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BIG WOK: Storian blong Wol Wo Tu long Vanuatu. Edited by Lamont Lindstrom and James Gwero. Suva (Fiji) and Christchurch (New Zealand): Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific and University of Canterbury. 1998. xii, 308 pp. (B&W photos). US$18.00, paper ISBN 1-- 877175-09-9.
Despite its title, this book has nothing to do with Chinese cooking. The "Big wok" of the title is Bislama (the variety of Melanesian Pidgin spoken in Vanuatu) for the big work that was undertaken by ni-Vanuatu and outsiders during World War II, the time when the country was inundated with man America, hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops based mainly on the islands of Efate and Santo and outnumbering the local population. Warships, aeroplanes, submarines, tanks and other weapons (01 ting blong faet) suddenly appeared and then were left, now tourist attractions.
It was a time of changes that stands out in the memory of the local people who lived through it: Mifala i neva luk samting olsem (We never saw such a thing) (Jimmy Sare, p. 9). A time for the subsistence farming locals...