Mama-San

Ever been to a strip club? No? Well no matter where in the world you go there is almost always a strip club somewhere and they all look the same. Yes, the girls may be different, but the clubs are the same. They are dark, have naked girls dancing from the sealing so to speak, big bouncers guarding the door, and lets not forget, the beer is overpriced. In Chris McKinney’s book The Tattoo, we get a real interesting insight to how a strip club is run and how the social structure of a strip club in Hawaii is. In reading the book the Strip Club Madam, Mama-san, really stands out in a fascinating, humorous and intriguing way.  Mama-san is a little Korean lady that speaks Korean-English; her little body is over accessorized in jewelry almost like a Christmas tree gone bad and the lady has a conglomerate of businesses and literally seems to “run” the Korean immigrants in Hawaii.

The business Mama-san owns all seem to be a little on the shady side of the law. It seems as though that Mama-san has it all figured out, she has the desperate military boys, confused husbands and local cops all pleasantly entertained in her little cave of a strip club making something that seems like a small fortune.

 In Hawaii you find a true mix of race and ethnicities. For immigrants from different cultures, the culture shock can be great. Leading many immigrants to seek social and emotional support in an ethnic community that they feel more familiar with.  Many immigrants also choose to seek out places to migrate to that already has people of their ethnicity and race. The migration patterns from many of the Asian countries are easily spotted here in Hawaii. In the book we see how Mama-san uses the Korean community to her own financial gain. She loans out money to Korean immigrants that want to start their own businesses. Of course the interest rate is high and the collection of debt follow other rules than the law.  The immigrants that get lured into the Mama-san “bank” have really no other option in getting a loan. They are new to the country and just to understand how the law works in a new country can be difficult. Language barriers might also be a huge problem when establishing a business in a new country. The culture shock might make many of the immigrants more comfortable with Mama-san, the Korean lady, and maybe the only option there is. Look around you when you’re in Hawaii there are so many mom and pop grocery stores that you wonder how they can all survive. For the most part they seem to be run by people from Asia. It makes you wonder if Chris McKinney’s Mama-san is still operating her “bank” business.

In the book we get to know Mama-san and her personal history through her daughter Claudia. Like Ken the main character pointed out is a name Mama-san can’t even pronounce. Even so to understand Mama-san’s deviance we must look at her past. Turns out that Mama-san’s history is similar to the “comfort” or prostitutes working for her. Her mother was also in the pleasuring business.  This, according to her daughter, has mad her obsessed with money and the “good life.”

Race seems to be a big thing with Mama-san. She calls our boy Ken dirty Japanese when the truth of the matter is that she herself is probably half Japanese and her daughter is half white. But for Mama-san the Korean race and ethnicity is what she is and what she identifies with. Race is important in Hawaii when you look underneath the surface of the fancy hotels and the Gucci stores that are created here for the tourists. We see in the book when the going gets tough even the Mama-san’s corrupt policemen side with the race themselves feel they belong to.

At one point Ken is struggling with school. He is enrolled at KCC but feels that he is wasting his time. Fate wants it so Ken lands a job in a strip club owned by Mama-san. Ken describes Mama-san as stereotypical something you think of as a shady strip club owner.  The media helps us develop certain stereotypes. It seems that often criminals are portrayed by the media as stereotypes wearing too much jewelry, clothes that are a number to small and a body that is ripped up. I would say that many men looks like they have cactuses under their arms and they have taken their sons t-shirt, but then again who asks me?

We later learn that Ken turns out to look this way.  He gets so many gold chains around his neck that he develops a permanent tan line. We often think of Korean women as frugal with spending as long as it does not shine.  We all have been behind a Korean lady at the supermarket “haggling” about the price of something. We stand there waiting and come to find out the savings are 50 cent or a dollar. Chris McKinney describes this stereotype when we learn that Mama-san has lots of “bling” but buy her clothes on super sale, even if they don’t really fit her.

The funny part off Chris McKinney’s description of the shady side of Honolulu and its members is that it could have been anywhere in the world. You will find the same “blinged” out guy in a two number too small t-shirt in Norway and for that matter in Spain. I have known my fair share of boys in this “part” of life and they all seem to fit the stereotype described. Sometimes I wonder if there is a school for “bad boys” out there that teaches them how to act and dress, or if it merely is a social code made by the media. Anyhow it seems to be a universal code of conduct for the boy’s. It is like Cal thought in the book. “Ken life was not so much different from Cal’s.”  Cal is nothing like Ken when it comes to race or ethnicity, but their life history made them end up in the same place, behind bars. It does make you wonder if our culture and society makes us what we are. And if not what does?