NP Miss Saigon and Asians (was Re: Gee, Officer Krupke! Krupyou Delinquently)

[Paul Mackin]

Wasn't there a big hullaballo at the time of the American opening because
the Jonathan Pryce character wasn't going to be played by an Asian. The term
racist was perhaps pitched around a bit then.

                    P.
----- Original Message -----
From: "davemarc" <davemarc at panix.com>
To: "Pynchlist" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2000 2:34 PM
Subject: NP Miss Saigon and Asians (was Re: Gee, Officer Krupke! Krupyou
Delinquently)


> What an interesting glimpse of Scalia's citation of West Side Story!  So
> Rehnquist is a fan of Gilbert & Sullivan, and Scalia goes for
> Bernstein/Laurents/Sondheim.  I wonder what the other justices prefer--I
> understand Clarence Thomas is a video hound.
>
> But now it's time for a point of clarification.
>
> From: Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
> >
> > Miss Saigon was only the last big Racist American Musical to
> > cause controversy.  It was designed to seduce, it floods the
> > senses with 3-D fantasy, war and sex, it follows a long line
> > of American misrepresentation of Asians, perpetuating a
> > sick fantasy of Submissive "Orientals", self-erasing women,
> > and asexual, contemptible yellow men. Why would America
> > support this Racist Musical, this postmodern post-Vietnam
> > Butterfly? Why?
> >
> As I understand it, Miss Saigon originated in Europe with a French
creative
> team (and Brit producer), then came to the United Kingdom.  The British
> production then came to the United States, where it will soon close after
a
> long run.
>
> As Terrance acknowledges, Miss Saigon was based on Madame Butterfly, an
> Italian opera.  Again, a European influence.  If it is anything like the
> opera that inspired it, it portrays its Asian lead as sympathetic.
>
> Why has Miss Saigon been a long-running show in the United States?  One
> likely reason for the show's popularity is that, yes, like many, many
> musicals, it was intended to appeal to a large general audience. (And it
> turned out to be a multicultural general audience hit.)  Another
> reason probably has to do with the time-tested appeal of the plot and the
> lead female character.  (The show's best-known female star is Lea Salonga,
a
> Filipino(a?) who became an international star and a national icon as a
> result of her performance.)  And then there are those special effects....
>
> No doubt about it:  Asians have been sadly misrepresented and
> under-represented in US culture.  (Perhaps arguably, that's a theme of
> Madame Butterfly.)  It doesn't take a genius to spot examples,
> which are manifest.  What are harder to find are fair examples of Asians
and
> Asian-Americans.  But even that's not terribly difficult.  There are
> numerous festivals, associations, lists, etc.  And here's one
> website yielded by a quick search:
> <http://www.asianamericanartistry.com/1950.html>.
>
> Cheers,
>
> d.
>
>
>