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Numbers? Have you even seen the numbers yourself or are you just lumping every Asian under the same wing?
I've thought of Honolulu having a large Saudi, Pakistani, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan, Kazakstani, Afghan, or Indian population and the census agrees with me because it does not.
So all Asians are the same to you?
Honolulu
Asian 419,106
Chinese 56,689
Filipino 139,255
Japanese 151,137
Korean 20,998
Indian 1,815
Vietnamese 6,579
Other 42,633
Vancouver
Chinese 381,500
South Asian 207,200
Filipino 78,900
I don't live in Canada, I don't know where to look for their census info and I don't really care enough to look around either. I've been to Vancouver but not Honolulu and I'm not saying Vancouver blows Honolulu away but I think rationally what "Asian" is and all the groups that make up Asian. Not all Asians are the same and Honolulu plain lacks of several large groups, Vancouver has a more decent amount from different parts of Asia.
I don't live in Canada, I don't know where to look for their census info and I don't really care enough to look around either. I've been to Vancouver but not Honolulu and I'm not saying Vancouver blows Honolulu away but I think rationally what "Asian" is and all the groups that make up Asian. Not all Asians are the same and Honolulu plain lacks of several large groups, Vancouver has a more decent amount from different parts of Asia.
And what about culturally? Even if you can make an argument based solely on stats for Vancouver, Honolulu feels much more Asian culturally than Vancouver.
Like Deezus pointed out it is a sort of hybrid Asian-American/Hawaiian culture but one that is strongly Asian influenced none the less.
And what about culturally? Even if you can make an argument based solely on stats for Vancouver, Honolulu feels much more Asian culturally than Vancouver.
Like Deezus pointed out it is a sort of hybrid Asian-American/Hawaiian culture but one that is strongly Asian influenced none the less.
Cant say, I haven't been to Honolulu before. So all I have are numbers to look at but I wont comment on the culture because I haven't been.
I've been to Vancouver and Lifeshadower already mentioned it's a recent phenomenon but it's taken root to Vancouver's culture and continues to.
Vancouver may have the raw numbers but when it comes to influence being ingrained into mainstream culture, Honolulu wins.
I mean, this is the type of stuff you find when you walk into a 7-eleven in Honolulu-
I wish the 7-11's here sold SPAM Musubi, I love that stuff. Even the McDonald's offer Portuguese Sausage, Rice, and eggs on their breakfast menu.
People always talk about SF, LA, NY and to a lesser extent Seattle/Vancouver when it comes to Asians but outside of ethnic enclaves and certain areas they are not very Asian. In Honolulu and Hawaii in general it's EVERYWHERE.
(I'm seriously thinking of going somewhere and getting SPAM Musubi for lunch now after looking at that pic haha)
Numbers? Have you even seen the numbers yourself or are you just lumping every Asian under the same wing?
I've thought of Honolulu having a large Saudi, Pakistani, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan, Kazakstani, Afghan, or Indian population and the census agrees with me because it does not.
So all Asians are the same to you?
Vancouver, BC and a lot of the suburbs is mostly dominated by Chinese(and a good number of those were from Hong Kong)--other than that there's sizable South Indian population in the metro and Filipinos and smaller numbers of Japanese and Koreans and Southeast Asians. So making the claim that Vancouver is somehow more diverse in terms of Asian ethnicities when it's mostly dominated by either Chinese--and in Surrey, mostly Indians, isn't entirely true.
In part I think though when people say Asian--and maybe the OP meant this--they're often referring to East Asian or Southeast Asia populations--which culturally are different but have similarities throughout the region(along with the common influence of China on Southeast Asia or Japan and Korea throughout history). Might be a bit of a misnomer--and the continent of Asia is so huge and diverse that saying Asian doesn't really mean much. A Turk or Israeli or Armenian has little to do with someone from Korea or Indonesia, though technically they're all from Asia. There's not a large Arab or Turkish presence in Vancouver--but that doesn't really change the fact that it's considered a very Asian area due to the huge Chinese and South Asian populations.
I think though that some of us are trying to get at the fact that historically, the East Asian influence--combined with the Pacific Islander culture(which in part has roots in parts of Asia) goes back much further in Honolulu and Hawaii and thus the local culture is much more rooted in East Asia, than Vancouver. Vancouver reminds me more of San Francisco--where you have a huge Chinese population that's grown from roots in the 19th Century, to become a huge part of the city and metro, but on the other hand you also have a liberal white population that makes up a good portion of the city.
In Honolulu on the other hand, whites are just another minority group--there's a reason why some East Asians in Hawaii can get away with calling whites the Hawaiian term "Haole", because they've got the numbers in their favor. But even among the white people I've known from Hawaii(some of whom actually might be part Asian in their family tree at some point as well)--when they demonstrate what they consider to be local Hawaiian cuisine or culture--over 75% of the time they are going to reference something or a food with roots in Asia.
In the end both Vancouver and Honolulu each have a lot of Asian influence--it's just that a lot of Hawaii's culture is basically built from the ground up on the culture of the Asian immigrants going back to the original plantation workers in the early 19th Century. I think a lot of people don't realize though, that Hawaii was very diverse(they had a lot of even Portuguese and Puerto Rican immigrants in the early 20th Century, with Portuguese contributing the ukulele to local culture and mixing heavily with the Chinese) long before many other places in the US were. In fact because of the Asian majority in Hawaii in the 1950s, there was a lot of fear from the US Senate(and Southern lawmakers in particular) that Hawaii would end up electing Asian officials or senators once they achieved statehood and had democratic elections rather than just being a territory of the US--which is why Hawaii had to wait until 1959 to achieve statehood.
Vancouver, BC and a lot of the suburbs is mostly dominated by Chinese(and a good number of those were from Hong Kong)--other than that there's sizable South Indian population in the metro and Filipinos and smaller numbers of Japanese and Koreans and Southeast Asians. So making the claim that Vancouver is somehow more diverse in terms of Asian ethnicities when it's mostly dominated by either Chinese--and in Surrey, mostly Indians, isn't entirely true.
Even though i'm well aware of Vancouver's asian past i'd still argue that it's a very very young community compared with Honolulu. The bulk of Vancouver's movers and shakers trickled in from Hong Kong and most of the really affluent families came in pretty recently. Plus Vancouver is very ethnocentric in many ways. Asian groups still live and do business primarily with their own ethnic group. There hasn't been that melding of asian culture(s) to come up with something unique like Hawaii.
Even though i'm well aware of Vancouver's asian past i'd still argue that it's a very very young community compared with Honolulu. The bulk of Vancouver's movers and shakers trickled in from Hong Kong and most of the really affluent families came in pretty recently. Plus Vancouver is very ethnocentric in many ways. Asian groups still live and do business primarily with their own ethnic group. There hasn't been that melding of asian culture(s) to come up with something unique like Hawaii.
Yeah, Vancouver got a huge influx of Hong Kong Chinese through the 80s and 90s(and later Taiwanese). I remember driving through the westside of Vancouver as a kid/teenager on vacation with my dad and you could tell which homes were owned by wealthy Chinese immigrants--as they would often buy a house and tear down the existing earlier 20th Century property and build a much larger new house on the lot in accordance with the principles of Feng Shui.
Recently though, I've read that Vancouver has a large number of mainland Chinese immigrating there or buying property. That's another thing about Vancouver--is that a lot of foreign nationals including a lot of Chinese buy real estate there(either for investment or for a second home)--while they might still live most of the time in Asia. It's a very fluid international community. To really experience the Vancouver Chinese community, you've got to go to the suburbs like Richmond and visit the huge Chinese malls like Aberdeen. Or go to the Richmond Night Market--which has a little more mix of other East Asian ethnicities. The urban Chinatown in Vancouver on the other hand might have some older people or some more recent immigrants living there--but's it's decidely old fashioned and more for tourists in some ways.
(I'm seriously thinking of going somewhere and getting SPAM Musubi for lunch now after looking at that pic haha)
If I only could eat spam
Hawaiian food is legit. If California fusion cuisine could ever reach the tastiness of Hawaiian food, I'd be eating California fusion WAY more often. Sort of wish we had more than L&L, Ohono, or other Hawaiian BBQ chains here. Much of the way Hawaiian cuisine developed was because of the plantation culture that existed there: the practice of using spoon & fork for rice dishes (Filipino), use of spam (indigenous Hawaiian), use of sausages (Portuguese), use of seaweed and raw meat (Japanese), use of BBQ items (Korean), etc. all mix together to create one tasty cuisine.
British Columbia, on the other hand.. and there are plenty of good sushi places in Vancouver (I can name a few places along Burrard and along Granville), and of course the Chinese food is legitimately good (surprisingly, more than just good Cantonese food). Vietnamese, Filipino, and Korean options are MUCH better in Seattle, IMO, which is why you see plenty of "Beautiful British Columbia" license plates at Vietnamese, Filipino, or Korean restaurants/grocers/etc in some dumpy little area like Tukwila or Federal Way. There really isn't a "White Canadian cuisine" per se that differs that much from general American cuisine, except for poutine, which really isn't found in BC anyways.
Since I already went over Honolulu, the Vancouver area's Asian veneer is much more mute. People generally don't acculturate to whatever "Asian" culture there is in Vancouver, but rather the Asians there acculturate to general White Canadian culture there is, including the misuse of the letter "o" and even sometimes adding "eh" at the end of every sentence. Heck, the Asian kids I know from there even go overboard, as the non-Asians I know from Van actually speak English much like Californians speak English. I even know more Californians who sound more Canadian than they do! This more or less has to do with the period of when the Asian population in Vancouver started to develop (as in the last 30 years).
In Honolulu, I feel its the other way around: the non-Asians/Pacific Islanders have to acculturate to the fusion Hawaiian culture more than the Asians/PIs there acculturate to general American culture. As in, people taking off their shoes before entering houses, learning to speak Pidgin, learning local Hawaiian slang, etc.
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I don't think the numbers agree with you.
