Pidgin: The Voice of Hawaiʻi

Born on sugar plantations and spoken by more than half of Hawaiʻi's population, the Pidgin language - part English, part Hawaiian, with pieces of Chinese, Japanese, and Tagalog mixed in - captures the essence of multi-ethnic Hawaiʻi. Pidgin: The Voice of Hawaiʻi profiles this working-class language from its rise from plantation jargon to a source of island identity and pride.

In the 1920s, English Standard Schools - government funded public schools that refused to admit Pidgin-speaking children - fueled anti-Pidgin, anti-Asian sentiment and left behind a legacy of shame in speaking Pidgin. Drawing on a variety of sources, including archival, academic and other expert commentary, interviews and performance to shed light on this colorful language, the documentary charts how over time, Pidgin speakers have been moved to take pride in their language.

Learn more about Pidgin: The Voice of Hawaiʻi on PIC's website: www.piccom.org/programs/pidgin-voice-hawaii

Available until September 2013 through APT.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Hawaiʻi
• Hawaii sugar plantations
• pidgin
• Pidgin
• Hawaiian Creole English
• HCE
• Pidgin language
• Hawaiian language
• Hawaiian
• Chinese
• Japanese
• Tagalog
• English
• jargon
• creole
• identity
• Korean
• cultural pride
• language
• cultural identity

[ProgressProcess]

Well, this sounds like something Russians and Chinese did in their occupied countries also. Among other: denied smaller nations speaking their own language.

So sorry to hear that you guys have had same issues with American occupation.

But I'm glad to learn about your story thanks to some informative (yet not racist) youtube video clips like this one.

(Respects from Europe.)

[keaokole1]

i think the word "pidgin" is a violation. should be known as hawaiian english. if i speak "pidgin" in hawaii, then others would speak "donkey" in america....haha

[trulychloe]

hey buggahs! 

[onipaa8oh8]

no more nothing but asian in Hawai'i now. Aue, disgusting.

[owl007]

@DrSpike666 im pretty sure you'd sound pretty retarded trying to speak for example Chinese. At least the sugar plantation workers ATTEMPTED to speak english. What have you done lately?

[DrSpike666]

Saw a documentary about it last night... It sounds fucking retarded...