Title: Imagined Commonality: Rethinking "Ethnicity" through Personal Experience in Hawaii
Abstract: This paper examines my own “ethnic experience” in Honolulu, Hawaii, and attempts to analyze the nature of connectedness that I felt in that experience. I was a “Japanese” intern at the East West Center for one year from October 1985 to September 1986: 27 when I arrived and turned 28 when I left. Hawaii was but one page in my youthful life history and the most significant script on that page was my “ethnic” awakening. I experienced many things that appeared “ethnic” to me. As a student in anthropology, I knew the theories of ethnicity current at that time but I felt that none of them really helped me understand what I was experiencing. I tried to make sense of my “ethnic” experience but did not really think through it then; I had to leave Hawaii for my dissertation research in Taiwan, and the three years there would profoundly affect me.
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
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