Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire
Commodified Hawaiian culture—the “luau,” the “hula girl,” and “aloha”—became part of the American vernacular and everyday life.
Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire
tours of hula performers that crisscrossed both the Atlantic and Pacific, performing for largely Euro-American
Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire
The bodies of hula performers present a curious problem: they are hypervisible in popular culture while leaving only the faintest traces in archives.
Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire
volunteer services.3
Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire
staged encounters.
Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire
soldiers and “hula girls” was valuable precisely because it was imagined: it involved no sexual intimacy.
Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire
“I wouldn't dance at home. People would be too critical, saying we used to dance for haoles. When I came home, I was embarrassed.”58
Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire
Like earlier generations of hula dancers who toured the continental United States during the colonization of the islands, performers inserted their own counter-colonial performances, desires, and tactics into militouristic scripts. They reappropriated militarized time and land according to their own interests.113 Their participation in wartime ente
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