► Chinese Husbands

Hawaii Star Bulletin
June 28, 1953
Clarice B. Taylor's Tales About Hawaii

Chinese Men Make, First Class Husbands

No. 12, Hidden Alii

     In the 1850's when Piianaia and Kina were raising their family of girls, Hawaiians wakened to the fact that Chinese made admirable husbands for their daughters.

     Many Hawaiians still resented a "foreigner" marrying into the family and some hoped to catch a haole husband for their marriageable daughter. Most haoles were good providers; others were spongers and beachcombers. But the haole considered himself th superior of all races and the Hawaiian took him at his own valuation. 

     Although the haole was a "catch," the Hawaiian girl knew there were many drawbacks to being the wife of a haole. She had to learn a new culture, she had to prepare three meals a day and she had to be the social equal to her husband.

GOOD PROVIDERS

     There were few Chinese in Hawaii up to 1867 so that the Hawaiians were slow in learning that the lonely Chinese was a peer among all foreigners as a husband.

     A Chines husband was a good provider. He insisted on handling all the family money, but that was a small matter since he worked steadily and always had money.

     The wife of a Chinese wore holokus of fine brocade and the children were prettily dressed in red silks and satins.

     A Chinese husband was not encumbered with a mother who interferred with a daughter in law's way of life or tried to impress the Hawaiian girl with the "right" way to be a wife and mother, Chinese style.

COOKING AND BABY TENDING

     In fact, the Chinese was so happy to have a wife and children that he happily did all the shopping, cooked the meals and fed the children. He was a "hard head" about feedingthe children good food and feeding them regularly.

     A Hawaiian wife could be gone all day attending a social or church meeting. When she came home at night, she could find her Chinese husband had fed the children, bathed them and put them to bed.

     He made no fuss about the time she spent with her Hawaiian family and friends, for he went his way socially and allowed her to go her way.

     Hawaiian babies started calling their Chinese fathers pake and the word became the common term for a Chinese. Pake is Hawaiian corruption of the Chinese word in the Canton dialect, pak-ya which means father.

Next: A Chinese Merchant

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Source: https://familysearch.org/patron/v2/TH-300-43958-0-84/dist.pdf?ctx=ArtCtxPublic