Aloha America

Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire

Auteur: Imada, Adria L.
Éditeur: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822351962
eISBN Pdf: 9780822395164
Lieu de publication: Durham , United States
Année de publication électronique: 2012
Mois : Juillet
Pages: 392
DDC: 784.18/87
Langue: Anglais

Légende

Aloha America reveals the role of hula in legitimating U.S. imperial ambitions in Hawai'i. Hula performers began touring throughout the continental United States and Europe in the late nineteenth century. These "hula circuits" introduced hula, and Hawaiians, to U.S. audiences, establishing an "imagined intimacy," a powerful fantasy that enabled Americans to possess their colony physically and symbolically. Meanwhile, in the early years of American imperialism in the Pacific, touring hula performers incorporated veiled critiques of U.S. expansionism into their productions.

At vaudeville theaters, international expositions, commercial nightclubs, and military bases, Hawaiian women acted as ambassadors of aloha, enabling Americans to imagine Hawai'i as feminine and benign, and the relation between colonizer and colonized as mutually desired. By the 1930s, Hawaiian culture, particularly its music and hula, had enormous promotional value. In the 1940s, thousands of U.S. soldiers and military personnel in Hawai'i were entertained by hula performances, many of which were filmed by military photographers. Yet, as Adria L. Imada shows, Hawaiians also used hula as a means of cultural survival and countercolonial political praxis. In Aloha America, Imada focuses on the years between the 1890s and the 1960s, examining little-known performances and films before turning to the present-day reappropriation of hula by the Hawaiian self-determination movement.

Contents
Note On Language
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Aloha America
Chapter 1. Lady Jane at the Boathouse: The Intercultural World of Hula
Chapter 2. Modern Desires and Counter-Colonial Tactics: Gender, Performance, and the Erotics of Empire
Chapter 3. Impresarios on the Midway: World’s Fairs and Colonial Politics
Chapter 4. “Hula Queens” and “Cinderellas”: Imagined Intimacy in the Empire
Chapter 5. The Troupes Meet the Troops: Imperial Hospitality and Military Photography in the Pacific Theater
Epilogue. New Hula Movements
Chronology. Hawai‘i Exhibits at International Expositions, 1894–1915
Abbreviations of Collections, Libraries, and Archives
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index