Individual Post #1: Correlations of Soundscapes and Capitalism

How might paying attention to sound/soundscapes help us think about all of the ways that capitalism destroys our relationships to each other, as well as about how people continue to form new relationships with each other? Think about this question by engaging Goffe’s concept of extra-coloniality. How might our understanding of Honolulu’s Chinatown change if we engaged this question of sound?

The example of the relationship between Jamaican and Chinese culture is a clear example of how capitalist colonialism affected different cultures and nations. In the case of these two merging cultures, They began intertwining with one another through sound and instrumentation. According to Goffe: “…many people of Chinese descent were instrumental to modern Jamaican music, both as performers in front of the microphone and behind the scenes in the recording booth.” (5) At first, it was a simple recipe for economic and social success. Chinese shops became a place where the two communities could come together. Chinese shop owners were able to hold a place and time for Jamaicans to bring music to a bigger social environment. However, this relationship soon began to fall apart.

Despite this initial relationship, the social status of Chinese people began to plunge. According to Goffe: “At times the Chinese community has been negatively portrayed as forming a monopoly in small retail…” (2) This shows us how capitalism can destroy nations, and lead to unending tension amongst different cultures. With this economic and social relationship coming to a steady end, the tension between each other grew far worse over time. Jamaicans’ reputations among the Chinese and White communities were tarnished, and more derogatory terms were used against each other, furthermore separating each other, and created a social barrier from one another.

This kind of economic and social disaster can also be applied to Honolulu’s Chinatown as well. In this case, the transition from a kingdom like nation, to a full state. According to Saranillio: “…nations rely, at a symbolic level, on the existence of a “primitive” people to assert its national difference from other nations and the perception of itself as a “modern” nation…” (6) For the case of Honolulu’s Chinatown, many asian communities were held back socially, and didn’t have the same freedoms as everyone else. Hawaiian natives were already being demoted socially by white settlers, and when more Asian communities settled in Hawaii, discourse continued and grew.

The ongoing and popularity of stereotypes given to native Hawaiians shows us how white colonial groups use minorities against each other. White settlers were able to manipulate both communities, Hawaiian natives, and Asian communities, all to reap more land and for economic gain. There are a lot of similarities in both the Jamaican Soundscapes and Honolulu’s Chinatown, in White settlers were able to manipulate two different minorities and pit them against each other, all for economic gain.

In both scenarios, Chinese communities were able to begin making a name for themselves. Not only socially, but economically as well. When it comes to economic gain, we can see from both scenarios that once you are able to make a socio-economic presence, it can make you a target for White colonialism and capitalist greed. Honolulu’s Chinatown is a black and white example of how White capitalism and the soundscapes that come with it create discourse between minorities. Which in turn creates a distraction from uniting together to fight the true enemy.