Works-In-Progress Workshop

Constructing "Multicultural America" through the Narcissus Festival and Queen Pageant. Jinzhao Li,will present her work on the Construction of Chinese-ness in Hawai'i through the Narcissus Festival. Please join us in the presentation and discussion. From the early 1990s, the end of the Cold War and the globalization of capitalism spurred a series of demographic, economic, social, and political changes in Hawai'i. Chinese Americans of the islands consequently experienced new patterns of community transformation and identity construction under the impact of national and international changes. The Narcissus Festival reflects the efforts of Honolulu's Chinese American community to make sense of the new changes as well as their attempts to maximize their own control over Community transformation and identity Construction.

More specifically, under the entangled forces of globalization,localization, and indigenization, Chinese Americans in Hawai'i felt the urgency to reclaim their "local" identity in Hawai'i. The Narcissus Festival became an important vehicle to meet the urgency. Within a global context, they began to attach a nostalgic sentiment to the Narcissus Festival and viewed it as a part of the "local" culture and "local" tradition that were in danger of disappearing. The Narcissus Pageant, in particular, was perceived as a creative combination of Chinese and American cultures and as a unique contribution of the Chinese American community to the "local" culture. Contrary to its accessory status in the festival in the 1950s and 60s and its decline under the social movements in the 1970s and 1980s, the pageant in the 1990s and 2000s became to many the most prominant embodiment of Chinese American advancement and of ethnic harmony in Hawai'i.

Ticket Information
Free

Event Sponsor
American Studies, Manoa

More Information
Mari Yoshihara, 956-8542, myoshiha@hawaii.edu

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