► 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

     

► Pele, The Fashionable

 The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Friday, December 4, 1959 - Clarice B. Taylor's "Tales about Hawaii"

     Today, Pele is called "the woman in red"  and she is pictured in an flaming red holoku.

     It is not always so. Pele keeps up with fashion.

     In very ancient days, she was thought of as a beautiful young woman clothed in a cloud of steam or just a fluffy white cloud.

     In the books of Pele legends published during the last century, Pele was often pictured as a young woman in a split ti-leaf skirt. At the same time, the text of the legends said Pele was dressed in Kapa (kapa is the old beaten bark skirt).

DONS HOLOKU 
     After the missionaries dressed the Hawaiians in holokus, Pele began wearing a red silk holoku and smoked cigarettes. During that early period, Pele often asked for cigarettes.

     Another change cam over Pele at the same time. In old Hawaii, Pele was given awa as a drink offering. Awa was the drink of the gods and therefore correct for her.

     During the twentieth century, Hawaiians gave up making awa because the church taught that awa was evil. so, folks began throwing bottles of gin into the pit. Nowadays they throw any kind of liquor as an offering.

     Pele keeps up with the times. Today she rides in automobiles and on street cars.

     She likes tailored cigarettes and no longer rolls her own or smokes a small ivory pipe.

     The modern Pele has problems the old Pele never knew. Each time she makes an appearance to let people know that she plans letting loose her lava flow, moderns makes new legends.

     For instance, moderns have the impression that Pele's appearance to a particular person means death to that person. Such folklore has grown out of old legends which tell of the destruction of those who refuse food or  tobacco.

     Pele often find modern visitors are a curse.  She particularly dislikes those who clutter her domain with filthy wrapping papers and old sacks.

BELCH FUMES
     Her only defense is to kick up her heels and spray such people with drops of hot lava or belch strong fumes.

     She has a more successful way of dealing with those who take rocks and cooled lava from her without permission of saying "thank you." During the Puna flow, she was pestered with visitors who tore chunks of cooled lava from her and took the pahoehoe home.

     Pele's revenge is to strike the individual, or someone close, with a crippling illness.

     If you would to escape injury, speak to Pele under your breath and tell her that you want some of her hair or her cooled lava. Be sure to thank her for it.

NEXT: Pele's boy friends