Transnational Identity and Mortuary Material Culture: The Chinese Plantation Cemetery in Pāhala, Hawai’i

Historical Archaeologies of the American West

“…The cross-cultural comparisons of Japanese and Chinese salmon cannery workers (Ross 2011) is one example among a growing field dedicated to fleshing out the distinctions between Chinese and Japanese identities and communities, as these and other Asian immigrants moved into the North American West. Such studies are well underway, with transnational political interpretations of ethnic (i.e., national) identity on gravestones associated with a Japanese plantation worker cemetery in Pāhala, Hawai'i (Kraus-Friedberg 2011), as well as transnational identity and mortuary material culture associated with the Chinese plantation worker cemetery in Pāhala, Hawai'i (Kraus-Friedberg 2008). Bringing 20th-century archaeology into focus, recent research at Japanese internment camps is providing avenues to better understand WWII-era social and cultural issues (Kamp-Whittaker 2010;Shew 2010;Skiles and Clark 2010).…”

Creating a Diasporic Archaeology of Chinese Migration: Tentative Steps Across Four Continents

“…A growing number of historical archaeologists are approaching the archaeology of this group in new ways, including the investigation of feminizing discourses in nineteenth-century California (Williams 2008), challenges to tropic representations of Chinese immigrants as feminine and passive (Baxter 2008), and the use of transnational perspectives (Kraus-Friedberg 2008). This recent trend conceptualizes Chinese migrants as heterogeneous with multifaceted identities across class, gender, and racial axes.…”

Digging For Success: A proposed strategic plan for Overseas Chinese archaeological research in Australia

“…This approach has allowed for research on ethnicity (Lydon, 1999;Mullins, 2008;Smith, 2003), identity (Kraus-Friedberg, 2008;Kuo, 2013;Mullins, 2008) social landscapes (Baxter, 2008;Bowen, 2011;Rains, 2005) and Chinese symbolism and beliefs such as Feng Shui (Grimwade, 1992;Hunter, 2010;Mueller, 1986;Smith, 2006) although with this diverse range of approaches, there is currently no dominant discourse (Ross, 2014:5675). A detailed examination of the physical evidence of the Chinese across the landscape provides a different approach to the interpretation of Chinese migration throughout Australia, and the ability to change interpretations which are made solely on the basis of historical documentation.…”

“…While many researchers have argued about the definition of transnationalism, it is a complicated concept that requires further description but Kraus-Friedberg (2008) applies a transnational approach to defining local identity of immigrant groups at a Chinese cemetery at Pāhala, Hawai'i. Comparing archaeological research on North American Chinese cemeteries, the Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland revealed the Chinese community also preserved traditional Chinese customs and selectively adopted European and American elements into funeral rituals to maintain their transnational identity (Smits, 2008:111).…”

“…This is not a problem exclusive to Overseas Chinese studies as it can be argued that this also applies to historical archaeology generally. This covers a range of theories, for example multiscalar , diasporic (Gonzalez-Tennant, 2011) and transnational theory (Kraus-Friedberg, 2008), with the majority of these theoretical approaches applied to North American Chinese sites. examined.…”