Engaging the language, culture and politics in the Philippine homeland from the imaginations of selected Filipino-American students at the University of Hawai'i

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department/Unit

Political Science

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Asia-Pacific Social Science Review

Volume

10

Issue

1

First Page

127

Last Page

141

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Abstract

This paper critically analyzes the interplay of language, popular culture and identity in the context of the Filipino diaspora in Hawaii. This is done using the views of a selected sample of Filipino-American students enrolled in Filipino and Ilokano language classes at the University of Hawai'i during the Spring Semester of 2009; existing scholarships on the topic; and personal observation of the author. The analysis is done in the context of an "Ilokano" identity which is very much defined to a point that a significant number of Ilokanos see themselves in a position of difference, and not just a mere subset, of the larger "Filipino" identity. This view is now influenced and/or contested by the images which the youth at present encounter through language and culture classes; as well as from the globalization of culture, in which popular and local symbols in the homeland are beamed to them in real time, courtesy of TFC and Pinoy TV, as well as the internet. Furthermore, this is played amidst the backdrop of an academic setting in which the two language programs, i.e. Filipino and Ilokano, are both offered in the University of Hawai'i. The dynamics between these language programs, as well as the effects of globalized forms of new media, is analyzed for their significant impacts on how the Filipino nation is imagined from a distance even by those who have physically left the geographical boundaries of the Philippine archipelago, but who are still part of the larger global Filipino communities emerging from the diaspora. © 2010 De La Salle University, Philippines.

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Digitial Object Identifier (DOI)

10.3860/apssr.v10i1.1584

Disciplines

Political Science | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

Filipinos--Public opinion; Filipinos--Intellectual life; Ilokanos (Philippine people)--Public opinion; Ilokanos (Philippine people)--Intellectual life

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