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Film, Video Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawaii

Event video

Transcript: TEXT

About this Item

Title

  • Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawaii

Summary

  • Drawing on research for his recent book, "Voices from the Canefields," author Franklin Odo situates over two hundred songs of Japanese immigrant workers in Hawaii, in translation, in a hitherto largely unexplored historical context. According to Odo, folk songs are short stories from the souls of common people. Some,like Mexican corridos or Scottish ballads reworked in the Appalachians, are stories of tragic or heroic episodes. Others, like the African American blues, reach from a difficult present back into slavery and forward into a troubled future. Japanese workers on Hawaii's plantations created their own versions, in form more akin to their traditional tanka or haiku poetry. These holehole bushi describe the experiences of one particular group caught in the global movements of capital, empire, and labor during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Names

  • Library of Congress
  • American Folklife Center, sponsoring body

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 2013-09-20.

Headings

  • -  Culture, Folklife
  • -  Culture, Performing Arts

Notes

  • -  Classification: Social Sciences.
  • -  Franklin Odo.
  • -  Recorded on 2013-09-20.
  • -  Researchers.
  • -  Teachers.

Medium

  • 1 online resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021689218

Online Format

  • video
  • image
  • online text

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body American Folklife Center. Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawaii. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -09-20, 2013. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021689218/.

APA citation style:

Library Of Congress & American Folklife Center, S. B. (2013) Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawaii. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -09-20. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021689218/.

MLA citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body American Folklife Center. Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawaii. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -09-20, 2013. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021689218/>.