A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

In spite of its widespread appeal in the islands, the use of pidgin in Hawaii’s literature is seen as
an implied declaration of independence from the standards imposed on Hawaii’s polyethnic culture by a
dominant one; and as can be expected, not everyone is willing to endorse such a declaration.
5.3.2 Pidgin in Literature: The Canon
In an article on Local poetry, Richard Hamasaki observed:
Stephen Sumida – And the View from the Shore 480
The origin of HCE in Hawai’i’s written literature is hazy, but HCE usage seems to
have first begun in the form of dramatic plays written by students at the University
of Hawai’i just prior to and immediately after World War Two (Hiura and Sumida
1979). From the early 1960s to the present, “pidgin theater” emerged as a viable
vehicle, primarily for locally born playwrights (Carroll 1983). The 1960s seem to
be a demarcation point for the emergence of HCE writers. 481
This would converge with the general progressive climate of that decade, and with the
demands by sociolinguists for acceptance and incorporation of the creole language.
Various writers have been exploring Local culture by employing if not focusing
on Pidgin. Trailblazers include Milton Murayama, especially his novelette All I Asking
for Is My Body, 482 bradajo with his handwritten poetry, Eric Chock as both teacher and
poet (“Tutu on da Curb”), and Darrell Lum with short stories like “Beer Can Hat” and
plays such as Oranges are Lucky. Sumida’s work provides analyses of these early texts.
Proposing a tradition modeled on Western conventions, he relegates Pidgin to a place in
what he calls Hawaii’s ‘complex idyll.’ In any case, those early writers were only
beginning to build up confidence in their language of choice. Murayama, who in All I
Asking for conscientiously reproduces four different registers (Standard English,
Hawaiian pidgin English, Standard Japanese, pidgin Japanese), mused in 1976: “It’s
staccato and refreshingly direct and clear-cut, but it’s inadequate in describing nuances or
complex ideas. It’s the minimum language of basics derived by our parents so that they
480 Sumida 1991: 103.
481 Richard Hamasaki, “Mountains in the Sea: The Emergence of Contemporary Hawaiian Poetry in
English,” Hawai’i Literature Conference. Reader’s Guide. March 12, 1994, Honolulu 1994: 32-42, here
37, quoted in Gima 1997: 31.
482 The first chapter was published as a short story in 1959. After many rejections, the whole three-part
novel was self-published by the author in 1975, and is currently available from University of Hawai’i Press.
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