BEYOND ETHNICITY, INTO EQUALITY

Abstract

This paper examines how the concepts of hybridity and transnationalism can be salvaged from a neo-liberal discourse of identity politics and rescued for a critical Cultural Studies project that takes into account historical materialism. Focusing on a ‘place-based notion of identity’ in the context of Hawai‘i’s diverse ethnic population, and with specific reference to the hybrid and transnational formation of a ‘local Chinese consciousness’, the paper argues that understanding the complex local Chinese identity formation in Hawai‘i requires re-conceptualizing hybridity and diasporic consciousness along the lines of Aihwa Ong's notion of ‘embedded citizenship’, Adam McKeon's emphasis on diasporic network relations, and Ien Ang's definition of hybridity as denoting ‘complicated entanglement’ and ‘togetherness-in-difference’. Applying these conceptual distinctions to a careful reading of the celebrated play, ‘A Little Bit Like You’, by local playwright Darrell Lum, the paper shows that beyond the humorous, albeit familiar, portrayal of interethnic marriage and hybrid identity in Hawai‘i, the play actually offers us invaluable insight into the complex entanglement of ethnicity and socio-economic inequality as a result of diasporic labor and network relations in the islands. In the final analysis then, this paper makes a case for a critical transnationalism that seeks to reveal, rather than conceal, economic inequality and social injustice as part of a larger intellectual commitment to an ethics of knowledge production.