A significant issue for Hawaiin Chinese Americans was the stark contrast between the islands and California. Due to the lack of European-based middle-class Americans on the islands, the Chinese immigrants had a golden opportunity to establish themselves culturally. Described as a "'friendly, democratic, cosmopolitan spirit,'" the Hawaiian islands differed significantly from mainland California.
Even just reading it in the text, I feel actual disgust at the ignorance exhibited by many policymakers and the other discriminating population. In a way the reactions to Japanese and even Chinese upper-end labour can be compared to modern day reactions to undocumented aliens seeking employment. But the Asian-American condition is unique in that it has its own level of what comes across in Takaki's work as childishness.
The stereotypes emerging from urban Chinese communities are largely the result of the change of environment, creating the stereotype to fit the setting. Overall hostility toward Chinese immigrants gave rise to such urban stereotypes as the evil Chinese laundryman and the wild hooligans running through the alleyways abducting children.
What effect did the original "labour colonies" have on the development of the urban Chinatowns? Without the labour colonies, would the Chinatowns even have emerged, or would the Chinese immigrants have been more evenly distributed?
Another problem that perpetuates itself: local Chinatown residents perpetuating the idea that the Chinese are evil by taking jobs to act out in front of tourists. In many ways, the low social position held by the Chinese immigrants can be attributed to the "free hand of the market."
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