growth in Honolulu and the greater con- nese in Hawai‘i were able to take advantage of the educa- cern for family and kinship matters among the settlers. By tional opportunities offered and enrolled a large proportion around the turn of the century more of a cross-section of of their children in public and private schools. Chinese overseas life had become apparent, as evidenced by Over the twentieth century the number of Chinese the appearance of Chinese craft guilds and a branch of the residing in Hawai‘i grew slowly but rather steadily to reach Hongmen (Triad) brotherhood, as well as several notable 56,285 in 1980, according to the U.S. census. Chinese Chinatown restaurants and a Chinese theater where Can- labor immigration was not allowed from the time the Chi- tonese opera was regularly performed until the late 1920s. nese Exclusion Act was implemented in the Islands in 1898, Meanwhile, the local Chinatown newspapers helped identify shortly after annexation, until it was repealed in 1943. On Honolulu as a major Chinese overseas center and, according the other hand, certain categories of Chinese immigrants, to the Him Mark Lai paper, made that city for a time the sec- including merchants, professionals, and clergy, were per- ond center (after San Francisco) for Chinese journalism in mitted to enter, along with their wives. These new arrivals the Western Hemisphere. 8 David Y. H. Wu and Harry J. Lamley

The Hawai‘i Chinese community became embroiled The Chinese-language newspapers published in Honolulu in the political affairs of China throughout the first half of suffered a decline by the 1920s due to the growing num- the century. Controversy concerning the future of China ber of local-born Chinese who lacked the capacity to read broke out when Liang Qichao, who became Sun Yat-sen’s Chinese. Local Chinese publishers began to introduce bilin- chief opponent among the Chinese reformers abroad, vis- gual or English-language newspapers in an effort to attract ited Hawai‘i in 1900. During the next decade antagonism these younger readers. Such weeklies also had difficulty mounted locally between advocates of Sun’s revolutionary maintaining enough subscribers and competing with main- movement and supporters of constitutional reform and its stream American newspapers. In this context Him Mark association, the Baohuang Hui (Protect the Emperor Soci- Lai suggests the strong influence of Americanization on the ety). Debate over key issues eventually split the community Hawai‘i-born Chinese. into rival factions, as it did other major Chinese overseas Americanization, the accommodation or assimilation of centers in North America and Southeast Asia. Indicative of immigrants and their descendants to American ways, has the deep-seated antagonism engendered locally was the pair affected all generations of the Hawai‘i Chinese to varying of rival Chinese-language schools established almost simul- degrees over the twentieth century. However, the local-born taneously by these factions in the Honolulu Chinatown of the second and third generations who were raised during prior to the outbreak of the 1911 Revolution in China. Keen the territorial period seem to have experienced undue stress competition ensued between these, the two largest Chinese in adjusting to their cultural environment. On the one hand, schools in Hawai‘i, for many years thereafter. they were exposed to strong American influences, especially After the Republic of China was inaugurated in 1912, in the public and private schools. On the other hand, fam- home-country politics continued to spark local rivalries. ily and community pressure encouraged them to maintain a Contention between the Chinese consul in Honolulu and Chinese identity. members of the United Chinese Society led to the estab- This pressure from the Chinese side was quite intense. By lishment of another leading community organization, the then the island Chinese not only shared traditional attach- Chinese Merchants Association (Zhonghua zongshanghui), ments to China, based on their cultural heritage and ances- favored for a short time by the Yuan Shikai regime in Beijing. tral ties, but also had been influenced by the new Chinese Later on, civil discord and factional politics under warlord nationalism and reforms developing in their home country. and Nationalist rule brought about more involvement in To many, China appeared to be transforming into a modern home-country politics on the part of the island Chinese. nation. Hence, the model of “Chineseness” that immigrant When Americans were barred from the Chinese mainland settlers aspired to emulate and transmit to younger gen- following the Communist takeover in 1949–50, the Chinese erations tended to be perceived in a more modern context. in Hawai‘i were cut off from their homeland. Although their Among members of the migrant generation, with their close sympathies with regard to the Communists and Nationalists ties to their native land, this effort at “resinification,” as iden- may have continued to be divided, they became less directly tified in Edgar Wickberg’s paper, may have seemed natural involved in China-related issues. The Hawai‘i Chinese com- and a touchstone for considerable ethnic pride. However, munity nominally recognized the Nationalist government for local-born members of the second and third generations, in Taiwan via the Honolulu consulate, which continued to already imbued with American ideals and sentiments, resini- represent the Republic of China. Old-time Chinese residents fication was often a difficult matter of adjustment and redef- in the Islands were unable to visit their ancestral localities in inition, as reflected by their different constructions of such Guangdong again until relations between the United States American labels as “Chinese American” and “Asian Ameri- and the People’s Republic were normalized in the 1970s. By can,” implying dual identifications. then, they had become bystanders with respect to Chinese Notwithstanding the strong influence of Americanization, mainland politics. however, members of the second and third generations were In his paper on the Chinese community press in Hawai‘i, attracted by features of Republican China and sometimes Him Mark Lai indicates the new political role that local Chi- stirred by feelings of pride and patriotism. Some attended natown newspapers assumed from around the turn of the schools in China or sought employment (and spouses) there century, when the island Chinese became actively engaged prior to the Japanese invasion in 1937 and again briefly in China-related politics. He deals with both the reform- after the end of World War II in 1945. Along with the older ist and the revolutionary Chinese-language press in Hono- members of the Chinese community, many also donated to lulu and briefly discusses a local newspaper organized by Chinese war relief agencies during the intervening wartime the Hongmen brotherhood during the first decade of the period. Their attraction to China during the first half of the twentieth century. He also shows that some Honolulu Chi- century was stimulated in part by the training many had natown newspapers continued to be preoccupied with poli- received at Chinese-language schools in the Islands. More- tics in China over the first half of the century, as happened over, like overseas Chinese elsewhere, they were encouraged in other major Chinese overseas centers in North America. to support China and assume a modern Chinese identity Introduction 9 through the huaqiao ascription. This term, literally meaning opinion suggests that group-oriented rivalry was common “Chinese sojourners,” denoted overseas Chinese status. It between local ethnic communities earlier in the century, was used by the revolutionary followers of Sun Yat-sen early then gave way to more individualistic competition, espe- in the century and subsequently applied by the Republic of cially following statehood, when most immigrant groups China in a formal manner. As an expression of identity, hua­ enjoyed better economic opportunities and the island popu- qiao indicated acceptance and recognition by the govern- lation had become more broadly tolerant of cultural diver- ment and people of China of the overseas Chinese, regard- sity. The Hawai‘i Chinese experience indicates, however, less of their citizenship or legal status abroad. that both forms have persisted during the century but that Americanization has usually been studied in relation intermarriage and social interaction have helped alleviate to immigrant communities and their members. Yet ethnic ethnic tensions and rivalries. institutions serving these communities also experienced the The Michaelyn Chou paper addresses the ethnicity issue effects of acculturation or assimilation as they became more as it pertained to local politics and the electoral process dur- integrated into the American environment. The Palolo Chi- ing the territorial and early statehood periods. The author nese Home in Honolulu offers an example. Initially a care acknowledges that ethnocentric voting has played a role home for aged and indigent Chinese laborers, by its fiftieth in elections held in Hawai‘i. Nevertheless, she argues that anniversary in 1967 the Palolo Home had become a main- charges of bloc voting, with ethnic groups voting only for stream social welfare institution open to all aged U.S. resi- candidates of their own ancestry, are incorrect. Between dents, regardless of their race, religion, sex, or marital sta- 1926 and 1966, candidates from Hawai‘i’s different ethnic tus. Despite its Chinese identity, the home had long been groups were elected as a result of efforts by the Republican associated with American interests. Closely involved in its and Democratic parties to produce balanced slates, rather founding in 1917 was the Associated Charities of Hawai‘i, a than of ethnic endeavors per se on the grassroots level. Chou haole-led agency formed to coordinate the activities of many also indicates that the local Chinese tended to vote along charitable organizations in the Islands. During the mid­ straight party lines. Socioeconomic factors seem to have twenties this agency (renamed the Social Services Bureau) motivated their party preferences, with Chinese candidates assumed responsibility for the financial support and admin- running on both party tickets. istration of the home under a Chinese manager and an eth- Chou further indicates that because the Chinese electorate nically mixed board of directors. The transformation of the was relatively small, local Chinese running for political office home into a mainstream welfare center occurred after 1938, earlier in the century sought the support of Hawaiian relatives when the federal government began to provide a dispropor- and friends and their networks. Such interethnic support tionate amount of its funding. Federal funds, administered played a vital role in the career of James K. Kealoha, a cele- by the territory and state, enabled local authorities to regu- brated Chinese Hawaiian politician. The son of an immigrant late the home more fully and eventually to have an enor- father and a Hawaiian mother, Kealoha gained an even wider mous cultural impact on its operation and the type of treat- constituency due to his affability, musical skills, and ability to ment its aged residents received. speak several languages. These features made him seem more Chinese community leaders worked closely with mem- Hawaiian than Chinese to many, particularly since he never bers of the haole establishment by way of the Associated used the Lee (Li) surname of his father. Only after he had Charities and the United Welfare Fund (later the Aloha been elected the state’s first lieutenant governor in 1959 did United Fund) with respect to the founding and upkeep of Kealoha’s Chinese descent receive much recognition, when he the Palolo Chinese Home. Through such inclusive public was honored by a Li clan organization in Taiwan. service organizations these Chinese spokesmen cooper- As mentioned in the Chou paper, the Hawai‘i Chinese ated with the representatives of various other ethnic groups tended not to venture actively into domestic politics. Local engaged in philanthropic work. On the other hand, ethnic issues occasionally stirred them to collective action, how- rivalry persisted among such groups. The pride that the Chi- ever. In 1947–48, for example, the Chinese and Japanese nese community has long exhibited in the Palolo Home may communities launched a successful campaign to reopen the have stemmed in part from local Chinese efforts to emulate foreign-language schools that had been closed in Hawai‘i or outdo other groups that founded care homes for their following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The elderly members. Meanwhile, leading organizations repre- island Chinese also expressed pride when local-born Hiram senting the Hawai‘i Chinese community, namely, the United L. Fong in 1959 became the first person of Chinese descent Chinese Society and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to be elected to the U.S. Senate. On the whole, though, the (the successor of the Chinese Merchants Association), strove Hawai‘i Chinese were more attuned to business and social to safeguard the community from undue competition or undertakings than to organized politics on the local or the pressure conditioned by interethnic rivalry. national level. Unfortunately, little detailed study has been made of eth- The paper by Clarence and Doris Glick on generational nic rivalry in Hawai‘i during the twentieth century. Scholarly groups of prominent Chinese in Hawai‘i confirms this 10 David Y. H. Wu and Harry J. Lamley impression. The Glicks trace changes in the roles and sta- the Islands. By their accommodation to various eating pub- tus of the members of these groups from the migrant gen- lics they also illustrate how the Chinese managed to adapt eration through the third and fourth generations, based on to Hawai‘i and its pluralistic society and how other island biographical sources published in 1929, 1957, and 1983. inhabitants adapted to the Chinese. Moreover, the Chi- Yet few of the occupations or organizational affiliations they nese restaurant trade has reflected the recent immigration list seem to relate directly to domestic politics. Instead, the from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, with Hong Kong and members of these groups appear to have gained recognition regional styles of Chinese cuisine coming into vogue. The and elite status mainly through private or civic endeavors. proliferating array of Chinese restaurants reflects the diver- The Glick study also reveals major intergenerational sity of the Chinese population in Hawai‘i. The author asserts changes. The differences between the migrant generation, that this diversity in region, dialect, generation, class, and born in China, and the second generation, born in Hawai‘i, acculturation has resulted in “culinary pluralism with mul- are most striking in respect to extent and kind of formal edu- tiple standards of evaluation.” cation and the tendency of second-generation members to join associations with mixed-ethnic memberships in addi- tion to the all-Chinese societies to which their fathers’ gen- Diversity and the Formation eration had generally been restricted. Similarities between of Multiple Identities the second and the third and fourth generations of local- born descendants are apparent, especially with regard to the The Franklin Ng paper serves as a reminder that diversity increasing numbers who received higher education and their (along with change) has played an important part in the Chi- continuous shift from business to professional pursuits. nese experience in Hawai‘i. Cultural diversity, an enduring Changes in the outlook and socialization of the third and trait among the island Chinese, has long given rise to sepa- fourth generations are striking as well. In effect, they had rate identities that have distinguished and set apart compo- become cosmopolitan Americans sharing mainstream per- nents of their group. Again, various contacts and influences spectives on the state, the nation, and the international scene. from outside their community have created dual identities of Thus the Glicks not only indicate continuous cultural inte- a less discrete nature. In this section we shall discuss these gration on a generational basis, but also suggest how eliteness multiple identities and their formation and endeavor to com- has been redefined within the Hawai‘i Chinese community. pare the Hawai‘i Chinese experience in this respect with that The elite-status identity formerly associated with a wealthy of Chinese overseas groups elsewhere. class of overseas merchants has given way to a modern one As indicated earlier, differences in speech and prov- predicated on a more highly educated, local-born group of enance led Chinese immigrants in Hawai‘i to assume sub- leaders, mainly of a managerial and professional type. group identities among the Zhongshan Cantonese speakers, The Franklin Ng paper on Chinese restaurants in Hawai‘i the Hakkas, and the See Yup people. Further distinctions in approaches ethnicity and identity from a cultural perspec- subdialect and native-place origin also brought about sub- tive. It suggests that such matters pertaining to the island identities within the dominant Zhongshan group. In recent Chinese may be more effectively gauged by their restaurants decades similar differences have prevailed among the Chi- and foodways than through regulated census procedures. nese arrivals from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and “Foodways are an emblem of ethnicity and identity,” accord- parts of the Chinese mainland; accordingly, diverse identi- ing to the author, and his study indicates that Chinese res- ties and subidentities have developed among them as well. taurants have long given expression to Chinese and local These discrete identifications not only distinguish each foodways in the Islands, reflecting the Chinese experience grouping but also set off these Chinese newcomers from the there. The Chinese operated most of the eating establish- old-time residents who still constitute a large majority of the ments (bakeries, coffee shops, and restaurants) in Hawai‘i Hawai‘i Chinese population. over the latter half of the nineteenth century. They became Institutional religious affiliations have also enabled vari- more receptive to Chinese restaurants only as the Chinese ous Chinese immigrant groups to maintain distinct iden- community's infrastructure and pattern of family life devel- tities in the Islands. The Hakkas formed early Protestant oped more fully. Cultural and ethnic identifications have congregations and churches that provided leadership and continued to be associated with Chinese eating establish- guidance for their people. Recently, new arrivals from Hong ments in Hawai‘i, the author points out, generally on the Kong and Taiwan have organized Cantonese, Mandarin, and basis of their food and cuisine, their types of patronage, and Taiwanese (southern Min or Hokkien-speaking) congrega- the roles and services they perform. tions. These church groups, along with secular social organi- Franklin Ng also demonstrates that Chinese restaurants zations, have helped distinguish such recent Chinese group- in Hawai‘i have been indicators of change and diversity. ings and enclaves in Hawai‘i by place of origin and language. They have reflected the changing status of the Chinese over Considering the many functions that Chinese Christian time and the emergence of a Chinese American culture in congregations and churches have served within the Chinese Introduction 11 community as well as in island society at large, they too may tended to lose much of their cultural heritage. However, a be regarded as significant subculture groupings among the dual Chinese American identity may still be of significance Hawai‘i Chinese. to those offspring of recent immigrants who are experiencing Intermarriage and acculturation, on the other hand, have problems of adjustment in an American environment. fostered dual identities among the island Chinese. From As we have pointed out, the construction of Ameri- early on, Chinese cohabitation and marriage with native can labels of identity, such as Chinese American and Asian Hawaiian women led to complications concerning the eth- American, has reflected efforts of adjustment and redefini- nicity and identity of their offspring. Clarence Glick has tion by earlier generations of migrant descendants. Varia- noted, for example, that few children in Chinese Hawaiian tions in these situational identities, though, have also indi- families became part of the Chinese community; rather, they cated societal differences among members and generations were more closely associated with their Hawaiian and part of the Hawai‘i Chinese community. In particular, distinc- Hawaiian relatives on their mothers’ side. Yet Robert Dye’s tions in class and occupational status, type of education paper shows that at least some of these mixed offspring (American and/or Chinese), and language fluency (Chinese were raised as Chinese, and Michaelyn Chou’s study indi- and/or English) have had a bearing on cultural integration as cates that even James Kealoha, who is remembered as a part well as on matters concerning ethnicity. Hawaiian “local boy” politician, was an outstanding student Various China-oriented political identities have also been at a Chinese-language school in his youth. It is clear that ascribed to the island Chinese, as to overseas Chinese else- distinct plural identifications were readily ascribed to this where. Chinese-nationality and nationalist identities arose in new Chinese Hawaiian segment. By the mid-nineteenth cen- Hawai‘i prior to 1900, followed by factional and party iden- tury separate “part Hawaiian” or “Asiatic Hawaiian” census tifications over the next several decades. The influence of categories had been established under the monarchy. Later modern Chinese nationalism often made such political iden- on, acculturation gave rise to another form of dual identity tities linked with the home country more pervasive in the when strong Americanization influences brought about a Islands. The huaqiao ascription, as utilized by the Republic of Chinese American designation among local-born children China, has also been effective in fostering political allegiance and grandchildren of the migrant generation. During the to the home country in the Hawai‘i Chinese community. territorial period this designation reflected the tensions of Since the 1960s, new huaren and huayi labels have been cultural adjustment by members of the second as well as the employed by the People’s Republic of China in place of third generation under American rule. huaqiao. The term huaren denotes people of Chinese descent These two forms of dual identity involving the accultura- living outside of China, and huayi applies to descendants of tion of offspring allowed for situational ethnicity. That is, in Chinese overseas immigrants, born and living abroad. Both both cases people of Chinese descent had some choice in are more neutral terms politically as far as the legal status selecting between ethnic identities according to the situa- and citizenship of overseas Chinese are concerned, and tions in which they were interacting. As conditions change, have been adopted by resident Chinese who have acquired situational identities of this type tend to vary in significance host-country citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thai- and extent of use. The Chinese Hawaiian identification, land. The Nationalist government in Taiwan (since 1949), although still meaningful to individuals and families claim- on the other hand, continues to regard the overseas Chinese ing such mixed descent, now seems less distinctive to many and their descendants as huaqiao: that is, as Chinese nation- islanders in the context of Hawai‘i’s present-day pluralistic als sojourning abroad, irrespective of their foreign status or society. Consequently, this identification has tended to merge citizenship. Old-time Hawai‘i Chinese have become accus- into the more general “part Hawaiian” one. Meanwhile, the tomed to the huaqiao designation; they appear to be aware Chinese American designation may have become outmoded of these new terms and continue to refer to themselves as in respect to today’s younger generation of well-adjusted lao huaqiao (old sojourners). In similar vein, they call the island Chinese. As Douglas Chong notes in his paper, assimi- new immigrants, at least those from Taiwan, xinqiao, or lation has been rapid and members of this generation have “new sojourners.”