Who Is “Japanese” in Hawai'i?
The Discursive Construction of Ethnic Identity
Applying a discursive approach to categories, this chapter examines video data which is extracted from the discussion section of a panel presentation titled “Japanese American Contemporary Experiences in Hawai'i,” which took place at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i in 2003. It specifically investigates how participants who are often categorized as Japanese or Japanese Americans in Hawai'i use a variety of categories or references to themselves and others and how their orientation to the meaning of categories may instantiate their (subcategories of) ethnicity. My analysis is mainly concerned with how they deploy emergent categories to interactively position themselves and co‐participants, constructing and negotiating “who‐we‐know‐we‐are” (Schegloff 1972) at the moment of interaction.
Keywords: category, discursive analysis, ethnic identity, ethnicity, Japanese American, Japanese
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