CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, April 02, 2019

After Overture cancels 'Miss Saigon' panel, Asian American scholars host 'teach-in' on street

Entertainment | madison.com: The reason some theatergoers protest “Miss Saigon,” three decades after the French-written, British-born mega-musical touched down on American shores is because damaging stereotypes persist about Asian women as property, Asian men as weak, and white, Western guys as saviors.

That’s true not only in the United States.
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1 comment:

Shahzad Khan said...

With the issues that revolve around the Asian-American experience and the broadway smash hit musical, "Miss Saigon", in particular, there are many different opinions from many different types of people including Asian Americans. The show itself is rather problematic, it perpetuates stereotypes revolving Vietnamese men as being angry and violent, and Vietnamese women as being victims and prostitutes. The show also glorifies human trafficking and statutory rape amongst other things. But as this article points out, the show is still being produced and people are still buying tickets in record numbers, so why Miss Saigon? It provides many asian actors the opportunity to be onstage in leading roles in a pretty great sounding and looking musical. With all of its problems, Miss Saigon in the 21st century should serve to create a dialogue about issues concerning the history of Asian American portrayal in the entertainment industry. I think that the main issue with the contents of this article is that people don't yet know how to talk about this issue.

4:09 PM

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