Social Justice Education Pedagogy in Asian American Theater

Social Justice Education Pedagogy in Asian American Theater ___________________________________ A Thesis Presented to The Honors Tutorial College Ohio University ____________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation From the Honors Tutorial College With the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater ____________________________________ by Mailé Nguyen April 2018 Social Justice Education Pedagogy in Asian American Theater This thesis has been approved by The Honors Tutorial College and the Department of Theater ______________________________ Dr. William Condee Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts Thesis Advisor _______________________________ Dr. Matthew Cornish Director of Studies, Theater _______________________________ Dr. Cary Frith Dean, Honors Tutorial College Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Asian American Theater 5 What Does it Mean to be Asian American? 5 Asian American Theater 10 Historical Context of Asian American Theater 13 On Being a Spokesperson: David Henry Hwang 15 Who Controls Theater? 16 Asian American Representation in the Media and Onstage 19 How Can Asian People Navigate Mainstream Theater? 25 Chapter 2: Social Justice Education 28 Introduction 28 Racial Justice Education 32 Social Justice Education Within Asian American Communities 37 Social Justice Education Methods 44 Theatre of the Oppressed 45 Theater as Politics: Creating Alternative Spaces 49 Chapter 3: Case Studies 51 Introduction 51 Case Study One: Ma-Yi Theater Company 52 Ma-Yi: Project: Balangiga 58 Ma-Yi: Social Justice Education Methods 59 Case Study Two: Miss Saigon 62 Miss Saigon: Reinforcing Social Norms 67 Case Study Three: Vietgone 71 Vietgone: The Playwright 71 Vietgone: The Process 74 Vietgone: The Production 76 Vietgone: The Response 78 Vietgone: Social Justice Education Methods 79 Conclusion: Where to go from here? 82 Acknowledgements 85 Works Cited 86 Nguyen 1 Introduction “The West believes the East, deep down, wants to be dominated—because a woman can't think for herself. ...You expect Oriental countries to submit to your guns, and you expect Oriental women to be submissive to your men.” ― M. Butterfly (Hwang 82-83) I believe that education is the basis for social change. Education provides a durable foundation for social growth by influencing the environment in which oppression persists. Maurianne Adams and Lee Anne Bell, editors of Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, introduce social justice education as a pedagogical approach that “includes both an interdisciplinary conceptual framework for analyzing multiple forms of oppression and a set of interactive, experiential pedagogical principles to help learners understand the meaning of social difference and oppression, both in social systems and in their personal lives” (Adams et al. ix). In this thesis, I argue that Asian American theater can utilize social justice education pedagogy to promote discussion and education of racial issues in the Asian American community. To this day, Asian Americans widely experience oppression. As an Asian American, I feel the effects of racial prejudice in various aspects of my life. Oppression against Asians and Asian Americans is exacerbated by a society that perpetuates negative stereotypes about us in the media. A report from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations reported that crimes against Asian Americans in California tripled from 2014 to 2015 (Chen). Our current political climate is to blame for much of the violence against Asians and Asian Americans. In November 2017, CNN reported that the United States President had retweeted anti-Muslim propaganda from a far-right, ultra-nationalist Nguyen 2 organization to villainize Muslims (Landers). In February 2018, The Huffington Post reported that twenty percent of hate crimes committed against South Asians and Middle Easterners “invoked President Donald Trump’s name” (Yam). A White man shot and killed an Indian man named Srinivas Kuchibhotla in February 2017, as he shouted “get out of my country!” and called Kuchibhotla a terrorist (Los Angeles Times). Pervasive stereotypes of Islamic terrorism and the Yellow Peril are factors for violence against Asian Americans. There is a long history of violence and prejudice against Asians and Asian Americans, exemplified by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese Internment in 1942-1946, and the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982. Racism against Asian Americans is not a new development, but the methods in which we combat oppression must change as society changes. Asian Americans are growing as a racial minority in the United States. New information from the Census Bureau reveals that Asians have been the fastest-growing race group since about 2000. In 2013, China replaced Mexico as the country sending the most immigrants to the United States (C. Lam). Despite the rapid growth of the Asian American population, the media and politics have yet to reflect this diversity. According to the Census Bureau, 5.6 percent of all people in the United States identified as Asian in 2010 (U.S. Census Bureau), but only 0.04 percent of the US Senate and 0.02 percent of the House of Representatives were of Asian heritage that same year. Asian Americans are actively excluded from conversations about race in politics and media. Inequality against Asian Americans is normalized because they are not given the opportunity to speak for Nguyen 3 themselves. It is clear that alternative methods of combating oppression are necessary to achieve social change. Social justice education is founded on alternative pedagogical methods, to connect analysis to action and “to help participants develop a sense of agency and commitment, as well as skills and tools, for working with others to interrupt and change oppressive patterns and behaviors in themselves and in the institutions and communities of which they are a part” (Adams et al. 4). Social justice education is a call to action and is necessary for both privileged and oppressed communities to learn their respective roles in systemic injustice, and to build camaraderie. The first chapter of this thesis focuses on what it means to be Asian American. The term “Asian American” can be ambiguous, and can cause even more confusion when referring to “Asian American theater.” For clarity, it is worth explaining in depth what makes the Asian American identity unique and diverse and how Asian American theater reflects special cultural differences. The first portion of this thesis will also provide historical background and context for Asian American theater today. The second chapter of this thesis focuses on social justice education. I refer to many of the methods outlined in Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice as a foundation. I want to connect social justice education methods with Asian American theater so that Asian Americans can better navigate the oppressive systems embedded in mainstream theater and other oppressive systems in their own lives. Many social justice education principles are present and relevant to Asian American theater, and in the third Nguyen 4 chapter of this thesis, I analyze three case studies to support my research, including Ma-Yi Theater Company, Miss Saigon, and Vietgone. Nguyen 5 Chapter 1: Asian American Theater What Does it Mean to be Asian American? “[W]hat, after all, am I? Am I an American or am I a Negro? Can I be both? Or is it my duty to cease to be a Negro as soon as possible and be an American? If I strive as a Negro, am I not perpetuating the very cleft that threatens and separates black and white America?” -W.E.B. Du Bois, from The Conservation of Races (79-80). For too long, White Americans have imposed what they believe it means to be Asian American on Asian American people. Contrary to popular belief, Asian Americans are a very diverse group of people. In this thesis, I narrow my definition of “Asian American” to refer to people of Asian heritage born and/or raised from childhood in the United States and people who immigrated to America from Asia, despite citizenship status. This definition includes children of Asian immigrants born in the US, Asian American adoptees, and children who spent their childhood in the US. These specific distinctions are necessary because, if I were to limit my definition of Asian American to children born on American soil, I would be excluding myself as an Asian adoptee. I believe that Asian adoptees are as American as anyone born in the US. I have often struggled myself with what it means to be Asian American and an immigrant by international adoption. Every immigrant experience varies based on generational differences. My definition of “Asian American” also includes people descending from any of the forty-eight Asian countries. There are differences between what it being Asian means and White society views as Asian. Asia is physically the largest continent in the world, stretching from Turkey to the far East side of Russia. Because of certain circumstances caused by waves of Nguyen 6 immigration, the United States’ perception of what it means to be Asian has historically been limited to China, Korea, Japan, and perhaps some Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines or Vietnam. The geography and cultures of Asia remain a mystery to most American people. What it means to be Asian American has confused many Asian people as well. Japanese-American poet Amy Uyematsu writes, “The yellow power movement has been motivated largely by the problem of self-identity in Asian Americans” (9-10). Josephine Lee, in Between Immigration and Hyphenation: The Problems of Theorizing Asian American Theater, criticizes the popularized categorization of “Asian American theater” for being both too broad, as well as exclusionary to different generations of Asian immigrants. “Asian American” can be exclusionary because the term can refer to a person who was born in Asia and immigrated to the United States, or someone who was born in the United States and whose parents immigrated there. Those definitions of “Asian American” address different immigrant experiences.

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