Hawaiian culture in the 21st century is as it has been for 200-plus years: a cultural blend, less a melting pot than a pupu platter where everything can sit side-by-side in comfortable accommodation.

Throughout the islands, each year is full of celebrations and events that have cultural roots. Some, like the Chinese New Year, we all hear about. Others are private affairs that we only encounter if we are friends of the people involved. Funerals and weddings reflective of the ethnic traditions of a given family are good examples.

If we don't understand something of the rituals and rites, we can appear insensitive or make embarrassing mistakes. Even more commonly, by not knowing the context or content of family traditions, we simply miss out on the richness and importance of the celebrations.

Joan Namkoong's book, Family Traditions in Hawai'i, attempts to address our ignorance and prepare us for understanding and enjoying the wealth of cultural traditions that surround us. I say "attempts" because the result, while very welcome and well-presented, is uneven.

In some areas, Namkoong is thorough and provides excellent information. In other areas, the information is very brief or a little hard to find. (The index is a good answer in some cases.) However, like the girl in the nursery rhyme, "when she is good, she is very, very good." If you're confused by all the special foods and decorations that surround the New Year's celebrations in Hawai'i, or you wish you understood the various remembrances of the dead celebrated by different cultural groups, you'll be at ease after reading this book.

Even when Namkoong's book could be called weak, she gives you enough language and background. So you'll be able to ask a Laotian or Samoan friend to fill you in while already showing a proper respect for the ritual or belief in question.

If you want to live an authentically modern-Hawaiian life, you need this book. Fortunately, it is also attractive, well-illustrated and written in a pleasant voice. Your need for the information, then, is very enjoyably satisfied.
With considerable vision and a lively, concise approach Joan Clarke (Namkoong) - a free-lance writer who also happens to be the Advertiser's food editor - has given readers in Hawaii an invaluable guide to local life.

"Family Traditions in Hawaii" is the work of the best kind of cultural observer, one who is genuinely interested in people's self-identification" in various groups and who writes without any obtrusive editorial bias about cultural motivation. Readers begin to feel, as we take in her observations that she herself has certainly offered money as koden at a Japanese funeral or watched a Tongan bride and groom, wrapped at the waist in fine matting ta'ovala, pledge their marriage vows.

Attractively designed by Suzanne Yuu, with photos by Mike Uno, this book has a solid index and handy information about sources as well.

Clarke (Namkoong) consistently tells us exactly what a given group does at significant culturally prescribed events, as well as why they feel that the actions are vital by their own reasoning. In short, we get an abbreviated history, a simple breakdown of key terms, symbolic actions, and descriptions of essential foods and items. We also explore ritual behavior such as grieving at a funeral and the exchange of goods in a marriage.

We learn of the eloquence of a broken half of a comb, signifying one half of the branches of the life, kept by a surviving spouse at a Chinese Taoist funeral or the role of the hiapo or first-born child within the Hawaiian ohana.

None of the ethnic groups is short-changed by such definitions. Neither are we bogged down by a burdensome amount of unnecessary academic information or by a weighty glossary with would only serve to treat a given culture as unrecognizable foreign. Clarke (Namkoong) understands what it means to be a hyphenated American. She shares the view we most often do in Hawaii, after four generations of legal intermarriage, that every ethnic group deserves to be awarded dignity.

Clarke (Namkoong) also treats gender and religious differences with a fair hand. The only possible complaint might come from a group miffed by its omission from this volume, although Clarke (Namkoong) has made clear that only the most populous non-main-stream groups have been included.

Emphasizing above all our shared humanity, this writer looks for commonalities amongst groups at the same time that she gracefully differentiates between them, using straightforward commentary on the various ways in which to say, Vietnamese and Laotians might do the same things with various results.

On the other hand, she points out similarities in celebrations for the New Year, claimed by a host of cultures as a time to feast on traditional and symbolic foods, ritually clean the house, maintain family ties with reunions, complete business personal matters, and ensure good luck and good health for the year ahead. The ubiquitous use of ti leaves, salt for purification and pork also gets special attention for commonality.
Repeatedly emphasizing the uniqueness of the Hawaiian experience upon culture, Clarke (Namkoong) points out how local Japanese for example, may seem frozen in a time warp when viewed by Japanese nationals who question local toasts which start with "Bonzai! a meiji-era usage, instead of the modern Kampai!

Clarke (Namkoong) presents cultural vignettes in a practical spirit as concrete answers to everyday questions. Most of us residents of the most multicultural of states have inevitable experienced questions about other cultures. She gives us a helpful picture of each group that might serve as a guideline for our attendance at a typical special event such as a birthday party or a wedding or a funeral. WE are told what people usually wear, what food to expect, what activities will probably take place, how long the event may last, and what sort of gift to offer.

In order to keep harmonious relationships with others from backgrounds differing from our own, we need to respect their ways. Respect comes from knowledge. Beautifully illustrated with colorful photography throughout, Familty Traditions in Hawai'i is a basic primer concerning birthday, marriage, funeral and cultural customs in Hawai'i. Covering a wide range of ethnic groups - Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese/Okinawan, Korean, Filipino, Samoan, Tongan, Vietnamese, and Laotian - Familty Traditions in Hawaii offers succinct summaries of different worldviews and practices, and the occasional wry comment on how mixed marriages may deal with clashing traditions. Although Family Traditions in Hawai'i is brief, it is a superb and fascinating introduction for non-specialist general readers to the richness and variety of ways in which the people of Hawai'i celebrate and commemorate live.