We need to talk about your kitsch problem... - General Tiki

T tiki_keith Member Joined: Dec 27, 2014 Posts: 4	T tiki_keith Posted posted on Thu, May 25, 2017 1:26 PM Modern tiki culture: imagery, food, drinks, and to a lesser extent music, is pretty much entirely derivative. We all (on this forum, at least) know this. What we need to be doing is having discussions like this. What is appropriate for us to continue to use for decor, and style? Should we only use authentic south seas carvings - and if so, do the artists need to be limited to folks of island heritage? Or, should we never use authentic decor and only go with lowbrow pop art? Is there a middle ground? How can we have our tropical fantasy that riffs off many cultures and honor the cultures they're riffed from? How can we encourage representation from the cultures we're riffing from? None of the island folks I've talked to have problems with the tiki thing, but it's a (very) small sample. In the big scholarly paper Swanky linked, there's a quote from Sven saying (I'm paraphrasing) "Keep the imagery from the Polynesian triangle - nothing Mexican, nothing Asian" - but the food in traditional tiki palaces is Chinese(ish) - so much so that Chinese restaurants co-opted tiki to the extent that in the 80s, the only place to find anything remotely like a real tiki drink was either the few old palaces that remained, or your local late-night Chinese restaurant. Do we keep things as a pure homage to mid-century colonialist attitudes, with men in suits and women in coconut bras, or do we stretch out allowing our tiki lady friends to own their sexuality with burlesque, and hold classic burlesque shows at midnight at our tiki conventions with almost no references to tiki culture ('cause those burlesque performers have their own style and schwerve, which is, indeed, mid-century inspired, but not tiki)? I have no answer to these questions. But we should be asking them. The one thing that really, fully, absolutely has to stop in our community is the kneejerk "Shut up! Shut up! The cultural appropriation phrase was mentioned and now I'm going to attack you!" reaction that's overwhelming in response to any article criticizing our community's co-opting of imagery from an era where this kind of sensitivity was unimaginable. We live in a time where we, as a wider culture, are concerned with such things, and need to address them.

Modern tiki culture: imagery, food, drinks, and to a lesser extent music, is pretty much entirely derivative. We all (on this forum, at least) know this.

What we need to be doing is having discussions like this. What is appropriate for us to continue to use for decor, and style? Should we only use authentic south seas carvings - and if so, do the artists need to be limited to folks of island heritage? Or, should we never use authentic decor and only go with lowbrow pop art? Is there a middle ground?

How can we have our tropical fantasy that riffs off many cultures and honor the cultures they're riffed from?

How can we encourage representation from the cultures we're riffing from? None of the island folks I've talked to have problems with the tiki thing, but it's a (very) small sample.

In the big scholarly paper Swanky linked, there's a quote from Sven saying (I'm paraphrasing) "Keep the imagery from the Polynesian triangle - nothing Mexican, nothing Asian" - but the food in traditional tiki palaces is Chinese(ish) - so much so that Chinese restaurants co-opted tiki to the extent that in the 80s, the only place to find anything remotely like a real tiki drink was either the few old palaces that remained, or your local late-night Chinese restaurant. Do we keep things as a pure homage to mid-century colonialist attitudes, with men in suits and women in coconut bras, or do we stretch out allowing our tiki lady friends to own their sexuality with burlesque, and hold classic burlesque shows at midnight at our tiki conventions with almost no references to tiki culture ('cause those burlesque performers have their own style and schwerve, which is, indeed, mid-century inspired, but not tiki)?

I have no answer to these questions. But we should be asking them. The one thing that really, fully, absolutely has to stop in our community is the kneejerk "Shut up! Shut up! The cultural appropriation phrase was mentioned and now I'm going to attack you!" reaction that's overwhelming in response to any article criticizing our community's co-opting of imagery from an era where this kind of sensitivity was unimaginable. We live in a time where we, as a wider culture, are concerned with such things, and need to address them.

Post #776281 by tiki_keith on Thu, May 25, 2017 1:26 PM