It recently occurred to me how strange the faux-Polynesian tiki culture is as a sort of amalgamation of various vaguely "exotic" items transposed on to the Pacific Islands, from fruity drinks to sweetened Chinese food to the strange twangy music that as far as I know has nothing to do with any Austronesian style or instrumentation. When and where did this strange pseudo-culture develop, and why did it become so popular?
The first tiki bar in America was founded in 1934 by Donn Beach. Born Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, Beach spent years sailing throughout the south Pacific and founded a tiki bar called Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood. In 1937 a competing tiki bar opened in Oakland: Trader Vic's, which is still a chain today. Both of these institutions claimed to have invented the most famous tiki cocktail, the mai tai, which comes from the Tahitian word for "good."
A number of factors caused this trend to take off nationally:
The return of American GIs from service in the south Pacific after World War II, who had been exposed to Polynesian culture during the war
James Michener's Pulizer-winning Tales of the South Pacific, a collection of short stories based on anecdotes and stories from his service in the Navy (1947)
Rodgers and Hammerstein's [South Pacific](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pacific_(musical), which dealt with the same subject matter (1949)
The voyage of the Kon-Tiki, a raft used by a Norwegian explorer to sail through the Polynesian islands, and the basis of a 1948 book and a 1950 documentary film
Hawaiian statehood in 1959
All of these things contributed to the tiki fad of the 50s and 60s!
I do imagine some of it is related to what was actually there. As far as Chinese food goes, the Chinese diaspora (in the form of traders) has been present throughout the South Pacific since before World War II. In fact, the Chinese drive for sea cucumbers and sandalwood is sometimes described as the leading economic force present in the South Seas in the 19th century. I can confirm that for what used to be the New Hebrides, which served as a major administrative area for the US Army as it got ready to go up to the Solomons, there absolutely was a large Chinese presence ~ 10 years before tiki bars started.
I think it's important to remember that while tiki is not authentic, it didn't come from nowhere. There are these carvings. Fruit juice + booze was something that people drank. There was bad Chinese food present. The South Pacific is no stranger to weird music. These things all got morphed like crazy when they came to America, but the basis was present.