| This dissertation examines the construction of Chinese American identity in Hawai'i as displayed through the longest-running public Chinese American festival and beauty contest in the United States, the Narcissus Festival and Narcissus Queen Pageant. I address such questions as (1) How does the Festival represent the Chinese American community in Hawai'i? (2) What roles do Chinese American women play in identity construction? and (3) How is the Chinese American identity defined in the Festival?; In answering these questions, I draw upon scholarship in women's and gender studies, ethnic and diaspora studies, performance analysis, sociology of the body, the political economy and international politics in Hawai'i. Through multi-site, multi-media, and multi-language ethnographic and historical research, I argue that the self-representation in the ethnic festival reveals an intricate relationship between perception and self-perception, performing for others and for the ethnic community, gaze and returned gaze, cultural exploitation and cultural preservation, and tradition and invention.; I contend that Americanness and Chineseness both went through the process of creolization and localization in Hawai'i. Their meanings are defined interactively and are simultaneously defined by the indigenous culture and people of Hawai'i. The mainstream definition of Americanness in Hawai'i changed from "whiteness" in the earlier twentieth century to "assimilation" in the mid-twentieth century and then to "ethnic diversity" in late-twentieth century. The meaning of Chineseness experienced five stages of change: invisibility and non-assimilation in the 1910s, Americanization in the 1930s, exoticization in the 1950s--1960s, Pan-ethnicization in the 1970s, and "American multiculturalism" in the 1990s.; My study foregrounds gender in the construction of ethnicity and emphasizes the subjectivity of Chinese American women in the Festival. I explain why the Pageant evolved in the Festival, from being a supporting program, to becoming a major attraction, and to replacing the Festival, over the past 56 years. I also delineate how, under the influence of the Cold War femininity, feminism, and post-feminism, women had different motivations to join the ethnic beauty contest and projected different public images as Chinese beauty queens. My dissertation contributes a Pacific perspective to the study of gendered ethnic identity in the United States. |
