Chinatown, Honolulu - by Nancy E Riley (Paperback)

About the Book

This book offers a critical account of the history of Chinese in Hawai'i from the mid-nineteenth century to the present in this context of U.S. empire, settler colonialism, and racialization.

Book Synopsis

The Chinese experience in Hawai'i has long been told as a story of inclusion and success. During the Cold War, the United States touted the Chinese community in Hawai'i as an example of racial harmony and American opportunity, claiming that all ethnic groups had the possibility to attain middle-class lives. Today, Honolulu's Chinatown is not only a destination for tourism and consumption but also a celebration of Chinese accomplishments, memorializing past discrimination and present prominence within a framework of multiculturalism. This narrative, however, conceals many other histories and processes that played crucial roles in shaping Chinatown.

This book offers a critical account of the history of Chinese in Hawai'i from the mid-nineteenth century to the present in this context of U.S. empire, settler colonialism, and racialization. Nancy E. Riley foregrounds elements that are often left out of narratives of Chinese history in Hawai'i, particularly the place of Native Hawaiians, geopolitics and U.S. empire building, and the ongoing construction of race and whiteness. Tracing how Chinatown became a site of historical remembrance, she argues that it is also used to reinforce the ideology of neoliberal multiculturalism, which upholds racial hierarchy by lauding certain ethnic groups while excluding others. An insightful and in-depth analysis of the story of Honolulu's Chinatown, this book offers new perspectives on the making of the racial landscape of Hawai'i and the United States more broadly.

Review Quotes

Essential reading for anyone studying Chinatowns, Chinese placemaking and race-and-place, more broadly.-- "Social Forces"

This is a thoughtful and stimulating addition to the literature on the Chinese in Hawaii.-- "Choice"

Riley tells the story of the remarkable transformation of Honolulu's Chinatown through deep research and incisive analysis. What began in the 19th century as an ethnic ghetto for Hawai'i's Chinese population and a physical marker of anti-Chinese discrimination became, by the late 20th century, an emblem of Asian success in Hawai'i'--and in the United States. But, Riley shows, that success depended on an accommodation to U.S. empire and an embrace of the "model minority" paradigm, which celebrated Chinese people in Hawai'i while erasing the history of colonialism and Native Hawaiian displacement that made Chinatown possible.--Sarah Miller-Davenport, author of Gateway State: Hawai'i and the Cultural Transformation of American Empire

As the first major work in more than forty years on Chinese in Hawai'i, Chinatown, Honolulu promises to be the principal source about both the community and the ethnic group in the years to come. Well beyond her highly informative discussion on the historical development of Chinatown, Nancy Riley insightfully analyzes the changing status and experiences of Chinese in Hawai'i, the evolving racial politics in the islands, and Hawai'i's pivotal role in U.S. empire building.--Jonathan Y. Okamura, author of Raced to Death in 1920s Hawai'i: Injustice and Revenge in the Fukunaga Case

About the Author

Nancy E. Riley is A. Myrick Freeman Professor of Social Sciences at Bowdoin College. Her most recent book is Controlling Reproduction: Women, Society, and State Power (with Nilanjana Chatterjee, 2023).