Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire

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Note on Language ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction. Aloha America 1
1. Lady Jane at the Boathouse: The Intercultural World of Hula 29
2. Modern Desires and Counter-Colonial Tactics: Gender, Performance, and the Erotics of Empire 59
3. Impresarios on the Midway: World's Fairs and Colonial Politics 103
4. "Hula Queens" and "Cinderella": Imagined Intimacy in the Empire 153
5. The Troupes Meet the Troops: Imperial Hospitality and Military Photography in the Pacific Theater 213
Epilogue. New Hula Movements 255
Chronology. Hawai'i Exhibits at International Expositions, 1894-1915 269
Abbreviations of Collections, Libraries, and Archives 271
Notes 273
Glossary 337
Bibliography 339
Index 357

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Aloha America reveals the role of hula in legitimating U.S. imperial ambitions in Hawai'i. Hula performers began touring throughout the continental United States and Europe in the late nineteenth century. These "hula circuits" introduced hula, and Hawaiians, to U.S. audiences, establishing an "imagined intimacy," a powerful fantasy that enabled Americans to possess their colony physically and symbolically. Meanwhile, in the early years of American imperialism in the Pacific, touring hula performers incorporated veiled critiques of U.S. expansionism into their productions.

At vaudeville theaters, international expositions, commercial nightclubs, and military bases, Hawaiian women acted as ambassadors of aloha, enabling Americans to imagine Hawai'i as feminine and benign, and the relation between colonizer and colonized as mutually desired. By the 1930s, Hawaiian culture, particularly its music and hula, had enormous promotional value. In the 1940s, thousands of U.S. soldiers and military personnel in Hawai'i were entertained by hula performances, many of which were filmed by military photographers. Yet, as Adria L. Imada shows, Hawaiians also used hula as a means of cultural survival and countercolonial political praxis. In Aloha America, Imada focuses on the years between the 1890s and the 1960s, examining little-known performances and films before turning to the present-day reappropriation of hula by the Hawaiian self-determination movement.

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[An] extensively researched history. . . . Archival digs brought Imada into contact with surviving dancers and their families, whose stories she wove with her own experiences to produce a comprehensive account of how the "adaptive and resilient practice" of hula works in conjunction with tourism. . . .Fascinating photographs of the dancers-with careful commentary on poses and dress-illuminate the mannerisms and views of the performers

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