bigWOWO rating: Asian American Silver
I only use the bigWOWO rating system for works created by Asians or Asian Americans. In this case, I believe I’m being consistent since Miss Saigon isn’t just a work written by a bunch of White dudes but also a musical performed by one of the greatest voices in history, which happens to belong to an Asian woman. I also don’t usually review plays twenty years after seeing them, but since I’ve been on a Lea Salonga kick, I figured now is as good a time as ever. I got the soundtrack from the library, and I’ve been reliving my initial impressions of the musical. (I never got to see Lea perform it. I think she was sick on the night I went to the theater, so I saw the understudy.)
Miss Saigon is based on Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. According to the book jacket, the writers saw a photo of a Vietnamese woman with a mixed race child, and they modified the Butterfly theme to create a love story between a Vietnamese bar girl named Kim and a White American GI named Chris. Along the way, there are interesting characters such as the Engineer, Kim’s Eurasian pimp, and John, Chris’s best friend. There’s also an evil Vietnamese suitor for Kim’s affection, whom she dispatches with a bullet as he tries to murder her son. As with the Madame Butterfly story, Chris eventually remarries a White woman, and when he and his wife go back to Vietnam to see the son he had with Kim, Kim kills herself.
If you asked me in high school what I thought of Miss Saigon, I’d say that it was racist. This was back in the day when Frank Chin destroyed my life by making me question anti-Asian racial stereotyping and caricatures. Frank was right, and I was right. Listening to the soundtrack after all these years confirms that I had at least an ounce of intelligence in high school. I still can’t sit through the whole thing, what with the racist caricature of Thuy, the Vietnamese suitor/stereotype which the writers use as a foil to make the White hero look good, and I cringe every time I hear him sing.
That being said, I’m giving this a silver rating. Here’s why:
Even though this work is racist against Asian men, it’s portrays some high quality expression for Asian women. Think about it–the character of Kim proves loyalty towards her romantic love, strength and maternal love in protecting her child, and an enormous capacity to see beauty. Aside from possibly the Asian hooker stereotype, the portrayal of Asian women isn’t bad. In fact, it’s quite good. Kim is as fully developed as any character in the Western musical world. Lea Salonga’s voice is absolutely beautiful, and this musical gave her the opportunity to shine. The world received a great gift through the opportunity to hear her voice.
There are also other very well developed relationships. The bond between Chris and John, for example, demonstrates brotherhood as the men look out for one another during and after the war. Chris’s American wife Ellen, demonstrates fortitude and support behind her man. The Engineer demonstrates a love for capitalism and entrepreneurship, and even though he’s a pimp, he’s an endearing character.
Artistically, Miss Saigon was good. The music composition is top notch, and the producers found actors with incredible voices and range. If I remember correctly, the helicopter scene was spectacular. You gotta love Broadway!
So in sum with regards to the rating: I can’t give this a gold rating since it’s racist against Asian men, but I can give it a silver rating since it was artistically great AND portrayed Asian women well.
I also have some activist words to add to this post.
If you all remember, when Miss Saigon first came out, people were up in arms about the fact that the Eurasian Engineer was to be played by Jonathan Pryce, a White guy. You can see the story here under “Controversy.” The argument was similar to arguments that we hear today–roles for Asian Americans are so few and far between that when one comes up, they should reserve it for an Asian person. As it says in the Wiki entry, there was a well publicized international search for the Asian female lead which led them to Lea Salonga, but there was almost no search at all for the two Asian male roles of the pimpin’ Engineer and the evil Viet Cong Thuy. In the end, they gave both roles to White guys who wore yellowface. Thuy, of course, was a minor role anyway–his main function was just to make the White man look good, and to make the Vietnam War look like an act of Asian male aggression against the West. Kim puts a bullet through Thuy before the end of the first act.
I agree with the Asian actors who complained about the casting. Sure, some detractors were saying that Asian actors shouldn’t be fighting over a role for a pimp, but I thought the role was decent. Besides, I understand where these Asian actors are coming from–it seems that Asian actors do a disproportionate amount of waiting for roles. If I were an Asian actor, I too would be impatient.
But here’s something that is funny if you think about it: these Asian actors were fighting over the Asian roles–the Engineer and Thuy. They weren’t fighting over the White roles–Chris and John (I think John was played by a black guy in the version I saw). Here’s the question: why couldn’t an Asian man play the male lead character of Chris? Marketing, you might say. You might say that Miss Saigon would not be as successful if they put a fellow yellow opposite an Asian female lead, especially as the main point of the play was to demonstrate love between East and West (or, to be more accurate, love between Asian Women and White Men). And you’d be right. It would’ve been a complete and abject failure if they put anything other than a White man in the leading role.
However, now that we’re twenty years past the opening of Miss Saigon, wouldn’t it be cool to put an Asian man into that role, just to give an Asian man the ability to use this musical, along with the beautiful singing and instrumentation, to express himself? Wouldn’t it be awesome to see an Asian male and female in opposite leading roles? I’m thinking not about commercial success, but rather about how people could use this musical to move ideas, to create community bonds, and to serve as a launching pad for greater activism. If I were an actor, I would love to be able to sing Chris’s part. I actually think the play would be better if you filled all the roles with Asian actors and removed the racial component.
Thoughts?
Related posts:
But here is an...
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
Talk about a blast from the distant past!
That show opened in London in 1989, which means it was probably being written in the early 1980s and was being translated and refined in the mid 80′s.
I think this is one that has to be taken within the context of it’s time. But even at that, the idea of basing a multi million dollar West End musical on the end of the Vietnam War was totally unheard of. The British were used to enjoying happy, light, frothy spring musicals, populated completely by European main characters. Miss Saigon was the first significant departure into a world of real and 3-dimensional Asian characters with more than 4 lines each.
Secondly, Boublil, Schonberg, and Mackintosh insisted on traveling the world in search of actual Asian actors for their primary roles. They visited NY, LA, Hawaii, and the Philippines auditioning brand new Asian talent, and waded through hours and hours of amateur auditions. Of course, they found their “Kim” at their last stop in the Philippines and the rest is West End/Broadway blockbuster history. “Thuy” is the only real “yellowface” lead character that I can think of and he was written in as an afterthought (not in the original book)
The story itself was more about how the US royally screwed up some lives inVietnam, as a cost of war. It was only through Kim’s odyssey with “Chris” that she becomes the tragic figure of the play. The plight of the bui do children was highlighted as a negative result and direct responsibility of the US war. The excesses of American capitalism and commercialism are referenced in the “American Dream” number. Miss Saigon is far from a simple story that shows Asian guys as zeros and White guys as heroes. I think the point was to highlight the often ugly and unintentional consequences of war.
Kim does not lead a happily-ever-after life as a result of her relationship with Chris. She is abandoned, imprisoned, hunted by the Vietcong, whored out, and finally kills herself. That doesn’t sound like building up the great benefits of sleeping with Whitey to me.
“She is abandoned, imprisoned, hunted by the Vietcong, whored out, and finally kills herself. That doesn’t sound like building up the great benefits of sleeping with Whitey to me.”
King, we have a debate here!
I would agree with much of what you said. But if you look at comedy and tragedy (and is there anything else?), just because it’s a tragedy doesn’t mean the writers aren’t encouraging what the writers are tragedizing (if that’s a word).
Would you say that Shakespeare was against romances between Montagues and Capulets just because Romeo and Juliette died?
Similarly, the most famous songs in Miss Saigon are the ones that focus on the romance or the mother-son love. I saw the “American Dream” story more as a background to the human story rather than a main part of the musical.
Think about this–does Thuy ever get a chance to share why he “changed sides?” That would be an interesting story, especially given the fact that Ho Chi Minh first applied to Woodrow Wilson for help before becoming a Communist.
So that’s my point on the Asian male side. From Kim’s side, I definitely think she has a fully 3 dimensional character.
Haha! Dare we debate Miss Saigon? What will people think? lol!
Well, since MT and Mojo are planning on skewering me in that Ayn Rand thread, so I’ll just hide here in the musical theater section.
“Would you say that Shakespeare was against romances between Montagues and Capulets just because Romeo and Juliette died?”
The difference is that Romeo & Juliet was not a love triangle where Romeo lost Juliet, gave up on trying to find her, and then married another woman or Verona 2 years later. Romeo never told Juliet, “I’m sorry, but now I’m married to someone else… things have changed now. I can’t take our son”
Shakespeare’s story is romantic because the star-crossed lovers join ,b>each other in death— each unable to imagine living without the other. On the other hand Kim kills herself because she believes that it’s the best chance for her bastard, mixed-race, son to have any chance at a decent life. She realizes that her lover now loves someone else, so she kills herself. That is NOT romanticizing the relationship, that is driving home the tragedy.
And again, most of the play is not about chris and Kim being together, 65% to 70% is about the unintended but bad results of their union.
Perhaps the most complex male character of the play was “The Engineer” played originally by Jonathan Pryce (the only big name in the cast) but was later played by many Asian actors.
You gave a Silver rating to frigging Miss Saigon?
What’s next?
How about gold rating for your favorite writers of all time, Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan?
Jaehwan, you are growing soft.
Check out article “The Heat is On Miss Saigon Coalition” by Yoko Yoshikawa in the anthology below.
http://alturl.com/5kzc
King,
I was going to google “Miss Saigon” and then show you how many people saw this as a romantic musical vs. a political play. Instead, alls I got were a bunch of opinion sites detailing how Asian actors got shafted on this production!
“The difference is that Romeo & Juliet was not a love triangle where Romeo lost Juliet, gave up on trying to find her, and then married another woman or Verona 2 years later. Romeo never told Juliet, “I’m sorry, but now I’m married to someone else… things have changed now. I can’t take our son”
Shakespeare’s story is romantic because the star-crossed lovers join ,b>each other in death— each unable to imagine living without the other. On the other hand Kim kills herself because she believes that it’s the best chance for her bastard, mixed-race, son to have any chance at a decent life. She realizes that her lover now loves someone else, so she kills herself. That is NOT romanticizing the relationship, that is driving home the tragedy.”
One of my professors in college said that you can argue any interpretation of a work, given that:
a) your interpretation is supported by the words and actions of the characters
b) your interpretation does not conflict with any intentions stated or implied by the author.
In this case, I don’t think Chris “gave up” on Kim. Rather he thought she was killed, which the authors portray through the nightmares Chris has of Kim getting killed with his gun. As with Romeo and Juliet, it’s a tragedy brought about by circumstances, not by the human failing of either of the lovers. I don’t want to give away too much, but something similar happens to the protagonist in Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. The Mel Gibson movie in which the pilot dude gets frozen for fifty years is the same thing. External circumstances don’t prevent a piece from being romantic at all. Remarrying because you think your lover died is a circumstance. I think all of these are considered romantic by most people.
I also don’t know that I agree that Chris “loves someone else.” Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t; I guess this is open to interpretation. I actually thought they made it seem that Chris/Ellen was a “rebound” type of relationship. What I do know is that Chris/Ellen is not a romantic theme in Miss Saigon at all.
Think about this–how many love songs do Chris and Kim share? There’s the dance song…then there’s the “how would you like living with me” song…then there’s the Last Night of the World…Sun and Moon….the marriage song…and I’m sure I left some out.
Now what about Chris and Ellen? That’s right…zero. There’s the anger song where he’s trying to explain how he had a girlfriend during the war whom he forgot to mention. You’ll notice that Chris doesn’t explain anything with the word “love.” In fact, at the end, she says “All I want is you,” and he says, “All I HAVE is you.” This to me would indicate that it is in fact a rebounder, almost a repayment for relieving his post-war loneliness.
In any case, the love emphasis is on Chris/Kim, even after she dies.
Thoughts?
Larry,
Haha! I’ll def check that out tomorrow! I KNOW I’m going to have a lot to say!
B.
Okay, just read that, Larry.
I generally agree with what she is saying, and I appreciate the organizing. The story is racist against Asian men and probably somewhat sexist against Asian women (I’m not yet wholly on board with the sexism thing for a variety of reasons.). However, a few things to keep in mind.
First, that was written in the 90′s. It’s been twenty years, which means that things have changed–we now have Flash Forward, BLT, etc. that partially offset the bad stereotypes. Plus, maybe she feels differently now that more has come out of Miss Saigon.
Second, a lot of the offensive language has probably been removed. Or can be removed.
Third, she’s only focusing on the negative. What about the love that the Asian woman does express? What about the love between mother and child? Yoshikawa ignores all of this. Even though MS is based on Madame Butterfly, the story is different in that there is at least some representation of love amid bad circumstances.
What if they made all the characters Asian? Would this alleviate at least some of the problems?
Haha! Well, people need not choose a side, it’s both a romantic musical and a political play.
But, of course, as you say, it is Art, and as such, it’s open to various interpretations by those who interface with it.
“In this case, I don’t think Chris “gave up” on Kim. Rather he thought she was killed…”
Well… if someone gets lost in the frenetic evacuation of Saigon, and you never had any confirmation that they were actually killed, then you stop looking for them, I’d say that was giving up. Sure, Chris had nightmares about what MIGHT have happened, but he never had any confirmation of her death. There was never anything written about Chris returning to Vietnam to search for her. In time, he simply gave up, moved on, and married Ellen.
That’s not to say that the character wasn’t assumed to still feel love for the memory of Kim. I think that’s a given, but in the number, The Revelation you get these telling lyrics:
[CHRIS]:
It’s too late
I have a whole new life
I have a wife I love
she can’t just disappear
So I think that the lyrics established that Chris moved on with his life, fell in love, and married an American girl.
That kind of ends the romance, and turns it to pure tragedy. Romeo never ended up falling in love with another woman, marrying her and moving on with his life. This is why I see the story as beginning with romance, but then ending in tragedy. It’s not a commercial for Asian women marrying American soldiers, so much as it’s a story about the sacrifices of war.
King, they must’ve changed the words. You must have the British version. The words in the library booklet are
“It’s too late/ I have a whole new life/ I was in love with Kim/ but now I have a wife.”
You can see it performed just under the 2 minute mark here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHNlUg-BgfE&feature=PlayList&p=348362F4C2752027&index=18
(For those wondering what King and I are talking about, you can see the WHOLE play from the link above. They’re only high school students, but they’re very good for non-professionals.)
Notice the conspicuous non-usage of the word “love” and Ellen in the same thought…
In the same song, Chris says to John, “Only you know how hard I had tried to get word” [about Kim]. He says he looked into it, but he probably didn’t go back to Vietnam. Since it was only a three year period, it might have been impossible to go back. Even Thuy had trouble finding Kim. He needed to call the Engineer. She was a hard person to find.
Anyway, my point–and of course, this depends on one’s own viewpoint, not just interpretation–is that love revolves around practical issues. This is a common theme in art.
And while it may not be a explicit commercial for Asian women to marry White soldiers, the fact is that they cover it from the love angle. They start the story with the White guy, and they end with him. It’s kind of like what the Nigerian writer said in the Danger of the Single Story:
“Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story, and to start with, “secondly.” Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have and entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story.”
The fact that they cover it, and the fact that MOST of the story (even if we disagree on what happened with Ellen) is about love, begs the question of why so few American or British producers talk about love with Asian men when it comes to talking about Asian women. I would say that that in itself is its own commercial.
Well, that’s one thing about a long-running, worldwide, theatrical production. The script continues evolves even years after the opening. So, there probably were several versions of how they sang those lines. It may be different even from early cast recording CDs to later ones.
My sources for the lyrics:
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/misssaigon/therevelation.htm
http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-revelation-lyrics-miss-saigon.html
Another lyrical rendering I found was:
CHRIS
“It`s too late! I have a whole new life I was in love with Kim, but now I have a wife.”
http://www.lyricsbay.com/the_revelation_lyrics-miss_saigon.html
http://www.songlyrics.com/miss-saigon/the-revelation-lyrics/
However, I’d still say that a story where an Asian girl marries a White G.I., then gets left behind in Saigon, is stigmatized as a traitor, forced to flee her homeland, forced into prostitution, meets his White wife, and subsequently blows her brains out, thus losing the guy in the end, is not a pro-rice chasing plot.
Could the entire British production have been written as an all Vietnamese love story? Perhaps, but I’m just not sure that their failure to write it that way rises to the level of racism.
“Could the entire British production have been written as an all Vietnamese love story? Perhaps, but I’m just not sure that their failure to write it that way rises to the level of racism.”
On it’s own, no. And I’m not saying they have to write it with all Vietnamese. But as a major production that is replicating the “single story” of Asian men, I’d argue that there is an element of racism in it, unwittingly or not. In other words, it’s not violent racism, and maybe it’s good–after all, it gave Lea Salonga an opportunity to shine. It’s kind of the same way I felt with Blake’s production of Dogs:
http://www.bigwowo.com/2009/05/podcast-micah-moore-blake-faucette-and-eva-on-stereotypes-and-film/
Blake’s a nice guy. I’d totally have beers with him. But there are issues when people repeat the single story over and over.
If you change Chris and John and replace them with Vietnamese actors, at the very least you can say that you have more than a single story for Asian American male characters. And they get to sing beautiful songs.
Also, if you have an Asian actress play Ellen, you also have more than a single story for Asian women. You just have to make sure that the actress who plays Ellen isn’t more glamorous than Kim:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbkoJtsGLdM
Yeah, I’d agree that there’s probably an element of racism in it. But then, there’s also an element of racism in almost everything we watch on TV or the movies too.
And again, I think we should also take into account the times in which MS was written (the early 1980′s). Back then, writing a spring musical about POC at all was a pretty ballsy move that upset the London theatrical aristocracy. I doubt if, to this day, there has been any other West End/Broadway blockbuster (of this scale) that has hired a larger percentage of Asian actors.
I agree, it’s not telling a pro-Asian story, but I’m not sure that it’s telling an anti -Asian one either. Does it play into the “single story” scenario? Perhaps.
But the danger of one story is a collective burden. It speaks to the idea of access and acceptance of more than a single story, representing any given group. It’s a collective effect, not a singular one. How can we turn to any one writer, director, or producer and say, “If you tell this story, it’s racist because there aren’t enough other perspectives out there to counter it?” You can say that to an industry, but not to an individual.
“Also, if you have an Asian actress play Ellen, you also have more than a single story for Asian women. You just have to make sure that the actress who plays Ellen isn’t more glamorous than Kim”
Yeah, but you also run the risk of making Chris look like a serial RICE CHASER!
King,
I’m agreeing maybe 75% with you.
“Yeah, I’d agree that there’s probably an element of racism in it. But then, there’s also an element of racism in almost everything we watch on TV or the movies too.”
You’re right, there’s an element of racism in almost anything we watch on TV today. But there’s a reason why:
1. I gave this a silver rating rather than a gold rating.
2. Larry thinks even silver is too generous.
The reason is that the racism–if you want to call it that–in Miss Saigon is enough to actually mention. It’s not at same level as the Joy Luck Club or Fu Manchu, but it’s bad enough to mention. After all, that IS the single story for Asian men. And yes, it’s not so bad that I would say “Do Not Recommend” or even give it a bronze. But it’s there and worth mentioning.
I disagree about Miss Saigon being a ballsy move. It had been done for years through the original Madame Butterfly. Not on Broadway, of course, but as long as Schonberg and company delivered the goods–which they did–it was guaranteed to be a big seller. Why wouldn’t it be? Puccini’s original has packed the houses for generations. The whole Madame Butterfly thing is a reason why we again have the problem of the “single story.”
Now did it eventually help us? I think it did. It helped bring us Lea!! In this situation, maybe the lesson is that we need to sometimes just roll with the punches.
I also agree with you on the collective burden thing, which is why I didn’t call out any individuals. I don’t think any individuals are to blame. I’m not angry at Blake Faucette. I’m just talking about the legacy that versions of the single story continues to deliver.
“Yeah, but you also run the risk of making Chris look like a serial RICE CHASER!”
Well, you have to make Chris Asian! Otherwise, you’re still getting at least some form of the Asian female “single story!” (Dude, I know that the Nigerian writer didn’t say anything that Edward Said didn’t, but I LOVE her terminology!!!)
And that’s the thing that I’m saying. If you make ALL the characters Asian, I don’t think there would be any significant racism in the resulting Miss Saigon production.