of yesteryear. Most notably, instead of the “black Mercury” described by Jack London half a century earlier (quoted in the previous chapter),3 the California surfer was white (though tanned), ideally sporting blond hair, male, young, and slightly edgy. Whereas historically in Hawaiʻi surfing was integral to mainstream society and was celebrated as the ultimate symbol of establishment (royal) power, in California it became associated with anti- establishment play by young men. During the first half of the twentieth century in Hawaiʻi, when Alexander Hume Ford was promoting surfing among Hawaii’s white elite, the face of surfing began to change, yet it still remained a symbol of Hawaiian establishment power. In California it remained esoteric and came to symbolize a stand against midcentury conformism. Though today surfing has become mainstream in many ways, it still retains some of the rebel spirit that it gained in the mid–twentieth century.
In colonial Hawaiʻi (the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth), the typical protagonist of the emerging New Surfing beach-tourist narrative was a relatively well-heeled white man, as seen in English-language popular Hawaiian songs from the first half of the twentieth century. Though some early images promoting California beach tourism were similar to those from Hawaiʻi, important differences began to appear. In Hawaiʻi, the centuries of indigenous beachside civilization remained part of the allure, even if only in the form of the female Hawaiian hula dancer and the Waikīkī Beachboy. By contrast, in coastal California indigenous peoples and sacred sites were less visible, sometimes literally paved over.4 California’s beaches were treated as blank slates on which developers could exercise their imaginations. The Los Angeles County attractions of Venice Beach and the Pike amusement area of Long Beach exemplified manmade urban pleasures, middle-class affairs that forever teetered on the edge of respectability.5
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
