One of the things I like about Hawaii is its diversity of culture. It's a different diversity from that generally seen on the mainland. Here, there are people from numerous Asian and Pacific countries. All those tiny island countries that, on a map, are just specks in the Pacific, are represented. And people not only maintain their cultural heritage while assimilating, but pick up aspects of other cultures. I think what often happens on the mainland is that each generation becomes a little more bland, a little more "hot dogs and processed cheese." Here, it seems that heritage is more celebrated.
An example of that is Samoan men wearing their traditional skirts. I love passing the Samoan church near our house and seeing everyone walking around in their finery, hanging out in the adjacent Burger King parking lot - the juxtaposition of these big men wearing traditional skirts while eating fast food. Even on weekdays, I'll sometimes see tough-looking teenage guys waiting for the bus, wearing skirts.
Posted by Shokufeh at December 14, 2003 07:29 PMThat's awesome. Obviously these guys have realized that skirts make the best warm weather wear and are unwilling to give them up, cultural mores be damned. On a more serious note, when my family moved to the states from Lebanon they went into full-force assimilation mode. Beautiful Arabic names were given up in favor of American fifties-style names like Freddy and Shirley. And Arabic was not passed down to the kids (instead reserved as the language for whispering in when they didn't want the kids to know what they were talking about). All we managed to hang on to was the food. Seriously bums me out.
Posted by: Sharyn at December 16, 2003 03:11 AM