The Creative Media Practice of Telling Stories of Food：Cookbook Production and Andagi Creation by the Okinawan Community in Hawaiʻi

Abstract

    Andagi, also known as the Okinawan doughnut, is a popular local food unique to Hawai’i. Although the original andagi is the Okinawan traditional pastry sata andagi, it is called andagi in Hawai’i, and its flavor is localized. This study examines the food culture creation process based on the movement of people, goods, and information due to globalization. Accordingly, I conduct a case study of the creative media practice of independent cookbook production by a women’s group that contributed to the formation of food culture in the Okinawan community in Hawai’i. Specifically, I focused on four books on cooking and culture made by the group members. I examined how their design and form transformed, and in doing so, I highlighted each book’s meaning and function, as well as how andagi was told and created. Cookbook editing and production uncovered and promoted a unique Okinawan food culture in conventional home cooking by sharing recipes. This, in turn, contributed to the establishment of an Okinawan food culture in Hawai’i. Andagi was positioned as a symbolic food in Okinawan culture, which yielded a unique Hawai’i-style andagi standard. Andagi is not just a local food but also an ethnic food created based on the daily lives and the creative media practice of the Okinawan people in Hawai’i, who, despite the discrimination they faced as immigrants from Okinawa, always valued a tightly knit and helpful community, remained grateful for their families, and lived with pride in their Okinawan identity.