Category: Asian & Pacific American studies

Talking Hawaii’s Story Signings in December

Posted on by stephchun

On Friday, December 11, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., Michi Kodama-Nishimoto, Warren S. Nishimoto, and Cynthia A. Oshiro, coeditors of Talking Hawai‘i’s Story: Oral Histories of an Island People, will sign books at Barnes & Noble-Kāhala Mall. (For store information, call 737-3323.) Talking Hawai‘i’s Story presents a rich sampling of the landmark work done by the Center for Oral History by making available 29 first-person narratives that until now only appeared in the COH’s semi-annual newsletter.

The editors will also participate in the Saturday, December 12 Holiday Book Fair at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, 2454 So. Beretania Street, that will take place from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the Community Gallery & Gift Shop. This event is free and open to the public.

Talking Hawai‘i’s Story is published by University of Hawai‘i Press for the Center for Oral History and the Center for Biographical Research. The softcover book retails for $19.00 and is generally available at island bookstores or can be ordered from UH Press by phone: 956-8255, toll free: 1-888-847-7377; email: uhpbooks@hawaii.edu; or online: www.uhpress.hawaii.edu. For event information, call 956-8697.

The Spectacle of Japanese American Trauma Honored

Posted on by stephchun

The Spectacle of Japanese American TraumaThe Spectacle of Japanese American Trauma: Racial Performativity and World War II, by Emily Roxworthy, garnered an Honorable Mention for Outstanding Research in Theatre History from the Barnard Hewitt Award committee, American Society for Theatre Research. The award is presented each year to the best book in “theatre history or cognate disciplines” published during the previous calendar year.

Book Launch for New Hawaii Chinese History Center Book

Posted on by stephchun

Join the Hawaii Chinese History Center, the Associated Chinese University Women, and United Chinese Society of Hawaii in celebrating the publication of Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai.

Sunday, November 8, 1:00-3:00 pm, Kilauea Recreation Center, 4109 Kilauea Avenue, Honolulu: Co-editor Ken Yee and several of the oral history participants will be on hand to sign books. Festivities will include a lion dance, Hawaiian music of Maui and Molokai place-name songs, and simple refreshments.

Please RSVP by email (ginny96825@yahoo.com) by October 30.

Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai is distributed by University of Hawai‘i Press.

Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai

Posted on by stephchun

Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai
During the last half of the 1800s through the early 1900s Chinese migrated from their villages in the Pearl River Delta in Kwangtung Province (Guangdong) and many found their way to the neighbor islands in Hawaii. Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, edited by Ken Yee and Nancy Wong Yee, is a fascinating collection of oral histories filled with the voices of their children and grandchildren. They tell stories that are both universal and particular about the lives of the early immigrants and their families and how they adapted to their new home in the Hawaiian islands, even as they held fast to their ties to China. These colorful, multigenerational stories paint a larger picture of the cultural traditions and social life of that time and illustrate how these immigrants became part of the fabric of Hawaii. Reference materials and maps provide useful resources for those wishing to trace their own roots.

Chinese Historic Sites and Pioneer Families Series
October 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3449-4 / $25.00 (PAPER)
Distributed for the Hawaii Chinese History Center

Lucky Come Hawaii Author Jon Shirota Comes Home

Posted on by stephchun

Lucky Come HawaiiNationally acclaimed author Jon Shirota, whose Lucky Come Hawaii was the first novel by an Asian American Hawai‘i author to become a bestseller, will be back in the Islands for several public appearances sponsored by the Manoa Foundation. Lucky Come Hawaii will be released in a new, revised edition in late November by Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing and University of Hawai‘i Press.

Thursday, November 5, 3:00-4:30 pm: University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Kuykendall Hall, Room 410. Shirota will talk on the Okinawan sense of place in his writings, including those in the latest Manoa journal, Voices from Okinawa.

Thursday, November 5–Sunday, December 6, various times: Kumu Kahua Theatre, 46 Merchant Street, Downtown Honolulu. Performances of Shirota’s play, Voices from Okinawa.

Monday, November 9, 5:00-6:00 pm: UH-West O‘ahu, Kuhialoko Lanai (E-Building). Shirota’s talk, “Akisamiyo! From a Pig Farmer to a Writer” will follow a reception at 4:00. This event is part of the Chancellor’s Lecture Series and is co-sponsored by the UHM Center for Okinawan Studies.

Friday, November 13, 7:00 pm: Kapi‘olani Community College, Ohi‘a Building. “A Conversation with Jon Shirota” will be hosted by Chancellor Leon Richards; part of KCC’s International Week celebration. Entertainment by Okinawan dance and sanshin performers.

Visit Voices from Okinawa Online for more information on Jon Shirota and his work.

Book Launch and Reading for Talking Hawaii’s Story

Posted on by stephchun

Talking StoryA book launch and reading for Talking Hawai‘i’s Story: Oral Histories of an Island People, edited by Michi Kodama-Nishimoto, Warren S. Nishimoto, and Cynthia A. Oshiro, is scheduled for Sunday, October 18, 2009, 2:00-3:30 pm, at the School of Architecture Auditorium, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa. The reading will be directed and produced by Aloha Shorts. Light refreshments and free on-campus parking will be available.

This event is sponsored by the Center for Oral History, the Center for Biographical Research, and the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities. For more information, contact the Center for Oral History (phone: 956-6259 or email: wnishimo@hawaii.edu) or the Center for Biographical Research (phone: 956-3774 or email: biograph@hawaii.edu).

Talking Hawai‘i’s Story is published by University of Hawai‘i Press for the Center for Oral History and Center for Biographical Research.

The Six Companies and China’s Policy toward Exclusion

Posted on by stephchun

The Diplomacy of Nationalism: The Six Companies and China’s Policy toward Exclusion, by Yucheng Qin, is a striking, original portrait of the Chinese Six Companies (Zhonghua huiguan), or Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the most prominent support organization for Chinese immigrants in the U.S. in the late nineteenth century. As a federation of “native-place associations” (huiguan) in California, the Six Companies responded to racist acts and legislation by organizing immigrant communities and employing effective diplomatic strategies against exclusion. Yucheng Qin substantiates recent arguments that Chinese immigrants were resourceful in fighting for their rights and, more importantly, he argues that through the Six Companies they created a political rhetoric and civic agenda that were then officially adopted by Qing court officials, who at first were unprepared for modern diplomacy.

July 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3274-2 / $51.00 (CLOTH)

Jon Davidann at Pearl Harbor’s Pacific Aviation Museum Theater

Posted on by stephchun

Hawai’i Pacific University professor Jon Davidann will hold a presentation at Pearl Harbor’s Pacific Aviation Museum Theater on Saturday, June 6, 2009, 2:00–4:00 p.m., and Sunday, June 7, 2009, 2:00-4:00 p.m. The presentation, entitled “From Perry to Pearl Harbor,” will trace the history of war in the Pacific from Admiral Perry’s arrival in Japan in 1853 to December 7, 1941. Dr. Davidann is the editor of Hawai`i at the Crossroads of the U.S. and Japan before the Pacific War, published this year by University of Hawai`i Press.

Call 808-441-1000 by June 3 for reservations. Attendance is free with paid admission to the Museum. For more information, click here.

Asian Settler Colonialism Forum

Posted on by stephchun

Editors Candace Fujikane and Jonathan Okamura will lead a public forum on their groundbreaking book Asian Settler Colonialism: From Local Governance to the Habits of Everyday Life in Hawai‘i at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, Saturday, May 23, 2009, 1:00-2:30 p.m. In a series of essays, contributors from various fields and disciplines investigate aspects of Asian settler colonialism to illustrate its diverse operations and impact on Native Hawaiians. Contributor Haunani-Kay Trask, author of From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai‘i, is among the guest speakers scheduled to participate in the forum. For more information on this and other upcoming JCCH events, click here.

Candace Fujikane and Jonathan Okamura will participate in the panel “Island Settler Colonialism” at the Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival, May 17, 2009, at Honolulu Hale. Click here for more details.

Hawaii Book and Music Festival 2009

Posted on by stephchun


University of Hawai‘i Press will be among the local publishers participating in the Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival this weekend, May 16-17, 10 am-5 pm, at Honolulu Hale. Admission and parking are free to the general public.

UH Press authors Jon Van Dyke (Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai‘i), Heather Diamond (American Aloha: Cultural Tourism and the Negotiation of Tradition), Davianna McGregor (Na Kua‘aina: Living Hawaiian Culture), Carlos Andrade (Ha‘ena: Through the Eyes of the Ancestors), Richard Hamasaki (Westlake: Poems by Wayne Kaumualii Westlake; From the Spider Bone Diaries: Poems and Songs), Witi Ihimaera (The Uncle’s Story; Woman Far Walking, distributed for Huia Publishers, NZ), Gary Pak (Children of a Fireland; A Ricepaper Airplane), Robert Barclay (Melal: A Novel of the Pacific), Jon Thares Davidann (Hawai‘i at the Crossroads of the U.S. and Japan before the Pacific War), and Candace Fujikane and Jon Okamura (Asian Settler Colonialism: From Local Governance to the Habits of Everyday Life in Hawai‘i) will be leading or participating in numerous panels and discussions at the festival. Click here for a detailed schedule of events.

MENU