Why do we classify mugs from Chinese restaurants as Tiki? - Collecting Tiki

B bigbrotiki Tiki Socialite Tiki Island, above the Silverlake Joined: Mar 25, 2002 Posts: 11621	B bigbrotiki Posted posted on Tue, Dec 18, 2012 2:01 PM On 2012-12-18 13:39, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote: Many Chinese restaurants in the 50s & 60s had Tropical & Hawaiian decor & a full tropical drink menu many of these also served drinks in mugs, and unless you where in a city with a Trader Vic's or Don the Beachcomber Tiki palace etc. it was their only exposure to a Tiki style Restaurant in much of the United States, so file under (This is Tiki) If said Chinese eateries had a Polynesian name and decor, sure - just differentiate them as perhaps not the prime example of the genre. But purely Chinese restaurants that merely served Tiki drinks and had a couple of Orchids lamps under the ceiling do not simply become "Tiki" because of a deficiency of real Tiki temples in the area - just like Buddha mugs don't become Tiki mugs because they are the only thing left on a flea market seller's table :)

On 2012-12-18 13:39, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Many Chinese restaurants in the 50s & 60s had Tropical & Hawaiian decor & a full tropical drink menu
many of these also served drinks in mugs, and unless you where in a city with a Trader Vic's or
Don the Beachcomber Tiki palace etc. it was their only exposure to a Tiki style Restaurant
in much of the United States, so file under (This is Tiki)

If said Chinese eateries had a Polynesian name and decor, sure - just differentiate them as perhaps not the prime example of the genre. But purely Chinese restaurants that merely served Tiki drinks and had a couple of Orchids lamps under the ceiling do not simply become "Tiki" because of a deficiency of real Tiki temples in the area - just like Buddha mugs don't become Tiki mugs because they are the only thing left on a flea market seller's table :)

Post #661871 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Dec 18, 2012 2:01 PM