Post #751502 by creativenative on Thu, Sep 24, 2015 10:45 PM

I don’t like contention, contention is not in my nature nor in my culture (ironically Hawaiians were once a partly fierce warrior society but always respected visitors) so I’m trying to keep this conversation as a learning experience not one of debate. I personally have learned a lot by reading TC for years. I have learned here and in life and in school that, like many aspects of American culture, things evolve. Here, the evolution or devolution from mid-century popular Polynesian / tiki culture and to the new Poly Pop / tiki revival is taking place right before our eyes on this website. This is the new computer age where this can happen. A lot of dialog about the appropriateness of the limbo, parrots, fez hats, rockabilly, and leopard prints have had healthy and constructive debates here in these forums. I believe the mid-century tiki movement was an historical fact and happily there are some members in TC that lived through it and many of us has experienced that movement indirectly. I also know there was a pre-tiki movement in America, definitely since 1915. In all these cases and time periods it has been documented that these movements were based on the love and respect of the Polynesian and other Oceanic cultures. From the early experiences from prolific American popular novelist, early silent classic filmmakers, fortunate travelers, and later WWII returning soldiers and jet-age tourist, generally have admired the peoples and cultures of the Pacific and it’s known hospitality towards them. For many, as soon as these various visitors returned home, they wanted in some way to keep these memories going, even with their limited resources, means and knowledge. This is the innocent naivety one refers to in mid-century tiki. But good intentions were there as well as the shared love and respect for each other. No one should make the mistake that the Western tiki culture does not have anything to do with respecting cultures especially the cultures it emulates.

I would also say that politics of any kind should not have anything to do with tiki. This is, as we say in Hawaii, a “hang loose” movement, a true escape to paradise experience. Leaving the 9 to 5 western rat race behind and there is no better place to do it but in a Pacific Island atmosphere. Some have experienced it first-hand and other want to, but all can experience it in their nearby bar, restaurant or even bowling alley. With a unique mix of Latin/Polynesian/African music in the background, fair hosts and hostesses in sexy sarongs and lava lavas, drinks based on Caribbean rums, no windows to keep the outside out, Cantonese food, colorfully lit tiki images, palm fronds, small trickling waters features and an Oceanic cultural mix décor, no one mixes the exotic and erotic better than Polynesia. I get it, as a Pacific Island native, I respect it as a true American mid-century pop culture experience and history and as stated earlier I am flattered. The newer and current generation is trying to revive this American movement (which of course has spread across the world) and I am still flattered. It tickles me that currently tiki bars and restaurants are a huge hit in the conservative mid-east. Unfortunately the younger island generation are confused, they a border on anger and being insulted but they don’t know the history and the original intentions of these movements. The new generation westerners need to know this background also, there IS respect to these Oceanic cultures but at the same time the naivety and innocence is not an excuse any more. Enjoy yourselves but evolve, make your quasi Polynesian experience memorable, correct past mistakes and don’t make new ones. You have the resources you have the knowledge. Political correctness has nothing to do with politics but has everything to do with mutual respect for each other.

As for me, I’m planning to be sitting in Damon’s mid-October with some Hawaiian cousins from L.A. and New York City and I can’t wait to be there to absorb in all its tiki atmosphere...despite the damn little monkeys. Sorry for the dissertation.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2015-09-24 23:40 ]