A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

the Hawaiian situation and as an obvious link to mainland concerns and discussions about
representation and responsibility within the multiethnic Asian American community.
Local Asian literature is often read (if at all) as a subset of Asian American
literature. The Association of Asian American Studies (AAAS) gave its literature award
to Wing Tek Lum in 1988, Darrell Lum in 1990, Gary Pak in 1993, and Lois-Ann
Yamanaka in 1994. Their texts, among others, are included in mainland anthologies, but
receive little critical attention. Candace Fujikane thinks that this is due to Asian
Americanists’ unfamiliarity “with specific political struggles in Hawai’i, and their relative
silence regarding local literature is symptomatic of the difficulty of ‘fitting’ local
literature into the political frameworks used to analyze Asian American literature.” 428
When Yamanaka was presented with the award for her first book, Saturday Night at the
Pahala Theatre, members of Hawaii’s Filipino community were offended by the book’s
alleged stereotyping of Filipino men as sexually aberrant and violent. In 1997, when
Yamanaka’s novel Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers had been nominated for the same
award, the Filipino American Studies Caucus and others raised objections based on their
concerns about the first book and her newly released novel, Blu’s Hanging. The board
decided to issue no prize that year. In 1998, after new bylaws had separated board and
book award committees, the latter decided to award the price to the controversial Blu’s
Hanging. After much contestation, the award was rescinded and both current and
incoming boards of the AAAS resigned. 429
What offended Filipinos (and others) in Yamanaka’s first book is epitomized by
its opening piece “Kala Gave Me Anykine Advice Especially About Filipinos When I
Moved To Pahala:”
No whistle in the dark
or you call the Filipino man
from the old folks home across your house
who peek at you already from behind
the marungay tree, the long beans
in front of his face […]
428 Fujikane 1996: 65.
429 For a more detailed chronology see Candace Fujikane, “Sweeping Racism under the Rug of
‘Censorship:’ The Controversy over Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Blu’s Hanging,” in Amerasia 26 No. 2 (2000):
158-94. Stephen Sumida later became president of the reinstated AAAS.
165