THE REMARKABLE CHINESE-HAWAI’IANS
A brief and informal consideration of the remarkable Han Chinese immigrants to Hawaii, whose considerable contributions to Hawaii’s culture and economy, spanning from about 1789 through the modern era, continue undiminished today.
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Let me state at the onset that I am what the Cantonese refer to as Gwai Loh (also known as ‘bak gwai’) and translated variously (depending upon the source) to ‘old devil’, ‘foreign barbarian’, ‘white ghost’, etc. Although there is no direct reference to ‘foreign’ per se in the term itself, it is the classic Chinese word used by Cantonese native speakers to refer to all white non-Chinese people. In a manner similar to the Hawaiian term ‘haole’, it has assumed a largely generic character throughout several centuries of use, although also congruent to the Hawaiian custom, when the term is used pejoratively (such as in an intensely vindictive or vehement context) it assumes a far more unpleasant nature. [Note: In Hawaii, when a local refers to a white non-local, ‘haole’ is the customary referent term. When the ‘haole’ is the focus of hateful or racist sentiment, the term ‘f**king haole’ is more common applied.]
I say this at the onset here because I have never been particularly proud of being ‘white’. Of Irish and French Protestant heritage (largely, although there is a bit of German mixed in with…
