Young Asian American Musical Theatre

VIDEO: How an All-Asian Musical Theater Troupe Is Reshaping the Culture of Chinatown’s P.S. 124

In New York City’s Chinatown, the Yung Wing School P.S. 124 Theater Club has, over the last six years, won the Outstanding Elementary Production Award at the annual iTheatrics Broadway Junior Theater Festival an impressive three times. However, what is far more notable is that they are the only Asian American troupe to ever compete in this competition. What’s remarkable about this club’s existence is that it refutes any arguments about there being no Asian actors for the stage or the screen. Yes, these are young kids and not even professional youth actors, but there is theater and filmmaking happening at all levels of the visual and aural storytelling. Also, this group has been successful garnering top level awards.

For the most recent production of “The Music Man” which they took to the festival in Atlanta, there was a whole cast of Asian kids portraying the iconic Harold Hill, Marian Paroo, and a community of the fictional town of River City, Iowa. If you look at the 1962 movie, all of these actors are white, but who’s to say the characters have to be white? This is where the discussions of color-blind vs. color-conscious casting and re-envisionist theatre all come in to play. Now, this is an elementary school in NYC’s Chinatown and the casting pool is certainly limited and I’m sure the music director is not making specific choices based on race. In this case, I’m assuming it is based on the kids’ talents, but simply by the Theater Club’s its existence, the greater industries can see what it looks like when you have Asian actors playing traditionally white characters.

Not all of these kids are going to go on become theater artists or performers, but just to fathom of a musical theater troupe in school full of Asian American students is something that is contrary to the stereotypes that lend themselves to STEM subject matter. Arts are poorly funded in this country to begin with, but this club counters those stereotypes with their stellar performances and proves that specifically theater is a beneficial creative outlet for the children to grow and gain confidence. Many of the children are first generation and it’s incredible to hear the parents support of their children and how letting their children engage in the arts is something that they never really got the chance to do. Certainly, the financial prospects of being an artist are flimsy, but I believe the arts aren’t given enough credit for what positive benefits they can have on people regardless if they pursue them professionally or not.

When I look my mother and her first gen siblings, they all went to undergrad to pursue degrees in the creative/design realm after a childhood of working in a restaurant and very few, if any creative outlets. They all longed for it and because of the freedom they sought for themselves, I know I’ve been able to trust that I would be support by going into the arts myself.

These elementary school students are well situated to be part of a new generation of performers who will diversify our stages and creative industries. Now, it’s not like all of the sudden there are talented Asian artists, they have always been there. As Mr. Olsen said when they started the group six years ago, he said you could get almost a whisper out of the students, and now they’re bellowing out “76 Trombones”. Once afforded the opportunity, the students were able to release their true potential.

Joyce Wu and #OscarsSoWhite

The first feature by Chinese-American filmmaker, Joyce Wu, screened at the first annual Ithaca Pan Asian American Film Festival. Following the life of an out-of-work actress who moves back to her hometown in Michigan from Broadway and finds herself trying to revive her old community theatre. (Funnily enough, a friend of mine in NYC pitched the exact same concept to me at a party and directed him to this film.)

She was recently featured in Complex Magazine after the controversy at the Oscars and Chris Rock’s representation of young Asian American’s in the work force, ie little Asian kids dressed in power suits talking on phone, made by little Asian kids.  In an interview with Kevin Wong, they discuss whether Hollywood could get better or if it’s worth getting better.

The interview focuses on representation, as most conversations about Asian American filmmakers takes its focus on. Her persepective is:

I don’t think the Academy is malicious. Instead, I think it’s kind of like a country club; somebody’s grandpa might think, “There are no good black golfers,” because he doesn’t see them at his country club. And there are reasons, historically, why black golfers have been precluded from a place like that. But the grandpa hasn’t taken the time to consider that reasoning or history.

People don’t intend to be racist. In a lot of ways, most Americans are socialized to allow certain behaviors and certain mentalities without a second thought on how it may affect other racial, or even other marginalized groups. This behavior feeds into the way we treat groups like Asian Americans in the media. Filmmakers like Joyce Wu, who aim to tell stories that aren’t wholly centered on being Asian American, or rather not hitting the subject on its head over and over again. Asian American creators and artists should tell stories that connect us with one another, dismantling what it means to be Asian.

Suzie Wong Complex

While looking for articles on how Asian women are seen in society today, I stumbled on the video above that talks about the stereotypes that Asian and Asian American women face in the media.  After the narrator describes Asian women’s main roles in media such as the “Dragon Lady” or the geisha, she then goes on to describe how Asian American women are portrayed.  Before watching this video I never made the distinction between Asian versus Asian American women in media stereotypes.  Whether this is due to the lack of Asian American women representation or Asians being seen as the perpetual foreigner and therefore no such thing as an Asian American, I have no clue.  The only Asian American stereotype that was described in this video was the idea of the “Suzie Wong Complex”.

This stereotype stems from Suzie Wong a  character in the 1960s movie, The World of Suzie Wong.  The movie is set in Hong Kong where a white, male American named Robert Lomax  has just moved to pursue his career in art.  Wong is a beautiful and successful prostitute who catches the eye of Lomax.  Eventually they fall in love and she decides to move with him to the United States.  Upon moving to the United States, Wong gives up her home, language, and culture all to be with Lomax.  This is the story behind the “Suzie Wong Complex.”  While this is not the case for all interracial relationships, this idea stereotypes Asian women as being submissive and willing to assimilate into western culture.  This is a theme that can still be seen in mainstream media today.  The stereotype of the “Suzie Wong woman” has also been popularized by men in the military, where Asian women are seen as the perfect housewives.  I think stereotypes such as this one exists because of the lack of representation that Asian American women have.  People make generalizations as an easy way out, instead of taking the time to understand an individuals culture and history.  Hopefully, in the future we can move past stereotypes such as this one.

 

Celebrating Asian-American Poets: Emerging Writers to Read

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/celebrating-asian-american-poets-emerging-writers-read-n569401

This article is interesting because it talks about new Asian American poets. The first part of the article talks about how Asian American poets were upset because of a white poet who went by the alias “Yi-Fen Chou” was selected for the 2015 “The Best American Poetry.” Asian American poets responded by creating a hashtag #ActaulAsianPoet.

An Asian American poet Mai Der Vang, won the 2016 Walt Whitman Prize for emerging poets. Asian America is celebrating emerging Asian- American poets.

One poet is Jenny Yang Cropp who talks about growing up multiracial and overcoming addiction. Another interesting poet named Janine Joseph examines the lives of undocumented immigrants…”Here are the lives of mothers and fathers, teenagers and grandparents, all living under the threat of deportation. Here are people making a new home while holding onto the dignity and beauty of the place that they were once from. Joseph is that rare poet who makes a poem that devastates a reader while being entirely free from judgment.”

There are many other poets that address real world problems in their writing, such as citizenship and colonization. Some talk about racism, survival, violence and women’s issues. Most of the poets are award winners.

 

Asian American Studies Programs Face an Uphill Battle as Budget Cuts Loom

Since its creation Ethnic Studies programs have faced difficultly in maintenance and expansion as often times funding for these programs has been limited and cut time and time again. The USAToday College article discusses budget cuts across American to a number of collegiate-level Asian American studies programs. Due to limited funding the curriculum of the programs are compromised.

Colleges and universities study the value of a program based off of the number of students involved, and currently Ethnic Studies programs are not seen as economically beneficial to some schools. Jaya Soni, a past full-time adviser for the Asian Desi Pacific Islander American Collective at UT, believes that the model minority myth and high rates of retention at school and academic achievements may be hurting the advancement of Asian American studies. Soni says the model minority myth spreads the illusion that Asian American representation is not needed as much.

Adriel Luis, an alumni of UC Davis’Asian American Studies programs, believes that the benefit of Asian American Studies programs lays in the programs ability to show an understanding of how Asians have gotten where they are now. Unfortunately, these programs continue to face threats that impact its ability to continue. Luis believes that the main struggle is student engagement, they believe that without student activism these programs will continue to suffer.

In class and throughout my research for the final project we have studied the benefits of coalitions and advocacy groups. Asian American Studies programs are not seen as “valuable” to the mainstream curriculum and therefore a strong presence of student activism could work to ensure these programs are receiving adequate funding. It is up to the student to let the administration know that they find these programs as beneficial and important to their education and growth as adults. Students have more of a voice than they may believe, and if they were to continue to speak out surely there would be some change to the current budget plans so that Asian American Studies programs and other Ethnic Studies programs would not continue to suffer.

 

Source 

 

 

 

Portland Public Schools Board to Vote on Ethnic Studies in High Schools

 

A group of Oregon high school students petitioned to start ethnic studies classes for all of Portland’s 10 Public high schools. These students believed that the current curriculum favors Euro-centric history and leaves out contributions of people of color.
Asian pacific Islanders of the liberation of Youth (ALLY), which is the youth-led part of a broader organization called American Network of Oregon (APANO), had launched a campaign called “Missing pages of History” to bring more awareness to why ethnic studies are important and how, with a growing population of people of color, America’s current Euro-centric history courses are inefficient or “missing pages”. The ALLY stated on their APANO website:

“because our histories aren’t reflected in our textbooks, it’s harder to stay engaged and be successful in school. And because most curriculum is Euro-centric, students of color may never have the opportunity to learn about the contributions of our communities in the US.” ( APANO Ethnic Studies Now. 2015)

The ethnic studies courses could combat the negative effects of lack of representation for people of color and LGBTQA of color by using the history of the struggles and success of these under-represented people to deconstruct pre-existing ideas of race and cultural identities, build self-esteem in POC and QTPOC , and combat racism against these groups. Ethnic studies courses have shown to have a positive effect on the performance of students in other school districts that offer these courses.

ALLY wants the board of education to create a plan which incorporates at least 1 ethnic studies class in every Portland in High School within 4 years . These courses should include Asian studies, Black studies, Latina studies, Pacific Islander studies, Arabic studies, Native studies, and LGBTQA of color studies. The courses should be shaped by students, parents, and teachers while focusing on histories of oppression and resistance of theses underrepresented groups over a four-year period.The Portland Public Schools Board of Education in Oregon has voted in favor of the Ethnic studies courses. They hope to implement at least one ethnic studies class in all Portland Public Schools high schools within two years. Hopefully, this decision will encourage other school districts to approve ethnic studies to combat the lack of representation of people of color and LGBTQA people of color in educational institutions.

http://www.apano.org/news-events/ethnic-studies-now/

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/portland-public-schools-board-vote-ethnic-studies-high-schools-n567171

George Takei’s take Marvels casting of The Ancient One

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/03/george-takei-whitewashing-doctor-strange-marvel-superhero-movie

In the upcoming Doctor Strange movie a traditionally Tibetan character, known as the Ancient One, is to be played by Tilda Swinton, a white actress. Swinson was apparently cast partially to prevent sales from falling in Asia. The character’s home country was also moved from Tibet to Nepal, as to not upset the Chinese government.

Recently George Takei has weighed in on the controversy. He says that moving the character’s home country should have been enough to appease the Chinese government and that the role could still be played by an Asian. Takei says the reasons don’t matter and Asians don’t get much representation in Hollywood. He also says that chances for Asian actors come along they are often given to white actors like now.

One of the screenwriters defended their actions saying that the Ancient One is “a racist stereotype who comes from a region of the world that is in [a] very weird political place” and says that they do not want to risk angering one of the largest movie watching markets in the world. In an attempt to downplay the issue the studio has said “Marvel has a very strong record of diversity in its casting of films and regularly departs from stereotypes and source material to bring its MCU to life”.

Personally I cannot weigh in too much on the issue because I do not know much about the source material. The screenwriters have said that the title of the Ancient One has been held by many characters and there are many times in the MCU has made changes from the source material. I still personally think a character that is supposed to come from Nepal should not be white. Regardless of how the role was chosen Asians don’t get much representation in Hollywood and this would have been a great opportunity to get an Asian actor in a prominent role. Also a previous record of diversity does not excuse giving white actors the limited roles that could be played by Asians.

Jeremy Lin – Flagrant Fouls unjust or underrepresented?

With the 2016 NBA Finals underway the Charlotte Hornets were eliminated by the Miami Heats 4-3 on May 1st. A lot of the articles published in the last two months pertaining to Jeremy Lin revolved around the issue of flagrant fouls. Flagrant fouls are fouls issued by the referee when they believe unnecessary contact had occurred (flagrant foul 1) or when they believe unnecessary contact and excessive force was used. The issue involves a video being published on YouTube by the user “JAD 7534” showing over the span of three season of hard fouls on Jeremy Lin that should have been called by the referees but have not been. Furthermore, A letter to the NBA commissioner Adam Silver that relayed the unjust actions accompanied the video.

The video Jeremy Lin: Too Flagrant Not to Call garnered over 1 million views and has obtained a lot of attention from the media and the press. ESPN discussed this issue on their segment “ESPN first take”. One of the ESPN first take host, Skip Bayless, brought up the idea that Jeremy Lin was probably being treated unfairly because he came from the Asian culture and that he was a tough kid that was willing to take the punishment. This brings up the issue of racial disparity and treatment in the NBA.

Earlier in the video Skip Bayless discussed how there were fouls committed against Jeremy Lin that many would consider flagrant fouls but were ignored by the referees because it might have pertained to those who committed the fouls which included big names such as James Harden and Kobe Bryant. To further support the unfair treatment of Jeremy Lin ESPN first take host, Stephen A. Smith, states that flagrant fouls are called when a swipe is made at the face or shoulder of an NBA player in order to increase the protection of the players however Jeremy Lin has drawn 813 fouls since 2013 but none of them have been flagrant fouls.

In response the NBA released a statement which included statistics that states that flagrant fouls usually occur 1 in every 500 fouls and that the 814 fouls drawn by Jeremy Lin was not “statistically significant”. What do you think?

Jeremy Lin: Too Flagrant Not to Call

ESPN First Take – Why Doesn’t Jeremy Lin Get more Flagrant Foul Calls?

NBA’s response to Jeremy Lin Flagrant Foul Call Issue

These Asian-American Rappers Are Pushing Past Stereotypes—But Is It Enough?

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3059208/tribeca-film-festival/these-asian-american-rappers-are-pushing-past-stereotypes-but-is-it-en

There is a documentary being worked on right now called Bad Rap, which looks into the lives of four Asian-American rap artists trying to make it into mainstream hip-hop. Director Salima Koroma and co-producer Jaeki Cho, look at the barriers Asian-American rappers face when attempting to make it into the hip-hop business. Throughout the evolution of hip-hop and rap, the archetype rapper has been a black male. It is very difficult for people of other races and genders to crack the code of the hip-hop industry, in particular for Asian-Americans. The stereotypes of Asian-Americans, especially Asian males, don’t blend well with the perception and customs of rap and hip-hop.

The assumption of rap and hip-hop is it’s confrontational, aggressive, and hyper-masculine. Asian males are characterized as non-aggressive, non-confrontational and are often feminized, which completely contradicts the “prototypical” hip-hop artist. This plays in tie to the “model minority” myth as well, and how it creates a barrier for Asian Americans in the hip-hop industry. Asian Americans are nearly always identified as the model minority, and are characterized as hard-working, intelligent, obedient, and docile. This stereotype creates serious racial bias in the hip-hop industry and prevents Asian artists to break through the restraints holding them back.

When presenting her work to top influences in the hip-hop radio and magazine industry, not a single person could name an Asian-American rapper. This proves the decision making process in which coverage and media is dispersed, is inherently skewed. Asian rappers such as Dumbfoundead and MC Jin, are being over looked by top names in the industry, simply because they are Asian. These artists have slightly been able to make a name for themself in the rap industry, but have stagnated when it comes to becoming a household name. This isn’t because they don’t have the talent to make it mainstream, it is because they aren’t given the same respect and credibility as other rappers.

Though Asian-American rappers are slightly becoming more relevant in the hip-hop industry, they constantly face obstacles preventing them from advancing. This goes back to the idea of a rapper being an African American male, which contradicts the model minority myth being associated with Asians. With continuing to have these stereotypes, it is detrimental to the race rebels attempting to break these preconceived notions about Asian-American rappers.

Meet The Art Collective Of ‘Sad Asian Girls’ Destroying Asian-American Stereotypes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/meet-the-art-collective-of-sad-asian-girls-destroying-asian-american-stereotypes_us_570f1a96e4b03d8b7b9f7e92?utm_hp_ref=asian-americans

I found this article interesting, especially because we just discussed the ways youtube and blogs have helped the Asian American community voice their opinions. In this case, Olivia Park and Esther Fan were fed up with the constant stereotypes they faced in their lives and decided to use their voice to to make a stand.

The two women “started Sad Asian Girls Club, a collective of Asian-American girls aiming to break the culture of passiveness and silence through discussions of racism and feminism, providing more representation for Asian girls of all types and backgrounds around the world.” This community has grown and extends to tumblr, instagram, and youtube.

This article highlights the issues that Asian Americans face, specifically women. Not only are they pressured to fit the expectations of western society but they are also help up to their ancestors expectations. The messages being spread are extremely important and I think its wonderful that, ““The project is more directed toward a non-Asian audience, so people can be aware that these microagressions exist, and compiling them in a public space helps people realize how hurtful they can be when you see them from our perspective.””