Hawaii Five-O:  Aloha, Kam Fong…

As a kid I loved to watch Hawaii Five-O.  It was the closest I was going to get to my dad’s homeland, being firmly ensconced in the freezing cold Midwest for most of my childhood. 

Seedy and cheesy as many of the Five-O plots were, I could look past and sneak a peak at the place where my dad grew up.  Folks like Kam Fong Chun (who played Chin Ho Kelly in the Five-O series) made the show more real than unreal because he was a local.  Kam Fong was a syntho-uncle to me – he felt like, even looked like family.

Reading his obituary in a local paper, I had no idea how tough his background had been.  He seemed so calm and unruffled throughout the series.

But in many respects, Kam Fong’s life is pretty similar to many older Hawaiians’ lives.  Asian, Hawaiian, Polynesian-polyglot, hapa-haole (half-white), didn’t matter.  Life wasn’t all that easy for those who weren’t white in the Islands.

In spite of his personal hardships, Kam Fong appears to have made it to a happy place in life.  He had family who loved and respected him, and fans which enjoyed seeing him for ten years.

Does it get any better than that?

Aloha `oe, Kam Fong, a hui hou kâkou!

12:06:43 PM    comment []