Culture Shock! Hawaii Book Excerpt
FOREWORD
Mark Twain loved Hawai’i, and in his Letters from Hawaii, he
called it the “Rainbow Islands” because of the frequent rainbows
in the sky. Twain visited Hawai’i 88 years after Captain Cook,
and in his letters he told how the missionaries had regrettably
supplanted the local Hawaiian culture with Western culture
and Christian values.
In the 140 years since Twain’s visit, Hawai’i continues to
change rapidly. Honolulu and even O’ahu may look and act
more like Los Angeles than other Polynesian islands like Tahiti.
New skyscrapers and shopping centers are being built. The
island pace of life is lost in the crowding, traffic jams, high
prices and competition for jobs. On the road to work, sirens
wail, hip-hop pounds in low-rider Hondas and people yell into
cell-phones. Tourist planes take off and land every minute,
and military jet fighters and helicopters rumble through
the skies.
On the other hand, on your first day here, you may go out
to your car and find that there are flowers covering it, as if
someone has left a romantic note. Everyday, white and yellow
flowers fall from a tree onto the windshield. In the morning
dew, the flowers are strung together like a lei. You brush them
onto the ground because you have learned that flowers get
smeared on the window by the windshield wipers. Nearby, the
landscapers sweep and fill their pails. The trash of paradise
is flowers. Despite it all, you may find a spot in your heart for
the Rainbow Islands.OUR PERCEPTION
For a first-timer to Hawai’i, it is important to buy a lei with a
flower that has a fragrance. The fragrance of the flower mixed
with the balmy ocean breeze makes them know without
a doubt that they have arrived in Hawai’i. As a newcomer
to O’ahu, we are filled with Polynesian dreams and visions
of a multiracial paradise, but living in Hawai’i will change
these perceptions. Many customs, behaviours, attitudes and
values are different from the mainland USA and it can feel like
living in a foreign country. You wonder at their odd behaviour,
and them at yours, until you learn the ways of the people
of Hawai’i.
We may know Hawai’i’s travel industry’s advertising, but
most of us don’t know the history of Hawai’i or even Polynesia.
We are at a disadvantage, having so much misinformation and
lack of information. It is common to assume that moving to
Hawai’i is like moving to any other state in America-after all
how different could it be?
Hawai’i has a long history that is different from mainland
USA. For more than a millennium, it was a Polynesian paradise,
but the last few hundred years are a picture of struggle against
exploitation. The Pidgin English, spoken locally, grew out of
this struggle as a way to communicate among the many non-
native English speakers. The local accent and Pidgin English
can sometimes make it difficult for mainlanders to understand
and communicate with the people of Hawai’i.
