Consuming Paradise: Fusion Cuisine, Culinary Tourism, and the Construction of Multicultural Hawai'i

Tourism in Hawai'i has long relied on cultural representations that frame the islands as a multicultural paradise, often obscuring settler colonialism and indigenous sovereignty struggles. This thesis examines how Hawai'i's fusion cuisine operates as a representational medium within tourism discourse, producing a particular "sense of the local" and further constructs the local identity within Hawai'i. In this thesis, I argue that fusion cuisine does not simply reflect cultural diversity but actively constructs an image of harmonious multiculturalism that is comfortable for tourists. This representation flattens historical differences and masks the structural inequalities rooted in settler colonialism. The thesis draws on digital ethnography and discourse analysis, including tourism websites, restaurant menus, and online food media. By focusing on food as a visual and sensory narrative, this thesis contributes to scholarship on tourism, representation, and colonialism by showing how cuisine functions as an ideological tool. It highlights how seemingly benign culinary culture practices participate in the ongoing production of colonial imaginaries.