Asian feel in Hawaii? (live in, food, rating)

[Trebaruna]

Hello,

I was recently offered a job in Hawaii. I don't know much about Hawaii, I was wondering how noticeable is Asian presence there. For instance, I live in SoCal where the Mexican feel is extremely noticeable in everyday life even if you do not have any link to that culture. I was wondering if the same applies to Hawaii for Asians. Note that whether it is or not is not a bad thing, I'm just asking out of curiosity.

[hotzcatz]

Which sort of Asian? In Hawaii we have more than just 'Asians', we have Japanese, Chinese, Okinawan, Korean, etc. Now, however, for the Caucasians, they're generally all lumped into one group with no real distinction between Russians, English, French, etc. Except for Portuguese, they're kept separate for some reason.

As for how prevalent they are, that depends on where on which island. As you can expect, there's a lot of Chinese folks in Chinatown. We have loads of Japanese visitors as well as folks who live here so there's frequently things written in kanji in areas frequented by tourists. Being able to speak Japanese or Chinese will help you get a job in the tourist industry.

We also have a lot of Pacific Islanders of lots of different varieties. There's a whole lot of different folks here, I don't think we have a majority of any one type.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by Trebaruna

Hello,

I was wondering how noticeable is Asian presence there. For instance, I live in SoCal where the Mexican feel is extremely noticeable in everyday life even if you do not have any link to that culture. I was wondering if the same applies to Hawaii for Asians.

Yes.

[Tiger Beer]

It's one of the many endearing attributes of Hawaii.

it also comes with some fantastic food choices, and some fantastic food fusion choices!

Filipinos and Japanese would be the two largest Asian population numbers....but plenty of mixes, and the entire spectrum of all the other Asian ethnicities too.

[rya96797]

You will find a “mixed plate” of ethnic groups in Hawaii; 38.6% of Hawaii's population is Asian, 24.7% is White, 10% is Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders, 8.9% is Hispanic, 1.6% is Black or African American, 0.3% is American Indian and Alaska Native, and 23.6% of all Hawaii residents are of multi-ethnic ...


One race 952,194 78.6
White
294,102 24.3
Black or African American
22,003 1.8
American Indian and Alaska Native
3,535 0.3
Asian
503,868 41.6
Asian Indian
1,441 0.1
Chinese
56,600 4.7
Filipino
170,635 14.1
Japanese
201,764 16.7
Korean
23,537 1.9
Vietnamese
7,867 0.6
Other Asian 1
42,024 3.5
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
113,539 9.4
Native Hawaiian
80,137 6.6
Guamanian or Chamorro
1,663 0.1
Samoan
16,166 1.3
Other Pacific Islander 2
15,573 1.3
Some other race
15,147 1.3
Two or more races 259,343 21.4


-----------------------------

from google. With the highest % (but still a minority below 50%), yes hawaii will have an asian feel. The most surprising thing about the demographics is that the vast majority of people, 950k identify as one race, whereas 259k identify as mixed races. I thought we would have more mixed races here.

[hotzcatz]

Maybe because folks group themselves by major continental ethnicity so that a Russian/English mix will still consider themselves 'haole'? (Caucasian is longer to spell, but what with explaining haole, I had to spell it anyways, huh?) Or that a Filipino/Japanese will still just consider themselves 'Asian'?

[Trebaruna]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Which sort of Asian? In Hawaii we have more than just 'Asians', we have Japanese, Chinese, Okinawan, Korean, etc. Now, however, for the Caucasians, they're generally all lumped into one group with no real distinction between Russians, English, French, etc. Except for Portuguese, they're kept separate for some reason.

Interesting. I had no idea Hawaii enjoy such a wide range diversity for a small territory How are the inter-ethnic relationships?

[Mikala43]

Originally Posted by Trebaruna

Interesting. I had no idea Hawaii enjoy such a wide range diversity for a small territory How are the inter-ethnic relationships?

For the most part it's great. Most local comediennes riff on the stereotypes and it's common to tease each other about them too.

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by Trebaruna

Interesting. I had no idea Hawaii enjoy such a wide range diversity for a small territory How are the inter-ethnic relationships?

They get along great. Which is where we get the 24.1% of folks claiming more than one race.

We just had Kamehameha Day, which is a Hawaiian holiday we have celebrating King Kamehameha. We're also at the start of Obon season which is a variety of Japanese Dances held at local Buddhist temples. Everyone goes, you don't have to be either Japanese or Buddhist. Lately the Buddhists have been actively encouraging non-Asian members so they're actively inclusive. Anyway, Obon is a celebration of the folks who have gone on before and the whole community shows up for them. Food, taiko drums, traditional Japanese circle dances that everyone can join.

There's also big Korean and Filipino festivals periodically. The haoles don't seem to throw as many parties, though. Maybe it's because they're a variety of ethnicities lumped together and aren't sure exactly which one they'd use as their party theme. Although there's a big Scottish (or is it Irish?) festival on Oahu every year.

There's some stereotyping, although most of it is positive and most of it is hoe to take into consideration the best way to be friends with folks of the particular ethnicity. Learn how to say 'good morning' in a variety of languages and you'll get good use of most of them when you live in Hawaii.

[blau808]

We are the only majority minority state. I also lived in SoCal but now live in Hawaii. The difference maybe is that there is lots of Spanish speaking going on in SoCal because of the large Latino population. In Hawaii mostly everyone speaks English regardless of ethnicity, although sometimes broken.