Blog 5 – Asia America as Settlers in the United States

By Eric Yu

            Fujikane’s article (2012) discussing the Asian American residency in Hawaii raises further questions about how Asian Americans perceive their status on the land they live on. She particularly wishes to further how Asians who have settled in the United States have participated in “settler practices,” including “colonial administration to the routines of daily life” (Fujikane 2012, p. 192). As a result, there are disputes over how Asian Americans who see themselves as “local” Hawaiians do not actually own the land, since Hawaii has undergone a long history of political conflict (Fujikane 2012, p. 198). As a result, this “Asian American settler colonialism” plays a massive role in shaping Hawaii’s future, since Asian Americans are thus contributing to the issues that the indigenous Hawaiians have been facing for a very long time (p. 192). This raises the question of how exactly Asian Americans currently living another country are supposed to position themselves in relation to others not only in Hawaii, but also in other parts of the world.

An idealistic image of Hilton Hawaii Village, one of the many resorts that have taken residence in Hawaii in favor over indigenous people. Establishments such as these can funded from corporations establisehd in Asia in order to paint such an idyllic image.

Original Image provided by user WPPilot on Wikipedia and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Question: How would one negotiate within an interracial arrangement of activism if conflicts occur?

Works Cited

Fujikane, C. (2012). Asian American Critique and Moana Nui 2011: securing a future beyond empires, militarized capitalism and APEC. Intra-Asia Cultural Studies 13(2), 189-210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2012.659808

WPPilot [Image of Hawaiian Resort]. (2011). Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHilton_Hawaiian_Village_boardwalk_2_Oahu_Hawaii_Photo_D_Ramey_Logan.jpg