A Study of Chinese Assimilation in Hawaii

IN TERMS of ethnic and cultural fusion, Hawaii stands out as one of the most spectacular "melting-pots" in the world. Within its territorial limits, there are five major ethno-cultural groups and innumerable minor ones all involved in a dynamic process of assimilation. Since the American annexation of Hawaii in 1898, the host culture in the Islands has been predominantly the American culture, and the process of assimilation has been one in which cultural fusion of the divergent groups-including the rapidly disappearing fullblooded Hawaiian group-takes place within the American culture. This process is still going on and a mosaic of dissimilar ethno-cultural groups is still perceptible. But the steady increase in interracial marriages in recent years gives a clear indication that assimilation will be speeded up as these marriages continue to increase and that, in the end, an integrated society and a new race will emerge in Hawaii. Aside from the Hawaiian1 and the Caucasian2 groups, the major ethno-cultural groups in the Islands are Oriental in ancestry and include Japanese, Filipinos, and Chinese. Of the five groups, the Chinese group is numerically the smallest. According to the 1950 United States Census, out of the 499,794 population in Hawaii, the Chinese represented a mere 6.5 percent as compared with 12.2 percent, 17.2 percent, 23.0 percent, and 36.9 percent for the Filipinos, the Hawaiians, the Caucasians, and the Japanese, respectively.3 But the small size of the Chinese group does not diminish the importance of its role in the process of assimilation in Hawaii. The Chinese were among the earliest foreigners to settle in the Islands.4 From the very beginning, they have been a vital force in the development of the Hawaiian economy. In August 1952 the Chinese community in Honolulu observed the centennial of the arrival of the first group of contract laborers from China. In a feature article published in the leading Honolulu daily5 commemorating the occasion, China is represented as the "first foreign market" for Hawaiian exports, and the Chinese as being the first "to produce sugar on a commercial scale," to conduct "experiments in rice culture," and to meet, in a satisfactory manner, the need of labor in the Islands. In the same article, the Chinese are portrayed as having taken part in taro raising, poi manufacturing,6 the development of fishing industry, and pineapple and vegetable growing, and as having advanced in a few decades from manual labor on the plantation to trading and service activities in the city. According to official statistics cited in the article, there were only eight Chinese listed in the occupation register for 1847: two domestic servants, one baker, and five petty entrepreneurs. By 1889 the Chinese were rather well entrenched in trades ranging from draying, horsedriving, and butchering, to retail and wholesale merchandising. In that year, they were holders of 23.5 percent of the licenses issued to the wholesale merchants, of 62 percent of the licenses issued to the retail merchants, and of 84.7 percent of the licenses issued to restaurateurs. The migration of Chinese from rural to urban areas has continued unabated during the last six decades. By the time of the 1950 Census, 91.7 percent of them were living in urban areas of 2,500 I Prior to 1950, the Part-Hawaiian group, as used in official statistics, was distinguished from the fullblooded Hawaiian group and included "all persons of mixed Hawaiian and other blood." In the 1950 United States Census, this distinction is abandoned and "Hawaiian" is used to include "all persons who are PartHawaiian as well as full-blooded Hawaiians." In official statistics in the Territory, however, the distinction remains unchanged. 2 In the United States Censuses, the Portuguese in Hawaii have always been included in the Caucasian group; but in official statistics in the Territory prior to 1939, they were listed apart from the other Caucasians. The reason was that the Portuguese came to the Islands primarily as immigrant laborers. 3 Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950: Hawaii, General Characteristics (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office), p. 13. (This volume will hereafter be referred to by the short title: Hawaii, General Characteristics.) 4 Ralph S. Kuykendall and A. Grove Day, Hawaii: A History, p. 37. 5 Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 2, 1952. 6 Fish and poi were staple foods in Hawaiian diet. Poi manufacturing involves pounding steamed taro into a thick paste and then mixing the paste with water to the desired consistency.