Social Justice Education Pedagogy in Asian American Theater

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A Thesis Presented to

The Honors Tutorial College

Ohio University

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In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for Graduation

From the Honors Tutorial College

With the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater

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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

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Dr. William Condee

Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts

Thesis Advisor

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Dr. Matthew Cornish

Director of Studies, Theater

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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. ​ ​ ​ ​

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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.

Every Asian immigrant experience is different. It is important to recognize that there is no singular immigrant experience, because to do so would reduce the immigrant experience to a single story and rob people of their diverse backgrounds. The danger of the single story, as discussed by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her TED Talk, is that single stories are often propagated by White or Western mentalities (Adichie). The single story can lead to discrimination, both covert and overt. People who immigrated from

Asian countries1 as adults to the United States often deal with language barriers that can lead to problems with housing, employment, and access to services and transportation.

1 Specifically non-English speaking Asian countries. An immigrant from Vietnam will most likely have a ​ different experience with language barriers than someone from Singapore, where English is among the official languages.

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Asian immigrants who struggle with language barriers also face negative assumptions of intelligence based on English speaking ability or their accents. Obtaining citizenship is also not an easy task for any immigrant. First-generation immigrants from Asia can be considered Asian Americans because they consider themselves American, especially if they have lived in America for a long period of time or choose to obtain citizenship.

Second-generation immigrants, children of first-generation immigrants, often do not face the same linguistic and cultural barriers. American children of immigrants are raised within United States culture and are often proficient in English. Furthermore, children of immigrants born on US soil are given automatic birthright citizenship, according to Title

8, chapter 11, subchapter II of the United States Code (Office of the Law Revision

Counsel). These examples are oversimplifications of a complex and diverse community, but they further prove that the term “Asian American” can include different immigrant experiences.

The concept of Asian America as we understand it today is a fabricated social construct. The problem is that White America has too much influence in what it means to be Asian American. In Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America, ​ ​ Viet Thanh Nguyen explores Asian America as an exploitative limitation:

While it is critical for us to acknowledge that Asian America is an outcome of

radical social movements that were opposed to capitalism and its excesses, we

must not forget that in the contemporary moment Asian America is also useful to

capital through racial formation. Through race in its contemporary form, the state

is able to identify populations and select representatives for a pluralist system of

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government that is committed to propagating capitalism, which in its turn,

transforms Asian American identity into both a lifestyle commodity and a market

for that commodity. Asian American identity and American capitalism are thus

engaged in a dialectical relationship of mutual transformation. (V. Nguyen 12)

What it means to be Asian American has been homogenized by White America for convenience and control, making it even more difficult to define. While being Asian

American can be determined by self-identification, being Asian American has also been clouded and restricted by White society. Immigrants from Asia have been subjected to what Nazli Kibria calls, “racial ethnogenesis.” According to Kibria, racial ethnogenesis refers to a collective racial identity shift that is common in the immigrant experience

(Kibria 13). For example, instead of Asian immigrants identifying themselves on a regional or local level, they now generalize their identity to fit what the United States means by Asian. In America, many Asian restaurants claiming to serve food from one ​ ​ Asian culture are actually operated by Asian people from another ethnicity: Japanese restaurants run by Chinese staff, for example, or Thai restaurants staffed by Laotians.

Many non-Asian Americans cannot tell the difference between Asian ethnicities. In

Becoming Asian American, Kibria writes, “Immigrants and their descendants will merge ​ into established racial groupings in the United States. They will be driven to do so by the forces of racial labeling and exclusion,” (Kibria 14). This illusion of a singular pan-Asian identity further obscures what falls under the rubric of Asian American theater.

There are many disadvantages to ethnogenesis for Asian Americans. The disadvantages of ethnogenesis shows what negative impact White society’s influence has

Nguyen 9 on minorities. One reason is that the United States’ concept of non-Whiteness is very limited. Racial distinctions have not transformed into ethnic distinctions (Kibria 14). A person is more likely to be identified as “Asian” based on their appearance before they are identified for their specific ethnicity. The lack of ethnic boundaries reinforces the notion that Asian Americans are a homogeneous, pan-Asian ethnicity. Many non-Asian people believe “Asian” itself to be an ethnicity. Gendered Innovations, a peer-reviewed research project supported by the European Commission, Stanford University, and the

National Science Foundation, defines ethnicity as groups “that share a common identity-based ancestry, language, or culture” (Gendered Innovations). Thus, Asia, with its hundreds of languages and cultures, is not a singular ethnicity.

Racial ethnogenesis can be detrimental to communities, but it can also have unintended advantages. The label of “Asian American” can create solidarity among people of different Asian ethnicities. A well-known example of Asian American solidarity and an event credited as a catalyst for Asian American activism was the murder of Vincent Chin. Vincent Chin was a first-generation Chinese-American beaten to death in 1982 by two White men on the night of his bachelor party in Detroit, Michigan. The two White men, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, were heard screaming, “It's because of you little m—f—s that we're out of work” (Wang). Neither Ebens or Nitz spent a day in jail. An uneducated ignorance of ethnic distinction caused by ethnogenesis may have played a role in Chin’s death, but ethnogenesis also brought the Asian American community together in a time of need. In an interview with NBC News, co-founder and past President of American Citizens for Justice, Roland Hwang said, “The Vincent Chin

Nguyen 10 case forced Asian Americans into the civil rights discourse. The Vincent Chin case transformed a biracial discussion on race relations to be a multiracial one. So the Vincent

Chin case, along with other cases, each serve as a wakeup call to address anti-Asian bias and racial intolerance” (qtd. in Wang). In the wake of this tragedy, people from all ethnic backgrounds came together in solidarity.

For Asian American theater, racial ethnogenesis can mean that entire ethnic communities become lumped into a singular “Asian American” experience onstage and on screen. The myth of a pan-Asian ethnicity largely manifests itself in the casting practices of theater and film. For example, a Filipina actress can portray a Vietnamese woman, like Lea Salonga and Eva Noblezada in Miss Saigon, or a Korean-American ​ ​ actor can portray a Vietnamese man, like Ki Hong Lee as Dong in The Unbreakable ​ Kimmy Schmidt. ​ The reason why it is so critical to explore what it means to be Asian American is because there is so much ambiguity. The historical legacies and the language of identity affect how we as Asian Americans view ourselves and each other. There is a danger in letting White people define who we are as Asian Americans. If we let others define us, especially coming from a place of prejudice and ignorance, we are in danger of reinforcing negative stereotypes.

Asian American Theater

The term “Asian American theater” can be interpreted in many different ways.

Asian American theater can be defined as theater written by an Asian American person with content addressing Asian American issues, such as identity and history. Or Asian

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American theater can be defined as theater written by Asian Americans about anything that interests them, whether or not there are Asian Americans onstage. Or Asian

American theater can be defined only as productions that feature Asian American actors.

These are all remarkably different definitions of what Asian American theater can be, and it is important to explore and clarify what constitutes Asian American theater.

In A History of Asian American Theatre, Esther Kim Lee brings forward ​ ​ fundamental questions about Asian American theater:

What is its purpose? Does it exist to train Asian American actors? Should

an Asian American theatre company produce only Asian American plays

or could it also present Western canonical works? Should Asian

Americans avoid Asian theatre, traditional or contemporary and push to be

part of American theatre? Is the ultimate goal of Asian American theatre

total inclusion into American theatre (which implies the eventual

disappearance of Asian American theatre)? (Lee 43)

These questions illustrate the ambiguity surrounding Asian American theater. The vagueness of what distinguishes Asian American theater and what Asian American theater should consist of can be attributed to the struggle Asian Americans often face with identity. Asian Americans are seen as perpetual foreigners, never fully American and never fully Asian. Navigating identity and cultural heritage are common themes in

Asian American performance and coincide well with social justice education themes of navigating oppressive systems and culture.

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This thesis focuses on Asian American theater as plays written by Asian

American playwrights and theater companies that aim to bolster the voices of Asian

Americans through performing opportunities and support of Asian American playwrights.

In my opinion, not all Asian American plays must be centered on exploring Asian

American identity. Asian American playwrights typically cannot separate themselves from their unique lens through which they experience the world, so whatever story they tell is influenced by their Asian American identity. Having Asian Americans onstage is not the sole qualification for Asian American theater in this thesis. A story featuring

Asian characters written by an Asian American playwright will differ greatly from a

White playwright’s perspective. Stories written by White playwrights about Asian experiences is Orientalist. It is important that audiences experience Asian stories by

Asian American voices, not what White people believe to be Asian stories.

The Western world has long been enamoured with what was once referred to as

“the Orient.” The term “Orient” is now somewhat antiquated, and to call someone from

Asia “oriental” is considered offensive. In his introduction to Orientalism, Edward Said ​ ​ writes, “The Orient was almost a European invention, and has been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences” (Said 1). These themes can be found in shows such as The King and I, a ​ ​ musical about a British woman travelling to Siam, present-day Thailand, to teach the royal family. The musical, written by White men, has underlying themes surrounding the relationship between the civilized Western world and the exotic, barbaric Eastern world.

For example, the song “Western People Funny” highlights the differences between the

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East and the West. Many Western conventions and tools, such as a monocle, are completely foreign to members of the King’s court, and their fear and confusion is portrayed in a comedic way, making them seem like fools.

Orientalism studies the power dynamic between the Orient and the Occident as ​ human constructs. Much as race is a social construct created to keep certain people in power and other people submissive, the idea of a separation between Orient and Occident is also a social construct created to establish a power hierarchy. How the West has historically viewed the East creates a power system in which the West continually claims superiority over what the West considers to be bizarre and mysterious Eastern civilizations, preventing a true understanding. Said writes, “There are westerners, and there are Orientals. The former dominate; the latter must be dominated” (36).

Unfortunately, the Orientalist mindset still dominates mainstream theater and media, as shown by the success of The King and I and Miss Saigon. Both Broadway musicals were ​ ​ ​ ​ written by White men. That is why Asian American theater is a necessary distinction from theater written by White people about Asians or Asian Americans, so that Asians and Asian Americans can rectify the obscuring of their voices and exotification of their stories.

Historical Context of Asian American Theater

To combat the erasure of Asian American voices, many minority theaters have created niches in the theater community to amplify their voices to wider audiences. The first four Asian American theater companies were the East West Players (Los Angeles),

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Asian American Theater Company (San Francisco), Northwest Asian American Theatre

(Seattle), and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre (New York City) (Lee 42).

East West Players was founded in 1965, and their website claims that 75 percent of all Asian Pacific performers in the acting unions living in Los Angeles have worked in their company (East West Players). The Asian American Theater Company (AATC) was established in 1973 by playwright Frank Chin. The AATC produces original works by

Asian Americans, as well as provides workshops for Asian American playwrights. The

Northwest Asian American Theatre was founded in 1972 by a group of students at the

University of Washington, and was originally called the Theatrical Ensemble of Asians.

The original members went through various name changes before they officially became the Northwest Asian American Theatre. Unfortunately, in 2004 the group put on its last production and shut down because its members moved to cities such as Los Angeles and

New York City. The Pan Asian Repertory Theatre was founded in 1977, out of a need for an Asian American company in New York City. The company celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2017.

These companies were created with the goal of developing a space for Asian

American theater, but each company approached that goal in a different way depending on the founder’s vision of Asian American theater. The Asian American Theater

Company honors its founder, Frank Chin, by maintaining its reputation as a writer’s workshop for Asian American playwrights, while the East West Players continue to focus on the advancement of Asian American actors (Lee 42). The Pan Asian Repertory

Theatre wanted to establish Asian American theater in New York City. The Northwest

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Asian American Theatre was created in Seattle to establish Asian American theater in the

Pacific Northwest region.

Many Asian American theater companies do not base their progress in context with mainstream, or Broadway, success. On the websites for Asian American Theater

Company, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, and East West Players, their mission statements emphasize fostering a community of Asian American theater artists and introducing diverse Asian American culture to theater audiences. While some of their members break out into Broadway or Off-Broadway, many of the Asian American theater companies focus on building the Asian American community.

As the part of their mission statement, the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre aims “To introduce Asian American Theatre to the general theatre-going public as well as the differently-abled; to deepen the appreciation and understanding of Asian American cultural heritage” (Pan Asian Repertory). One of East West Players’ goals is

“Introducing audiences to the diverse Asian Pacific experiences” (East West Players).

The diversity in Asian American theater is also important to emphasize because the term

“Asian American culture” is often reduced to a limited number of experiences. Many of the Asian American productions that audiences see onstage typically come from upper-middle class, college-educated, and English-speaking playwrights. Asian American people come from vastly different backgrounds, from all classes and education level.

On Being a Spokesperson: David Henry Hwang

As the first Asian American playwright to win a Tony Award, David Henry

Hwang is a well-known and respected Asian American dramatist, best known for M. ​

Nguyen 16

Butterfly (1988), which was produced on Broadway and earned a Tony Award for Best ​ Play. M. Butterfly also won the Drama Desk Award, John Gassner Award, Outer Critics ​ ​ Circle Award, and was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Hwang is also the author of

Yellowface (1993), FOB (1980), and Chinglish (2011). He is considered a major figure in ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Asian American theater because he is the only Asian American playwright to ever win a

Tony Award. With his fame, he has become somewhat of an unofficial spokesperson for the Asian American theater community. With Asian American playwrights being a relatively smaller community, it is easy for Hwang to be placed on a pedestal for his

Broadway success. The problem arises that David Henry Hwang’s work can become representative of the Asian American experience, largely in part of the pan-Asian ethnicity myth, which is problematic because Hwang is not representative of every Asian

American voice. He recognizes this, however, by acknowledging that he cannot represent an entire community as the “Official Asian American.” But, he says, “if my visibility can be useful to illuminate or contribute to a social conversation, then I am satisfied with having the opportunity and responsibility” (Lyons 10).

Who Controls Theater?

Asian Americans often have to fight for visibility in the media and onstage. Asian

American theater, when it is written by Asian Americans about Asian Americans and performed by Asian Americans, is necessary direct action against an industry that is still resisting diverse voices. We as Asian Americans cannot wait patiently for White society to include us, Asian Americans must build up our own communities and create a space for ourselves. Mainstream theater is a tool to uphold racist and classist systems because

Nguyen 17 the mainstream is controlled by those in power. Augusto Boal, the Brazilian director and theorist, writes, “The dominant art will always be that of the dominant class, since it is the only class that possesses the means to disseminate it” (Boal 53). When the dominant class has control over the means of artistic production, it means that they control what audiences see. Historically, this control means that most major roles go to White actors, and people of color are often reduced to supporting characters, or given no roles at all. In a 2015 study by the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at the USC Annenberg

School for Communication and Journalism, researchers found that Asians and Asian

Americans were given the least amount of roles compared to Black and Latin American actors in the top 800 movies from 2007-2015 (see fig. 1).

Fig. 1 #OscarsSoWhite or #HollywoodSoWhite? From: Smith, Stacey, et al. ​ “Inequality in 800 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBT, and Disability from 2007-2015.” Media, Diversity, & ​ Social Change Initiative. Sept 2016 ​

While the statistics for film look bleak for Asian Americans, Broadway is not much better. The Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) reported that

Asian Americans saw the biggest decrease in roles on Broadway and non-profit New

York City stages in the 2015-2016 season. In the 2014-2015 season, Asian Americans

Nguyen 18 accounted for nine percent of all roles on Broadway and non-profit stages, and in the

2015-2016 season that figure dropped to four percent (see fig. 2).

Fig. 2 Casting Breakdown by Ethnicity, Broadway and Non-Profit, Year-to ​ Year. From: Asian American Performers Action Coalition. “Ethnic Representation on New York City Stages.”Asian American Performers ​ Action Coalition. Jan 2018. ​

Despite the dramatic decrease in Asian American roles, the 2015-2016 season saw a record high for overall minority roles. All minority groups included in AAPAC’s statistics, including Latinx, African Americans, Middle Eastern/North African (MENA),

American Indian, and disabled actors, saw an increase in roles from the 2014-2015 season. The Tonys felt like a direct response to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, popularizing the #TonysSoDiverse hashtag on social media. The increase in diversity was largely attributed to the success of Hamilton, increasing diverse roles on Broadway. ​ ​ While I was thrilled for the diversity of Hamilton, I remember watching the Tonys and ​ ​

Nguyen 19 counting only four Asian people featured on the Tonys stage: Daniel Dae Kim and Lucy

Liu as presenters, Phillipa Soo from Hamilton, and Kimiko Glenn from Waitress. ​ ​ ​ ​ The 2014-2015 season saw the highest percentage of Asian Americans on

Broadway stages in the past ten years. The spike was attributed to the revival of The King ​ and I, which accounted for sixty-two contracts with Asian American Performers ​ (AAPAC 3). However, The King and I is not Asian American theater, as defined in this ​ ​ thesis. The musical itself was written by two White men based on a book written by a

White woman. In the original 1951 Broadway production, all of the lead actors were in yellowface. The musical itself exoticizes Southeast Asian culture, and provides potential yellowface material for community theaters everywhere. Fig. 2 supports that the White majority controls the mainstream, so the majority of the media we consume is considered acceptable for White audiences. The success of productions like The King and I shows ​ ​ exactly what image of Asian people is palatable for White audiences.

Asian American Representation in the Media and Onstage

How Asian Americans are represented in the media and onstage is important to spread diverse stories and normalize cultural differences. Diverse Asian American representation is also fundamental to break free from the harmful stereotypes foisted upon us by mainstream culture. Audiences need to see Asian Americans depicted as

“normal” human beings with “real” problems to resist our dehumanization, because according to media educator Jean Kilbourne, “turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person” (qtd. in

Lazarus et al.). The issue of Asian American representation is becoming increasingly

Nguyen 20 important because diverse media portrayals can increase the conversations in Asian

American communities surrounding mental health, identity, and our history as immigrants—topics historically avoided in Asian culture.

Asian Americans have made significant strides in television and theater. The success of M. Butterfly and the creation of more Asian American theater companies ​ ​ across the United States shows how far Asian Americans have come. Most recently, a

Broadway production entitled Allegiance, featuring George Takei and Lea Salonga, ​ ​ portrayed the atrocities of Japanese internment camps in the United States. The show went through its first reading at the Japanese American National Museum in July, 2009, and went through workshops at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in 2011. It is worth noting that Allegiance was developed out of a Japan-focused organization, not a White ​ ​ theater company. Takei created a crowdfunding initiative on Japanese-American Day of

Remembrance to raise money for the show, and the show was eventually produced at the

Old Globe Theatre. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Allegiance was a big ​ ​ ​ ​ box-office success at the Old Globe (Herbert). The show is based on George Takei’s personal experiences as a child in the internment camps. The play depicts the reality of

Japanese internment camps during World War II, while highlighting life before the war, the devastation of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the difficulties of returning to daily life after entire livelihoods were destroyed. Stories like Allegiance are ​ ​ important because they shed light on important aspects of Asian American history that reveal the historic and systemic racism still being battled with today.

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Despite the strides for Asian Americans, there is still a noticeable lack of representation for Asian and Asian American communities in theater and in the mainstream media. It is still common to find examples of whitewashing or yellowface in the films, television, and theater. These two terms, whitewashing and yellowface, are not ​ ​ ​ ​ interchangeable, but are often discussed in conjugation with one another. Whitewashing, in regards to Asian representation in the media and onstage, is the act of taking historically Asian characters and making them White. A recent example of whitewashing is the 2017 movie Ghost in the Shell. The movie was a recreation of a Japanese anime, ​ ​ and there was extensive controversy surrounding the casting of White actress, Scarlett

Johansson, as the lead role (fig. 3), instead of a Japanese woman as depicted in the anime

(fig. 4).

Fig. 3 Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell from: Fig. 4 Ghost in the Shell anime from: Marnell, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Palmer, Frank. “GHOST IN THE SHELL: Scarlett Blair. “Ghost in the Shell is Getting a New Johansson Responds to ‘Whitewashing’ Claims,” Anime,” Nerdist. 7 Apr 2017. ​ ​ Screen Geek. 10 Feb 2017. ​

Yellowface occurs when when a White actor portrays a person of Asian descent, usually enhanced with the use of stage makeup and exaggerated accents. For example, in the 1956 film The Conqueror, John Wayne, known for his roles in cowboy movies, ​ ​

Nguyen 22 portrayed Genghis Khan (fig. 5), a historic figure in Mongolian history and founder of the

Mongol Empire.

Fig. 5 John Wayne as Genghis Khan from: Kichi, Danny. “100,000 ​ fans sign petition demanding Chinese actress to play Mulan in Hollywood adaptation,” Drama Fever. 23 Sept 2016. ​ ​

It is easy to brush off yellowface as a phenomenon of a racist past. The 1950s were a long time ago, and certainly Hollywood has learned its lesson. Unfortunately, that assumption is far from the truth. Yellowface, eye prosthetics, and Fu Manchu mustaches are all still used in television and film in the 2010s. A prominent example in film is Cloud ​ Atlas (2012). The movie depicts single actors in multiple roles, to “portray the continuity ​ of souls” (Zakarin). In the movie, there are many examples of actors portraying different races, but perhaps the most egregious are the transformations of multiple actors into

Koreans (see fig. 6). Guy Aoki of Media Action Network for Asian Americans

(MANAA) criticized the film for its double standards. Aoki says that there is a noticeable lack of blackface in the film—as it should be—despite plotlines featuring black ​ ​ ​ characters: "You have to ask yourself: Would the directors have used blackface on a

Nguyen 23 white actor to play [David] Gyasi’s role? I don’t think so: That would have outraged

African American viewers. But badly done yellowface is still OK” (Zakarin).

Fig. 6 Jim Sturgess in Cloud Atlas from: Fig. 7 Josh Radnor sporting a Fu Manchu mustache from: ​ ​ ​ ​ Allen, Nick. “Cloud Atlas criticised for Sessa-Hawkins, Margaret. “‘How I Met Your Mother’ vs 'badly done yellowface,'” The Telegraph. ‘Big Bang Theory’: Isn’t Gender Bias as Bad as ​ ​ 26 Oct 2012. Yellowface?,” Cultural Weekly. 5 Feb 2014. ​ ​

In fig. 7, Josh Radnor in How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014), sported a Fu ​ ​ Manchu mustache, exaggerated eyeliner, and darker skin in an episode called

“Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment In Slapmarra.” Like bad college Halloween costumes, the episode also featured the White women characters in silk robes with chopsticks in their hair. It is a shock that none of the characters donned conical hats with their chopsticks and paper fans. In Time Magazine, Kai Ma highlights the How I Met Your Mother ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ episode that premiered in 2014 for its “well-intended” racism. Ma quotes the apology ​ ​ posted on the co-creator’s Twitter, where they said they wanted to create a “silly and unabashedly immature homage to Kung Fu movies, a genre we’ve always loved” (Ma).

Even though the writers’ intentions were light-hearted, “well-intended” racism is still

Nguyen 24 racism. The writers tried to express their love and cultural appreciation for Asian culture, but crossed the line into cultural appropriation. It is dehumanizing when cultures are reduced to ridiculous stereotypes for comedy. The episode confirms that White television writers, to this day, do not know how to write Asian culture. Yellowface is not an atrocity we have moved past in this decade. Audiences are still subjected to what White people believe to be Asian culture because Hollywood is controlled by White society.

Hollywood largely picks and chooses aspects of Asian cultures that are profitable and convenient, yet still rejects Asians and Asian Americans in the process. Ma further explores why yellowface is still found in the media today:

What has always been so disturbing about yellowface, blackface, brownface, and

redface, is how far the industry is willing to go to not employ people of color.

Instead of hiring an Asian-American actor to portray an experience written by an

Asian American writer—an experience that can certainly include a penchant for

kung fu—television has historically, aggressively, employed white artists to write

about and portray non-white people (Ma).

Both in Hollywood and in mainstream television shows, yellowface is still prevalent as comic relief. Andrew Lam, of New America Media, expresses concern that yellowface still goes widely undisputed and unnoticed, by saying, “Asians, furthermore, remain foreign enough within U.S. pop culture that such depictions go largely un-castigated—unless there is a public reaction strong enough to force the offenders… to ​ ​ apologize” (A. Lam).

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Other than promoting racist stereotypes, whitewashing and yellowface steal Asian narratives and make them White. For example, the titular King Mongkut from The King ​ and I was portrayed by Russian actor Yul Brynner in yellowface. Brynner was known for ​ his iconic shaved head, which gave him additional “exotic” appeal at the time. As if it was not enough to be written by White playwrights, the words had to come from a White mouth, further invalidating the representation of Asian culture.

The historic idea of what constitutes accomplished mainstream Asian American representation onstage is problematic. Many Asian and Asian American stories have been overshadowed with productions written by White playwrights on their ideas of Asian stories. Plays like Miss Saigon presents audiences with “Asian experiences,” which are ​ ​ written by White men, and do not constitute Asian American theater.

How Can Asian People Navigate Mainstream Theater?

“Art is merchandise, only to be manufactured by the means of production.” ― Bertolt Brecht, Brecht on Theatre (35) ​ ​ ​ ​ Theater represents racist systems because White people still control the means of dissemination. Creating Asian American theater simply for the sake of Asian American audiences can be both liberating, and a way of seizing the means of production. If mainstream theater represents the oppressive reality of systemic injustice, learning to navigate mainstream theater is to learn how to navigate society.

Bertolt Brecht, the German playwright and theorist, compares mainstream theater to an apparatus in which content is received and produced (Brecht 34-35). The apparatus is controlled by the dominant society, and only produces content that allows the dominant society to survive:

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Values evolve which are based on the fodder principle. And this leads to a general

habit of judging works of art by their suitability for the apparatus without ever

judging the apparatus by its suitability for the work. ...This apparatus is

conditioned by the society of the day and only accepts what can keep it going in

that society. We are free to discuss any innovation which doesn’t threaten its

social function—that of providing an evening’s entertainment (Brecht 34). ​ ​ White society conditions the apparatus, thus art is judged in relation to what

White society thinks is “good” art. In my opinion, all of the “edgy” or diverse shows we see on television or in theaters are chosen by White society because they do not threaten

White power. Much of the diversity in mainstream media feels as though companies are doing so for profit, similar to when companies slap a rainbow flag on their merchandise and claim they are pro-LGBTQ+. Diverse shows such as Hamilton may be successful on ​ ​ Broadway, but the show’s success is being treated much like Obama’s presidency—as a ​ ​ pat on the back for White people and as a token occurence to claim we live in a post-racial society. I think it is more important for minorities, such as Asian Americans, to create their own spaces to create art, relatively free from the White society-controlled apparatus.

As humans who crave social recognition, it is only natural that Asian Americans desire success within the mainstream. As artists, it is only natural that we find jobs that pay enough money to put food on the table. However, I do not believe that the goal of

Asian American theater should be to break into the mainstream. If the Asian American theater community focused all its energy in breaking into the mainstream without

Nguyen 27 questioning the apparatus, as Brecht writes, “the apparatus goes on fulfilling its function with or without them” (Brecht 35). Visibility within the mainstream is important, and supporting mainstream success for Asian American playwrights, designers, and performers is healthy. However, it is more beneficial for the Asian American community to provide viable alternatives for ourselves. We cannot wait for the White mainstream to support aspiring Asian American theater artists; we must support ourselves and build our own community.

My approach to social justice is not based on attacking individuals that support unjust systems, but changing the environment in which their oppression exists. It is not enough to denounce theater productions for being racist; we must analyze the environment that allowed the show to happen in the first place. As Brecht would say, we must analyze the apparatus conditioned by society. We can look at The King and I as an ​ ​ example. It is important to recognize the show for its Orientalism and racist history. It is more critical, however, to analyze why this production continues to be performed today, why producers continue to support the show, why audiences continue to adore the show, and why the show continues to succeed. There are many factors that go into the decision to produce a show, and those factors need to be understood so they can be effectively and directly confronted. To enact social change, we must challenge the system by creating alternative viewpoints and by supporting minority voices. Social justice education methods provide a strong foundation for long-lasting societal change, because pedagogy influences social environment.

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Chapter 2: Social Justice Education

Introduction

Social justice education is the practice of educating oppressed and privileged groups about oppressive systems to promote social change. Social justice educators develop skills to critically analyze oppression as each student witnesses or experiences it.

As introduced in Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice (TDSJ), “The goal of social ​ ​ ​ ​ justice education is to enable individuals to develop the critical analytical tools necessary to understand the structural features of oppression and their own socialization within oppressive systems” (Adams et al. 4). Oppression can take many forms, and all are important to address, but TDSJ suggests to foreground one “ism” at a time to avoid ​ ​ overwhelming participants. As defined by the contributors of TDSJ, the vision for social ​ ​ justice “is a world in which the distribution of resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable, and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure, recognized, and treated with respect” (Adams et al. 3). Social justice education is the tool to reach that vision. Social justice education is more than just knowing that oppression exists; social justice education calls upon its participants to confront injustice.

Oppression is cumulative, so when we do not examine and address unjust behaviors, they continue to grow and spread. We can examine rape jokes as an example.

For instance, a couple of friends are hanging out, and someone makes an off-hand rape joke. There is some uncomfortable laughter, but no one says anything to reprimand their friend. There are two people in the group who are negatively affected in this scenario.

The first is the person or people in the group who have experienced or know someone

Nguyen 29 who has experienced sexual violence. They might feel unsafe with the person who made the joke, or unsupported by their friends who did not say anything. The second person negatively affected is the person who made the joke. That person will feel validated and may continue to make similar jokes in the future. The longer their problematic behavior goes unaddressed, the more fiercely they will defend their behavior when finally called out. For social justice to be achieved, both the oppressed and the oppressor must understand their roles within oppressive systems.

Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and educational philosopher, pioneered critical pedagogy: the philosophy that teaching is an inherently political act and that education is ​ ​ necessary to liberate oppressed peoples. Freire’s seminal work, Pedagogy of the ​ Oppressed, was first published in Portuguese in 1968 and two years later in English. ​ Freire believed that education was necessary for liberation: “Who suffer the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? Who can better understand the necessity of liberation? They will not gain this liberation by chance, but through the praxis of their quest for it, through their recognition of the necessity to fight for it” (27). According to

Freire, social justice is important because “only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both” (26). Social justice cannot be achieved without the consent and participation of marginalized groups. Freire writes,

“Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects which must be saved from a burning building; it is to lead them into the populist pitfall and transform them into masses which can be manipulated” (47). Social justice education should not be imposed upon oppressed

Nguyen 30 peoples by their oppressors, social justice should be constructed collaboratively with the oppressed.

Oppressed peoples often do not realize they are being oppressed. We are taught to fear authority figures because they often have badges and guns. We are rewarded if we keep our heads down and do not challenge the system that keeps us disadvantaged. Social justice education is critical because, to confront injustice, it is essential for individuals to understand the systemic and structural ways in which oppression can manifest. I believe it is imperative for oppressed peoples to understand how they are socialized to accept their position in oppressive systems.

Social justice education aims to create a safe environment for oppressed peoples to explore their oppression. Many of the topics covered in social justice education settings are potentially sensitive issues for participants. No one wants to be told that they partake in racist behavior. The aversion to talking about race causes many people to put up “affective barriers,” which prevent deeper understanding. “Affective barriers” is a phrase used in educational settings to describe problems of fear and self-esteem shutting down the desire to learn. To combat affective barriers, a social justice education setting must be one that encourages and explores complex thought processes embedded in learned and systemic behaviors. In Chomsky on Democracy & Education, Noam ​ ​ Chomsky writes about “humanistic conception,” a term coined by Bertrand Russell at

Trinity College, Cambridge. Humanistic conception warns that students are threatened by indoctrination. Instead of imposing views upon participants, humanistic conception proposes that students are individual beings who learn on their own terms with guidance.

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Humanistic conception compares a student to a gardener planting a tree. Education is the provider of the soil, and education must offer the freedom required to foster and fortify creative impulses. Education and social justice education should provide a “complex and challenging” environment for students to explore and grow (Chomsky 164).

Social justice education aims to empower individuals by educating them about the manifestations of oppression and provide models for creating social change. For marginalized groups, social justice education can focus on how oppression is internalized and how oppressed people play into and maintain oppressive systems. For privileged people, the learning objectives of social justice education can be directed at cultivating awareness of their own privilege and becoming conscientious allies to marginalized groups. A privileged person is a person who benefits from oppressive systems because of a characteristic they inherit or acquire that puts them in a social position above others.

For racial-justice allies (in this case, people who do not identify as a person of color, but still fight for racial justice), social justice education aims to develop an empathetic capacity for diverse groups and emphasizes how they can use their privilege to address internalized dominance and racism as they see it in their social circles (Adams et al.).

Similar pedagogical principles found in Freire’s work and TDSJ can be applied to ​ ​ Asian American theater. Theater created by and with the Asian American community is the only effective social justice education tool, not theater created solely by their oppressors. The social justice dialogue within Asian American communities is necessary to grow collectively.

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The job of social justice educators is not to impose their own views upon their students, but to create dialogue. Freire says:

The important thing, from the point of view of libertarian education, is for the

people to come to feel like masters of their thinking by discussing the thinking

and views of the world explicitly or implicitly manifest in their own suggestions

and those of their comrades. Because this view of education starts with the

conviction that it cannot present its own program but must search for this program

dialogically with the people, it serves to introduce the pedagogy of the oppressed,

in the elaboration of which the oppressed must participate. (105)

TDSJ adds: “Frequently, those from dominant groups, outside the communities ​ they intend to help, come in with, and try to impose, preconceived ideas about what a community ‘needs’” (Adams et al 21). Social justice educators, while being advocates in their own right, must be good allies. The line between students and educator is more collaborative than in a traditional classroom. For this reason, lecture-based learning is ineffective. It is imperative for facilitators to ensure an environment of respect and group participation for collective growth.

Racial Justice Education

Race is a social construct created to justify dehumanization and social injustice against people of color. These non-scientific constructs have material and psychological consequences that can affect most, if not all, aspects of an individual’s life. Because racism is embedded in our society, many of us engage in acts of overt and covert racism,

Nguyen 33 often unknowingly. Social justice education aims to address ingrained behaviors by various pedagogical methods.

Social justice education focuses on what is referred to as “intersectional issues,” for example, intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. The goal is to understand how these issues combine and connect, rather than study them in isolation. Racial justice education focuses on the intersectional issues regarding race-based discrimination. When educating about race and racism, it is critical to have a historical and conceptual understanding of racism to contextualize systemic and institutionalized racism present in today’s society. Understanding the history of racism builds a foundation in which modern institutional racism can be analyzed, especially in its diverse forms and outcomes. These manifestations of racial injustice can include how racism affects politics, education, the labor market, housing, criminal justice, the media, and other areas of daily life.

For racial justice to be achieved, both marginalized and privileged groups must be equipped with the vocabulary to distinguish and address acts of oppression. Oppressed peoples need help from their oppressors, whether they like to admit it or not. Allies are an important resource for social justice, and oppressors must understand what it means to be a responsible and accountable ally. Racial justice education can teach privileged groups how to call out racism in their social circles, how to be better allies, and how to amplify the voices of the oppressed instead of speaking over them. Racial justice education can also allow privileged groups to better understand how they benefit from systemic injustice, how to combat those systems, and how to take action for racial justice.

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Racial justice education is undeniably beneficial for people of color as well. TDSJ ​ claims, “Through consciousness-raising, subordinated peoples became aware of daily inequities and were led by these insights towards analyses that theorized and directed action against their oppression” (Adams et al. 31). To effectively combat oppression, disadvantaged people must be equipped with the tools, resources, and support available to them. Social justice education equips participants with the vocabulary to analyze oppression, and the validation to take action.

Microaggressions have become a topic often discussed in social justice discourse.

Racial microaggressions are acts of unconscious bias that manifest in the form of covert racism. Because racial microaggressions are not as easily spotted in comparison to overt racism, it is harder for people of color to address them as they occur. Furthermore, because microaggressions are not always as apparent as acts of overt racism, many people view microaggressions as personal disputes or simply hurt feelings, rather than a result of systemic injustice. Racial justice educators teach their students about microaggressions, what they are, what are examples, and what makes them racist. Social justice education can teach students to better recognize microaggressions as they witness or experience them, and know how to address them as acts of oppression. In an educational setting, a facilitator might introduce the idea of microaggressions, ask for examples of microaggressions from the group, and then discuss ways of navigating through these experiences.

When I facilitate social justice education workshops, I always introduce microaggressions by first asking if anyone knows what a microaggression is. I find that

Nguyen 35 when teaching concepts about race, it is better if the participants have a hand in teaching each other. After the group generally reaches a consensus about the definition of a microaggression, I show a video from Fusion Comedy published to YouTube in 2016 called “How microaggressions are like mosquito bites” (Fusion Comedy). The video is light-hearted, but tackles a very serious issue in a way that is accessible to all audiences.

The video does a good job of highlighting that microaggressions are more than just people getting their feelings hurt, and makes the comparison to mosquitos that carry fatal diseases (see fig. 8).

Fig. 8 Slides highlighting the dangers of microaggressions from: ​ Fusion Comedy. “How microaggressions are like mosquito bites” Fusion Comedy. 5 Oct 2016. ​

After the video, I ask if anyone in the group has ever experienced microaggressions, and if they have examples they would like to share. I include an example of my own to get the discussion started. My brother and I are both adopted from

Asia and we have White parents, and we occasionally get weird looks or unwanted questions. My mother told me of an instance from my childhood when a woman saw my brother and me in a stroller together. After confirming that my father was not Asian and that we were adopted, she asked, “Did you get a discount for getting two?” This story always gets some headshakes or mouth-drops from the audience. My personal example

Nguyen 36 brings in my own experiences to humanize me as a facilitator, and makes it easier for participants to share their own stories. Allowing for the participants to share their own stories with each other is absolutely critical. TDSJ also underlines the importance of ​ ​ participants sharing their stories:

It is important that participants explore how their social identities and cultural

backgrounds inform their world views and lived realities. Sharing their own

stories and hearing those of others are powerful ways to help participants reflect

on their own experiences and note commonalities and differences with others who

have similar and different social identities. (Adams et al. 40)

Many people feel powerless and incapable of enacting change. Given the pervasive and enduring nature of racism in society, many people of color resort to assimilation as a way of coping and surviving White supremacist society. Racial justice education is essential for both the privileged and the oppressed groups, because racial justice education emphasizes intergroup communication as well as skills in how to listen and express emotions regarding racism. In Developing a Liberatory Consciousness, B.J. ​ ​ Love underscores the importance of a “liberatory consciousness” that “enables individuals to live their lives in oppressive systems and institutions with awareness and intentionality, rather than on the basis of the socialization to which they have been subjected” (599). Love argues that this intentionality and awareness is the best way assuage feelings of helplessness in oppressed groups.

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Social Justice Education Within Asian American Communities

Racial justice education is critical for people of color to equip them with the tools to navigate oppression in external and internal forms. Particularly for non-Black people of color, racial justice education is necessary to reduce the disproportionate discrimination Black people still endure today. Asian Americans have a reputation for being racist against other people of color. In November 2014, twenty-eight year old

Chinese-American police officer, Peter Liang, shot and killed Akai Gurley, a twenty-eight year old unarmed black man. Thousands of Asian Americans in New York,

Houston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and many other cities gathered to protest the conviction of Liang. Many Asian Americans were demanding justice for Liang, claiming he was being used as a “scapegoat” by the American justice system, calling the conviction “selective justice.” White police officers often go unpunished for killing unarmed Black people, and many Asian American protestors believed Liang to be a victim. Thousands of Asian Americans, many of them Chinese Americans, saw the trial as a call to action that united the Chinese American community for a single cause. Jenn

M. Jackson, of Black Youth Project, writes, “That so many (more than 50,000 people around the country) have become a united front on the side of a Black man’s convicted murderer underscores how much anti-Black racism can be a mobilizing force for even other racial minorities” (Jackson).

Historically, Asian Americans played into White supremacy as a way of survival.

In a Huffington Post article, Jezzika Chung writes on anti-Black racism in Asian ​ ​ American communities:

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As Asian immigrants work toward building successes in a foreign environment,

they begin taking cues from the people they see as most successful... To many

Asian Americans, whiteness often becomes equated to success, and all the

elements that have been conditioned to come with the paradigms of whiteness.

One of those, historically speaking, has been anti-blackness. (Chung)

Collusion is a result of internalized racism that is more common in Asian

American communities than other communities of color. Collusion occurs “when people of color knowingly (though not always voluntarily) accede to their own mistreatment or the mistreatment of other people of color in order to survive or maintain status, livelihood, or some other benefit” (Adams et al. 138). Collusion is particularly prevalent in Asian American communities because of strong cultural values, as well as political and immigration history. Historically, Asian immigrant families have aligned themselves with

White societal values to assimilate into white communities. According to Steven Tang, in an analysis of assimilation, “A large part of modern-day Asian-American assimilation outcomes can be attributed to significant historical opposition against their immigration and integration into American society” (Tang). Examples of anti-Asian immigration laws include the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was the first major anti-immigrant policy enacted by the federal government in the United States. The policy was signed into action by President Chester A. Arthur, and barred all Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States. The policy was originally only supposed to last for ten years, but was renewed in 1892 and was made permanent in 1902, until it was repealed in 1943.

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While the legislation targeted Chinese immigrants, many other Asian immigrants were also affected because of the common misconception of the pan-Asian ethnicity.

Fig. 9 The George Dee Magic Washing Machine Company - 19th century US ​ commercial/political cartoon. Commons.Wikimedia.org. 16 June 2017. ​ ​ Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org.

Another famous example of mass-discrimination against Asian Americans is

Executive Order 9066, issued in 1942 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, which called for the

“relocation” of Japanese Americans into designated military zones to prevent any sabotage or espionage during World War II. The Executive Order further demonized and alienated Asian Americans from White society by forcing Asian Americans out of their homes, stripping them of their livelihoods (fig. 10), and detaining them in internment camps (fig. 11).

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Fig. 10 Grandfather and grandchildren Fig. 11 Three Boys Behind Barbed Wire by Miyatake, ​ ​ awaiting evacuation bus by: Lange, Toyo. “Memories of Manzanar.” UCR Today. 1942. ​ ​ Dorothea. “Dorothea Lange - Japanese Internment.” History in Photos. Hayward, ​ ​ California, 1942. Retrieved from historyinphotos.blogspot.com.

For older generations of immigrants, assimilation was how Asian Americans survived in

White society. Today, the sentiment of assimilation still exists in older immigrants, and has its effects on new generations. Assimilation can lead to internalized racism and ignorance of racial injustice, perhaps caused by generational values passed onto today’s

Asian-American youth.

Social justice education is necessary for Asian Americans because we need to understand our place within systemic racism, as oppressors as well as oppressed. There is a prevailing issue in Asian and Asian-American communities with anti-Black racism.

Shashank Rao writes, “Much of the racial tension between black and Asian populations is founded on the aggressive promulgation of the model minority myth, which deems Asian

Americans as a sort of a wunderkind race” (Rao).

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Claire Jean Kim also explores the relationship between Asians and Black people within White supremacy in what she calls “Racial Triangulation” (see fig.12). Kim, introducing the Racial Triangulation graph, writes: “Asian Americans have not been racialized in a vacuum, isolated from other groups; to the contrary, Asian Americans have been racialized relative to and through interaction with Whites and Blacks” (Kim

106).

Fig. 12 Diagram explaining Claire Jean Kim's theory of racial triangulation ​ by: Kim, Claire Jean. “Racial Triangulation” Commons.Wikimedia.org. 31 ​ ​ July 2006. Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org.

Racial triangulation shows how Asian Americans are racialized in relation to

Black people and White people. The linked processes that affect racial triangulation are:

(1) processes of “relative valorization,” whereby dominant group A (Whites)

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valorizes subordinate group B (Asian Americans) relative to subordinate group C

(Blacks) on cultural and/or racial grounds in order to dominate both groups, but

especially the latter, and (2) process of “civic ostracism,” whereby dominant

group A (Whites) constructs subordinate group B (Asian Americans) as

immutably foreign and unassimilable with Whites on cultural and/or racial

grounds in order to ostracize them from the body politic and civic membership.

(Kim 107)

The graph shows how each racial group is placed on a “field of racial positions,” as either an insider or a foreigner. The arrows indicate how each group oppresses the other, how

White people alienate Asian Americans and how White people keep Black people below

Asian Americans, to oppress both. The graph highlights how each race is racialized in relation to each other and that they are racialized differently, as shown by the two axes.

Kim’s graph was an alternate method of analyzing Asian Americans vis-à-vis Black people and White people, as opposed to the racial hierarchy graph (see fig. 13).

The racial hierarchy graph shows each race, and sometimes ethnicity, in relation to each other, on a pyramid. White people are at the top of the pyramid because they are the most privileged, while Black people are at the bottom because they have the least amount of privilege.

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Fig. 13 Diagram explaining racial hierarchy by: HansikHouse. Understanding ​ ​ Today's “Privilege.” December 2017. Retrieved from steemit.com. ​

Kim argues that there is a problem with the racial hierarchy approach because the notion of a single scale of privilege is “belied by the fact that Whites appear to have ordered other racial groups along at least dimensions or axes historically” (Kim 106). The reasons why and how minorities are oppressed are different for each ethnic group. For example, Black people have been dehumanized as inferior beings, but Asian people have been dehumanized as exotic aliens. The racial hierarchy graph also neglects how White people oppress minorities by divisive tactics, such as the model minority myth. The idea of a model minority and non-model minorities allows White Americans to avoid responsibility for the racially unjust systems they uphold. The model minority myth, similar to the myth of the American Dream, argues that certain people of color, specifically Black people, are solely responsible for their own poverty and misfortune.

The systemic injustice that Asian people experience is nearly incomparable to the racial

Nguyen 44 oppression Black people face today and have historically endured, which is why the racial triangulation graph is better for depicting Asian American racialization than the racial hierarchy pyramid.

Social justice education can address these anti-black beliefs by first elucidating issues of racism within and against Asian American communities, and then providing methods on how to navigate oppressive systems with awareness. Like White people,

Asian Americans need to address racist and anti-black behaviors.

Social Justice Education Methods

Social justice cannot employ the same pedagogical methods used in a traditional classroom. A point from TDSJ is that lecture-and-listen methods are not engaging enough ​ ​ to activate social change (Adams et al.). Many of the racial justice education workshops emphasize activity-based learning to create a positive model for social change. Activities reinforce principles covered in the foundation-building period, where students learn about historical and conceptual understandings of racism. Lecture-based learning is not effective for social justice education because, for the goal of social justice to be achieved, individuals must understand abstract and theoretical concepts, recognize and analyze those concepts in real-world manifestations, and act upon injustices. Discussion-based learning is the most effective means for social justice education, because the learning environment becomes student-centered, rather than teacher-centered. Instead of a facilitator telling participants how to act when they see injustice, it is meaningful for the group to discuss and weigh options. To be effective, oppressed people must be included in the discussion. This discussion-based method is based on Freire’s idea that social

Nguyen 45 justice must be achieved by the oppressed. After learning more about racism, social justice educators work with students to develop action plans with concrete steps in response to what they have learned to combat racism.

Theater is a viable alternative to lecture-based learning. Performances can seem much like lectures, with little interaction between spectator and actor. Theater, however, can be interpreted as a presentation of select themes through different lenses, or sometimes a mirror for spectators to see their own world from an outside perspective.

Theater also builds an emotional connection with audiences, allowing the audiences to mentally engage with what is happening onstage. Theater can act as a catalyst for dialogue, and can be used to effectively engage with audiences in a way that allows the audience to critically analyze systems of oppression. For oppressed people, theater can also provide a model of humanity that differs from the normalized model of oppression.

Through pedagogical methods, such as consciousness-raising, people of color can familiarize themselves with oppressive systems that previously had been so embedded in their way of life that they went unnoticed. TDSJ notes that “Consciousness-raising ​ ​ processes are a powerful way to examine and critique normative assumptions and our own, often unconscious, investments in supporting them” (Adams et al. 16).

Theatre of the Oppressed

“...theater is a weapon. A very efficient weapon. For this reason, one must fight for it.” -Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed (Forward) ​ Theatre of the Oppressed introduces readers to one way that social justice ​ principles have been applied to theater. Brazilian director Augusto Boal developed a

Nguyen 46 theater workshop for social change, and wrote a book called Theatre of the Oppressed in ​ ​ 1974. The book outlines Boal’s concepts by using theorists such as Aristotle, Niccolò

Machiavelli, and Bertolt Brecht to support his ideas as well as case studies of his workshops in action. Boal was influenced by Paulo Freire, leading him to his title,

Theatre of the Oppressed. Boal argues that theater can be used as a revolutionary tool for ​ social change and political activism.

Boal believed that all theater is political because everything that people do is inherently political. Boal argued that theater was originally an art by the people and for the people, in which everyone participated, with no division between actors and audience.

He believes that the barriers arose later, with the physical and emotional separation of the spectators and the actors, and then further with the separation of the protagonist and the masses. The divisions were introduced by the aristocracy as a way of enforcing the wider, classist system of the aristocracy feeding what they wanted to the public, who are to remain passive and receptive, much like audience members in the theater.

To demonstrate how theater can be used as a tool for social change, Boal argues that theater has become as a tool to maintain the status quo and uphold classist ideals.

Much like Brecht’s comparison of the mainstream to an apparatus, Boal supports the idea that the apparatus is controlled by those in power. According to Boal, in ancient Athens, plays were funded by the State, ensuring that only the plays that were permitted by the wealthy, ruling class were allowed to be performed at dramatic festivals. If theater can be used as a tool to silence the oppressed under the guise of representing them, then theater can also be used as a tool to liberate the oppressed.

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As his solution to the oppressive systems upheld by mainstream theater, Boal developed a theater workshop model in which the barriers between actors and spectators were erased, and the audience members become spect-actors. The term “spect-actors” ​ ​ refers to the audience participation portion of the workshop. Audience members were encouraged to react directly and interact with the actors. The spectators were emboldened to take a much more interactive role than in traditional theatrical performances. The plan for transforming the passive spectator into an actor consists of four stages. Stage one includes exercises that allow the spectators to understand their body. In stage two, the spectators get the opportunity to express themselves with their bodies. In the third stage, theater is emphasized as a language that is “living and present,” which is further divided into three “degrees.” The first degree is “simultaneous dramaturgy,” in which the spectators “write” with the acting of the actors. The second degree is “image theater,” in which “the spectators can intervene directly and speak through images made with the actors’ bodies” (Boal 126). In the third degree, known as “forum theater,” the spectators are encouraged to intervene in the dramatic action. All of these previous stages lead to the fourth stage, called “the theater as discourse,” in which “the spectator-actor creates

‘spectacles’ according to his need to discuss certain themes or rehearse certain actions”

(Boal 126).

Boal stresses that his workshops are not spectacle-based performances, but focus more on the rehearsal process. He believes that rehearsing the theater is a way of rehearsing for the revolution: by performing different solutions and outcomes to given

Nguyen 48 scenarios, the spect-actors are able to come up with their own solutions and watch them play out. They can then determine the best possible course of action.

Because of the theater etiquette that people in the United States take for granted, I think that Boal’s model would not be as effective for US audiences. Those who would oppose Boal’s model as radical are typically the people who would benefit most from workshops. Mainstream theater is not ready for the radical notion of audience collaboration, because it is not what sells. There is embedded prejudice against speaking out against the status quo, and examples can be found in how we control audience participation. The way we allow theater patrons to interact with art is generally restrictive. Audience members are often discouraged from talking during a performance, or even expressing vocal approval or disapproval to avoid disrupting other patrons.

To illustrate this point, in an article in American Theatre Magazine, Dominique ​ ​ Morisseau claims that there is a pattern to governing audience participation. In the article,

Morisseau tells the story of how an older white woman chastised her for emphatically responding to a play that she knew well—a play where the lights would shine on the audience and they were invited to partake in a “church like” experience. Reflecting back - on the experiences, Morrisseau used the story to contextualize the White privilege and elitism problem in theater. She says that theater companies as collective institutions aim to placate older White audiences above all else because the companies need their donor money. Theater companies will not typically try to educate or challenge White patrons and theater companies will continue to put problematic White voices on boards and staff,

Nguyen 49 reinforcing to “upper-middle-class white audience[s] that theatre is their home first and the rest of us are just guests” (Morrisseau).

Morrisseau calls for a more inclusive and challenging environment for all theater patrons. She says that it is the responsibility for institutional leaders to set the tone for future change, by changing the theater culture:

If we want to keep theatre alive and keep our patrons, as well as attract new

ones—old and young, white and “of color”—we can’t be afraid to push our older

white patrons past their comfort levels and dismantle their supremacist and

privileged worldviews, not just onstage, but in the culture of theatre that we are

creating.

We need to say that, just like in church, you are welcome to come as you

are in the theatre. Hoot and holler or sit quietly in reverence. Worship and engage

however you do. (Morisseau)

Theater as Politics: Creating Alternative Spaces

Augusto Boal poses the question, “Should art educate, inform, organize, influence, incite to action, or should it simply be an object of pleasure?” (Boal). In my opinion, as artists who produce consumable content with live performance, artists have responsibility to use their platform to influence for the greater good. Theater is an art form that involves and focuses directly on people and the human condition. Theater must show concern with how characters interact with the world and how their environment affects them. Diverse representation onstage is absolutely critical because theater is political. Theater does not exist in a vacuum, and consequently has effect on real human

Nguyen 50 beings. Mainstream theater that continues to silence the oppressed—whether that be through not representing minorities onstage or actively misrepresenting them—is complicit in a system of dehumanization.

Because Broadway and mainstream theater uphold classist systems, creating alternative performance spaces is absolutely essential to address systemic injustice in theater. As an art originally by and for the people, theater has become classist and inaccessible to the people it claims to represent. Using Dominique Morisseau’s story as an example, how society regulates audiences in regard to theater etiquette is a way to keep certain people from participating with art. These ingrained restrictions keep White people in control of the theater landscape. Even White people who do not actively participate in the oppressive system benefit from White privilege in theater. When White people are the gatekeepers for mainstream theater, they will take measures to keep their power. For example, theater companies keep problematic people in positions of power and produce plays written by White people about people of color instead of stories by people of color on their own experiences. Aside from a historic lack of representation,

Broadway has also produced and revived productions, such as Miss Saigon and The King ​ ​ ​ and I, that exoticize and fetishize Asian actors under the facade of diverse representation ​ onstage. Broadway and the mainstream theater community has become elitist, a pastime for the upper and upper-middle class. Alternative companies and alternative performing spaces are necessary to ensure that diverse voices are being heard.

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Chapter 3: Case Studies

Introduction

The application of social justice education in a real world setting is more important than theorizing about pedagogical methods. The following case studies show how social justice education approaches are implemented in Asian American theater and how they are needed to address problematic depictions of Asians in mainstream theater. I picked two Asian American theater case studies to analyze: Ma-Yi Theater Company and

Vietgone, written by Qui Nguyen. I also analyze Miss Saigon, as a contrast to Vietgone ​ ​ ​ ​ and an example of how mainstream theater has historically treated Asian Americans. I will analyze a play as well as a producing entity to explore how social justice education pedagogy can be facilitated in different contexts.

I chose two examples of “conventional” theater, in which the stage is separated from the audience, instead of participatory theater as outlined in Theater of the ​ Oppressed, because conventional theater is more accessible to a wide array of people. ​ Ma-Yi productions or a showing of Vietgone are not always easily available for everyone, ​ ​ but people are more likely to have opportunities to engage in conventional theater than participatory workshops. I will show that social justice education methods can be beneficial for Asian American theater companies to have conversations about race and

Asian American issues and that Asian American theater can be appreciated by anyone.

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Case Study One: Ma-Yi Theater Company

I am a strong believer in supporting new works because I believe that American theater needs to change as society changes. How the American public treats people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and disabled people is changing for the better, albeit slowly. If theater is a mirror to society, theater seasons should not continually reflect what America believed fifty years ago. New works reflect changing perspectives and aspiring voices, and Ma-Yi ensures that new Asian American voices have a space in the American theater community.

I chose Ma-Yi Theater Company as a case study because I believe they execute social justice education methods within their work, their plays, and their mission. Simply put, I believe Ma-Yi represents resistance. The work that Ma-Yi does with generating and supporting new Asian American voices in theater is necessary direct action against under-representation for Asian Americans in theater. Ma-Yi has moved past simply denouncing the lack of diversity on Broadway. They are not waiting for White people to include Asian Americans onstage, and have taken upon themselves to create more opportunities for Asian American theater artists.

Ma-Yi Theater Company was formed in New York City in 1989 by nine former students from the University of the Philippines. The founding artistic director was Chito

Jao Garces, and the only founding member currently still on the board is Ralph B. Peña, the Producing Artistic Director. On their “About” webpage, Ma-Yi says the company

“has distinguished itself as one of the country’s leading incubators of new work shaping

Nguyen 53 the national discourse about what it means to be Asian American today” (Ma-Yi). The current Literary Manager of Ma-Yi, Joi Barrios, writes that Ma-Yi’s early works

“counter[ed] negative portrayals and stereotypes of Asian Americans through realism by focusing on the characters’ contradictions, negotiation, of identity and gender, and intergenerational conflicts” (Barrios xi).

The term “Ma-Yi” has a deep meaning for the company’s founders, and embodies

Ma-Yi Theater Company’s mission to embolden Asian and Asian American culture separate from American colonialist values. The origins of the company’s name are worth quoting in length:

A document written sometime around 1318 and titled Wen Shiann Tung

Kuo (A General Investigation of the Chinese Cultural Sources) contains a stray

reference to the Philippines that dates back to 982 AD. The text reads: “There

were traders of the country of MA-YI carrying merchandise to the coast of

Canton in the seventh year of Tai-ping-shing-kuo.”

Another pre-Spanish source is the Tao-i-chih-lio (Description of the

Barbarians of the Isles) by Wang Ta-yuan, dated 1349 AD, with the following

reference to MA-YI: “The people boil seawater to make salt and ferment

(molasses) to make liquor. The natural products are kapok, yellow beeswax,

tortoise shell, betel nuts, and cloth of various patterns. The Chinese goods used in

trading are cauldrons, pieces of iron, red cloth or taffetas of various color stripes,

ivory, ‘tint’ (a Chinese silver coin) or the like.”(Ma-Yi).

Nguyen 54

The name “Ma-Yi” was chosen to celebrate the rich culture of the Philippines before

Western colonization. Barrios quotes a 2006 interview with Peña, where he said that using the term “Ma-Yi” is simply “a way of refuting that culture was a gift from the

West” (qtd. in Barrios xiii). Barrios writes that using the name Ma-Yi challenges the notions that the West was justified in colonizing people they deemed “savage” for lacking “culture.” Barrios accuses colonizers for their ignorance and disrespect of non-Western cultures as “savage” (Barrios xiii).

The name Ma-Yi has its roots in Filipinx2 history. Originally, the theater company only produced works written by Filipinx writers. But soon after its founding, Ma-Yi realized that focusing on Filipinx works was too narrow, as they were getting new play submissions from a wide variety of Asian American playwrights. They have since expanded to include Asian writers from all cultural backgrounds, spanning from Korea,

Cambodia, India, and more.

Ma-Yi takes an active stance on the issue of Asian American representation. In an interview that I conducted with Peña, he said Ma-Yi wanted to address the issue of representation “upstream,” by generating new works of Asian American theater: “We wanted to say, ‘here’s the new work, now it’s up to [the producers] to produce it,’”

(Peña). Producers claim that there are no Asian Americans onstage because there are no roles specifically for them. Unless roles are racially specified, most theater companies will not go out of their way to cast Asian American talent if there are more easily

2 Filipinx is a gender-neutral term to refer to a person or people from the Philippines or of Filipinx descent.

Nguyen 55 accessible, experienced White actors. The problem then arises that Asian Americans cannot get the experience because there are not enough roles available to them in the mainstream industry. One of the main objectives of the company is to create and foster a diverse community of Asian American writers.

One of Ma-Yi’s defining programs is their Writer’s Lab, founded in 2004 by Song

Rno with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. On their website, Ma-Yi calls the Writer’s Lab the largest resident collection of Asian American playwrights in the nation. The Writer’s Lab is separate from the producing entity of Ma-Yi. A previous director of the program, Lloyd Suh, attests, “Because it is truly artist-driven group, it provides a safe, commercial-free forum for writers to imagine, experiment, generate and hone their work on their own terms and on their own time… the Lab’s greatest strength lies in its focus on empowering individual artists to explore their personal idiosyncratic voice, within a group setting” (Ma-Yi). The playwrights are given the freedom to write about the content that interests them. In an interview I conducted, Mike Lew, current co-director of the Writer’s Lab, said that there is a need to foster a community of Asian

American writers: “When you are among peers [with whom] you don’t have to explain yourself or justify your reason for being in the room, I think some really interesting conversations start to happen when you’re not starting at square one of ‘what are you?’”

(Lew).

Peña says that Ma-Yi aims to challenge perceptions about what ethnically specific and culturally specific theater can look like (Theater Development Fund). Jorge

Nguyen 56

Z. Ortoll, on Ma-Yi’s board of directors, say that exotica, including pagodas and cheongsams, is exactly what Ma-Yi does not do (Theater Development Fund). Asian ​ ​ Americans are often expected to write plays about being Asian American, whether that is their grandma’s immigrant story, or adapting into White American society. Often those stories play into old Asian character tropes, with the goal of enabling White audiences to relate to the content. There is also the fear of not being seen as “Asian enough,” and therefore not appealing to producers looking to fill a diversity quota. At Ma-Yi, Peña says he encourages the thirty-three resident playwrights to write about whatever they want, and not to be afraid of breaking those boundaries. To Asian American playwrights, he says, “It’s from your perspective as an Asian American, therefore it is an Asian American play. You can’t remove that lens from your life, you see things because of who you are”

(Peña). The Writer’s Lab has members that have produced shows all over the United

States. Ma-Yi has given the opportunity for Asian American playwrights to have agency in telling their own stories.

The time of White writers controlling Asian American voices is ending, and

Ma-Yi is ensuring that Asian Americans are being heard. Productions such as Miss ​ Saigon, The King and I, and South Pacific have long gone unchallenged with their racism ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ and orientalism, because they are long-running mainstream productions that are beloved by theater audiences. Many theater productions that feature racist and sexist content get away with oppression under the guise of satirical conventions, acting as a “mirror to an oppressive society,” with little to no actual criticism of the oppressive system in which

Nguyen 57 theater exists. American theater is largely controlled by White men, and cannot act as a self-checking entity. Without oppressed peoples actively speaking out against the racist systems upheld in American theater and creating alternatives for counter-discussion,

White American theater trying to call out their racism can be about as effective as an

Internal Affairs division in law enforcement. When I asked Peña who he believed held power in American theater, he said that White men are overwhelmingly represented in theater leadership. He added that “The preponderance of artistic leaders in key decision making are White males. None of whom would cop to any biases, because they’re all supposed to be liberal theater people” (Peña). Lew was also concerned with unconscious bias, “Artists have a dual role to both be political in the work that they’re putting out there, but also be political in terms of examining the structures for how theater gets made and pointing to where there’s inequities” (Lew). Lew said that art often gets a pass because people often view theater as an “ethereal thing,” and that mindset allows for bad behavior to generally go unchecked.

We can use the #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault accusations as an example. The film industry, like the theater industry, is dominated by

White people who turn the other way when one of their peers in power does something racist or sexist. Only when eighty women stepped forward to call out Weinstein’s sexual abuse was action taken. In a similar vein, many actors in both theater and film feel powerless in addressing social justice issues, especially if they feel they are acting alone.

The relationship between actors and directors or producers is incredibly fragile, with

Nguyen 58 actors walking on a thin line of unemployment if they speak out about issues that they face on set or in the rehearsal space. Asian American theater companies like Ma-Yi are integral in creating a space in which minority actors and writers feel they can speak out against an industry that suppresses them.

Ma-Yi: Project: Balangiga ​ Ma-Yi aims to be involved with local diverse communities in New York City, but they also want to participate in global conversations about the roles of artists in political discourse. Project: Balangiga is a play written by Ralph B. Peña and Sung Rno, in ​ ​ August 2002. The play was written in a documentary-style format, and featured an open forum held after each performance for the audience to take part in an open discussion on the controversy of the Balangiga bells, “appropriated as war booty during the

Philippine-American War” (Barrios 369). The bells were displayed in Cheyenne,

Wyoming, in memoriam to the American soldiers who lost their lives in Balangiga. The structure of the play was broken down into three parts: the first was a staged portion, to contextualize the events of the the Philippine-American War, the second part was scripted group discussions in the form of a town hall meeting with the residents of

Balangiga and Cheyenne, Wyoming. The third part was an open forum with the audience, in which they participated in open discussion about the Balangiga bells and their history.

Peña stated that Filipinx history has been “mangled” by American viewpoints. He said that the point of the open forum was to challenge the audience by asking, “What do you think, and how can we change this ongoing narrative?” (Peña). Barrios writes, “The play

Nguyen 59 positions artists and writers as historians and activists who use theater both as a venue for discussion and as a weapon of protest” (Barrios 369). After each performance, an audience survey was distributed to theatergoers. Sixty-two percent of the audience responded, affirming to Ma-Yi that the audience wanted to engage in a dialogue.

Project: Balangiga adopted certain aspects of Boal’s forum theater and put them ​ into context for American audiences. In the third part of the play, there was an open discussion with the audience and the performers, much like Boal’s forum theater, but audience members did not act out scenarios with the actors like in Boal’s model. Ma-Yi did not apply all of Boal’s model, as outlined in Theater of the Oppressed, because the ​ ​ ​ ​ model is not fully accepted to the United States in mainstream context. Despite this, audiences desire to participate, as shown by the responses Ma-Yi received after Project: ​ Balangiga. Peña said that he believes that Boal’s model has proven useful in ​ communities in Africa, South America, and the Philippines, but has not taken root in

America because he says, “I don’t know that theaters are necessarily interested in providing solutions” (Peña). America has a strong division between spectators and the audience because actively engaging with the action onstage is discouraged. Audiences are to remain passive, and distract themselves from the real world with a night of entertainment. In forum theater, audience engagement is encouraged and is the defining characteristic.

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Ma-Yi: Social Justice Education Methods

The social justice education methods that I believe are exemplified through

Ma-Yi are counter-storytelling, consciousness-raising, and historic contextualization.

Drawing on counter-narratives “unearth suppressed and hidden stories of marginalized groups, including stories of their resistance to the status quo, and provide evidence as well as hope that oppressive circumstances can change through the efforts of human actors” (Bell as qtd in Adams et al. 17). Counter-storytelling is a way of allowing the oppressed to share their stories that have long been overlooked. In the case of Project: ​ Balangiga, the Filipinx historical records of the Balangiga massacre were burned, leaving ​ only the American account of what happened (Peña). Project: Balangiga allowed ​ ​ audiences to explore the Filipinx perspective of Filipinx history in an open forum.

Counter-storytelling also aims to inspire people to take action, by showing that we have the power to change the world.

According to Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice (TDSJ), ​ ​ “Consciousness-raising processes are a powerful way to examine and critique normative assumptions and our own, often unconscious, investments in supporting them” (16).

Consciousness-raising connects personal experiences to socio-political events to show how people internalize external systems of oppression (Adams et al. 16).

Consciousness-raising also correlates to developing a critical consciousness necessary to analyze patterns of oppression. How the audience responded to Project: Balangiga ​

Nguyen 61 highlights that many audience members had not been educated in Filipinx history or knew about the injustice surrounding the Balangiga Bells.

Historic contextualization of oppression is important to provide audiences with the background of certain social injustices. One of the core principles of social justice education as outlined in TDSJ is to understand “the social construction and historical ​ ​ legacies of oppression” (Adams et al. 95). In productions like Project: Balangiga, Ma-Yi ​ ​ foregrounds their workshop with historical contextualization to highlight the fact that

Filipinx history has been corrupted and erased by American history. Ma-Yi aims to take back history by emphasizing historical legacies of American oppression: “Understanding these historical legacies is essential for making sense of the maintenance and reproduction of oppression in contemporary life, and provides inspiration and examples of resistance and activism that can encourage students and participants to consider ways to take action in the present” (Adams et al. x).

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Case Study Two: Miss Saigon ​ "I will not cry I will not think. I'll do my dance I'll make them drink. When I make love it won’t be me. And if they hurt me I'll just close my eyes and see the movie in my mind. The dream that fills my head, a man who will not kill, who'll fight for me instead! He'll keep us safe all day so no one comes at night to blow the dream away." -Kim and the bar girls, Miss Saigon (Boublil, Schönberg). ​ ​

Miss Saigon is the most famous example of Vietnamese history being told ​ through a White lens onstage. The popular Broadway musical has been well received with non-Vietnamese spectators, but often leaves a sour impression with Vietnamese

American audiences. Despite my opinions as an Vietnamese American, I believe that

Miss Saigon is important to analyze because of the impact the show has had on Asian ​ Americans in theater.

Miss Saigon, written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, premiered ​ in September, 1989, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London’s West End. According to Playbill, Miss Saigon is the thirteenth longest-running Broadway production, with ​ ​ 4,092 performances as of February 11, 2018 (Playbill). In the original 1989 London production, Jonathan Pryce and Lea Salonga both won Laurence Olivier Awards for their performance. In the original 1991 Broadway production, Pryce and Salonga both won

Tony Awards for Best Leading Actor and Actress in a Musical, and the production won four Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Actor, Actress, Orchestration, and Lighting

Design that same year.

Jonathan Pryce, famous for his portrayal of the Engineer, is a White Welsh actor who donned yellowface and eye prosthetics for Miss Saigon (see fig. 14 and 15). The ​ ​

Nguyen 63

Engineer is a half-Vietnamese, half-French bar owner, often portrayed as a seedy pimp.

When the production was set to move to Broadway in 1990, Actors Equity Association nearly barred Pryce from performing as the Engineer. In an 1990 article by Mervyn

Rothstein of The New York Times, Actors Equity Association executive secretary Alan ​ ​ Eisenberg said, “The casting of a Caucasian actor made up to appear Asian is an affront to the Asian community. The casting choice is especially disturbing when the casting of an Asian actor, in this role, would be an important and significant opportunity to break the usual pattern of casting Asians in minor roles” (qtd. in Rothstein). However, with pressure from the public and threats from Producer Cameron Mackintosh to pull the show

(despite $24 million in advance sales), Actors Equity Association was forced to reverse its decision.

Fig. 14 Jonathan Pryce in Yellowface as the Fig. 15 Jonathan Pryce photographed at the Globe ​ ​ Engineer from: CJ. “Miss Saigon Makes No Theatre, London, 2015 from: Martin, Tim. ​ ​ Excuses for Casting and Neither Should “Jonathan Pryce: 'I find it fun to be horrible,’” The ​ Hollywood,” The Fandomentals. 4 April 2017. Telegraph. 5 June 2015. ​ ​ ​

Nguyen 64

Miss Saigon is often referred to as an “epic love story” by Broadway.com, the ​ Miss Saigon Facebook account and official website, Theatre Tulsa, and ​ ​ ​ newyorksightseeing.com, (just a few of the results of a Miss Saigon Google search). The ​ ​ musical follows a White American G.I., named Chris Scott, during the Vietnam War and his relationship with Kim, a seventeen-year-old Vietnamese orphan. Their relationship produces a child, but Scott returns to the US and marries an American woman. When

Scott and his wife return to Vietnam and Kim discovers Scott is married, she begs for

Scott’s wife to take Kim and Scott’s child back to America, but Scott’s wife refuses. In the finale, the audience watches as Kim commits suicide and dies in Scott’s arms, so that their son can return with Scott to America.

Miss Saigon is a “stock story,” known in the social justice realm as a tool to ​ legitimize the status quo set forth by White society. In Storytelling for Social Justice, Lee ​ ​ Anne Bell writes, “Stock stories are a set of standard, typical or familiar stories held in reserve to explain racial dynamics in ways that support the status quo, like a supply of goods kept on the premises to be pulled out whenever the necessity calls for a ready response” (29). Miss Saigon is a stock story because it is retelling and reinforces stories ​ ​ rooted in racial injustice.

Miss Saigon is based on the opera Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. ​ ​ ​ Madama Butterfly is in turn based on a short story entitled Madame Butterfly, written in ​ ​ ​ 1898 by an American lawyer and writer named John Luther Long. Long described himself as “a sentimentalist, and a feminist and proud of it" (Harry Ransom Center). The

Nguyen 65 short story was later adapted into a one-act play by David Belasco called Madame ​ Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan. Countless movie adaptations of the original Madame ​ ​ Butterfly have also been produced since the era of silent films. All renditions of the stock ​ story involves an American naval officer, named Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin

Pinkerton, and his relationship with a Japanese geisha in Nagasaki named Cho-Cho-San.

The plot of Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon are widely regarded as tragic love stories, ​ ​ ​ ​ emphasizing Asian fragility and White saviorism. In all adaptations, the suicide of the

Asian woman is glorified as a heroic, sacrificial act. By its nature as a retelling of

Madama Butterfly, Miss Saigon reinforces the stock story of White dominance and ​ ​ ​ exotification of East Asian culture and women, and orientalist stereotypes.

The dominant narrative in White society of the Vietnam War has always been

American. Out of the many main sides to the war—the South Vietnamese, the North

Vietnamese, and the American—the South Vietnamese perspective is often neglected.

According to Diep Tran of American Theatre Magazine, many stories, including Miss ​ ​ ​ Saigon, Full Metal Jacket, and Apocalypse Now “reduce the Vietnam War to a narrative ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ about whether or not America should have been involved, and they make the Vietnamese background players, bystanders in our own country’s history” (Tran).

When asked for his opinion on Miss Saigon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author ​ ​ Viet Thanh Nguyen, said:

I thought it was terrible, fulfilling every Orientalist trope that I had studied and

was opposed to. The cross-racial casting issues aside, it fits perfectly into the way

Nguyen 66

that Americans, and Europeans, have imagined the Vietnam War as a racial and

sexual fantasy that negates the war’s political significance and Vietnamese

subjectivity and agency. (Qtd. in Tran)

Diep Tran wrote an article entitled “I am Miss Saigon, and I Hate It” for American ​ ​ ​ Theatre Magazine in 2017 that captures a Vietnamese person’s perspective on Miss ​ ​ Saigon. Tran is the child of two Vietnamese immigrants. Tran’s father was a Southern ​ Vietnamese English teacher who joined as a soldier during the Vietnam War, and was imprisoned while Tran’s mother was left to support herself and her two children on her own. For six years, Tran’s mother would travel 156 miles to visit Tran’s father at the labor camp where he was imprisoned. Tran writes of her mother:

Asian women like [my mom] are rarely presented in American culture—as people

who are resilient, resourceful, strong, not victims. Instead, in Miss Saigon, Kim, a ​ ​ woman with no last name, sings about her longing for a man to save her. She says

nothing when she is abused by the men around her but suffers silently,

beautifully. And when living in America isn’t an option, she kills herself; for her,

being dead is better than being Vietnamese. And the largely white audience has a ​ good cry and feels like they’ve had an educational experience. (Tran, italics added

for emphasis)

The problem is the lesson that Miss Saigon is teaching. In Miss Saigon, Vietnam ​ ​ ​ ​ is nothing more than a dirty hell hole, not a beautiful country worth saving. The

Vietnamese people are just props for the Americans to pass the time before they return to

Nguyen 67 their own beautiful country. The Engineer hates that he is half Vietnamese. Kim kills herself because she cannot be American. To be Vietnamese is undesirable.

Miss Saigon: Reinforcing Social Norms ​ One of the damaging results of Miss Saigon is that these stories of Vietnamese ​ ​ fragility and mockery of Viet people become the social norm. Once a narrative becomes the social norm, oppressors do everything in their power to defend it. As social justice educators, it is crucial for us to understand how oppressors acquire their beliefs and their arguing tactics, so those opinions can best be addressed in an educational setting. As an example, Internet user M--- B-----3, under the username “KayaDash,” offers an essay in the comments section of “I am Miss Saigon, and I Hate It” by Diep Tran, in which ​ ​ KayaDash defends Miss Saigon. While the comment is seemingly just an attack on Tran ​ ​ as a woman of color, an excerpt of the three-page comment is worth quoting and analyzing at length:

I'm a white man from New York, home of the delusional "American Dream" of

this play… I never viewed this play as anything other than a story of an incredibly

strong woman doing everything she can to protect the life of her son, and of

various people playing their parts in humanity’s ultimate failure, war. The

criticisms such as the ones you lob around seem to suggest you have a certain

racial anxiety at the forefront of your mind at all times. ... But this can often lead

3 To respect KayaDash’s privacy, I have censored his name and will only refer to him as KayaDash. ​

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to a jaded perspective - Miss Saigon was never meant to be a play “about” race. ​ ​ (Retrieved from American Theater Magazine) ​ ​ Usually, anonymous comments made in a cyber-setting are rarely ever worth addressing, because commenters are often people with too much time on their hands who like to start fights. KayaDash’s vehement response might make him seem like a mere internet troll (someone who posts in comment sections with the sole purpose of making people angry). However, the length of KayaDash’s response leads readers to believe that

KayaDash believes deeply and passionately about the value of Miss Saigon. And, we ​ ​ must remember, he is not alone in his beliefs. KayaDash’s rhetoric is an example of a cog in the apparatus that continually produces and supports racism in American theater.

As social justice educators, there will be many people who are resistant of coming to terms with their own place within unjust systems and their oppressive behaviors.

KayaDash is an example of how the mainstream American theater community, despite being a relatively liberal-leaning group, upholds oppressive systems. An unfortunate defense mechanism of people who fear that their values are being questioned is ignoring and denying race when it is convenient. Perhaps even more concerning is the insistent mentality that people of color who constantly talk about race in our “post-racial” society are the real problem.

In social justice education, people like KayaDash are important to acknowledge and take into consideration. KayaDash is engaging what educators call affective barriers ​ (I introduced affective barriers in Chapter Two). Affective barriers are self-inflicted, but

Nguyen 69 often unconscious, impediments to learning. Affective barriers can be caused by a need for self-preservation, a threat to one’s ego, or other factors because of personal background and self-esteem. These perceptions of threat can cause unchecked aggression or defensiveness when triggered by opposing views. With the protection of anonymity on a public forum, and perceived legitimacy from the stock story of Miss Saigon and the ​ ​ “American Dream,” KayaDash goes unchallenged in his complacency and protection of

White supremacy.

Looking further at KayaDash’s comment, he repeatedly asks “were you in the bathroom when…” and dedicates paragraphs to questioning if Tran even saw Miss ​ Saigon. In too many discussions surrounding race, as exemplified in KayaDash’s ​ comment, a method of manipulation known as gaslighting is used to destabilize and ​ ​ delegitimize the opinions of the oppressed. KayaDash is just an example, but sadly not the only one who thinks and argues that way. For productions like Miss Saigon or The ​ ​ ​ King and I, many White people do not immediately pick up on themes of race, because ​ they are not explicitly told.

One of the methods outlined in TDSJ is to draw on counter-narratives: “Through ​ ​ counter-storytelling, [Critical Race Theory] seeks to destabilize ‘stock stories’ that valorize the legitimacy of dominant groups” (Adams et al. 17). David Henry Hwang’s most famous work, M. Butterfly (1998), is another reaction to Madama Butterfly. Instead ​ ​ ​ ​ of Song Liling, Cho-Cho-San’s equivalent, committing suicide, the audience watches as

Rene Gallimard, who corresponds with Pinkerton, commits suicide by disembowelment,

Nguyen 70 known as seppuku. By providing counter-narratives, audiences are exposed to viewpoints ​ ​ that challenge narratives they have been spoon-fed for their entire lives. Works such as

M. Butterfly are important tools to question and analyze the status quo set in place by ​ stock stories such as Miss Saigon and Madama Butterfly. ​ ​ ​ ​ Vietnamese playwrights are finally taking charge of their own stories about the

Vietnam War. In the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies 2014

Hollywood Diversity Report, the authors write, “When marginalized groups in society are absent from the stories a nation tells about itself, or when media images are rooted primarily in stereotype, inequality is normalized and is more likely to be reinforced over time through our prejudices and practices” (Bunche Center 5). In the next case study I analyze Vietgone, an example of a Vietnamese playwright telling a story that takes place ​ ​ in the Vietnam War from a Vietnamese perspective.

Nguyen 71

Case Study Three: Vietgone ​ Narratives like those presented in Vietgone are an alternative to the racist ​ ​ undertones of Miss Saigon. More directly, in an interview with Diep Tran, Qui Nguyen ​ ​ said, “I hate Miss Saigon… I wish that wasn’t the case. I wish that it was a piece of art ​ ​ that felt empowering and complex and beautiful to me as an Asian American, but it’s not.

It’s melodramatic white-savior fantasia claptrap that’s barely more than a modern-day

Mikado” (qtd. in Tran). To combat the White narratives of the Vietnam War, Vietgone ​ ​ offers a counter-narrative for audiences to see the Vietnamese perspective separate from the harmful narratives of Miss Saigon. ​ ​ I believe Qui Nguyen is a revolutionary in the Asian American theater community. Nguyen writes theater that is not limited to exploring the Asian American identity, but reaches also into the realms of science fiction and action movies. Vietgone ​ directly criticizes how Asians are portrayed onstage and in the media, and Nguyen has strong opinions about Asian and Asian American representation onstage. Nguyen has said in an interview with American Theater Magazine that Vietgone is the anti-Miss ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Saigon. The show is not a direct reaction to Miss Saigon, but Nguyen said that ​ ​ ​ Vietnamese people are finally getting the opportunity to weigh in on the Vietnam War, and Asian American characters are in control of their own stories (Adrales).

Vietgone: The Playwright ​ Qui Nguyen was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, as the son of two Vietnamese immigrants who came to the United States during the Vietnam War. Nguyen received a

Nguyen 72

Masters of Fine Arts in Playwriting from Ohio University and graduated in 2002.

Currently he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children. Nguyen writes for Marvel

Studios, AMC Network, is a staff writer for Peg + Cat (PBS Kids), and was a staff writer for a television series called Incorporated (Syfy). ​ ​ Audiences at a play written by Qui Nguyen are likely to experience action-packed fight sequences, pop culture references, comic book aesthetics, and a remixed interpretation of superhero stories. Vampire Cowboys—heralded by American Theatre ​ Magazine as the “best geek theatre company in America” (qtd. on Vampire ​ Cowboys)—was co-founded by Nguyen with Robert Ross Parker, whom he met in graduate school at Ohio University. The Villager, a New York City newspaper, defines ​ ​ “Geek theater” as theater “which takes what we know about pop culture icons, images and narrative traditions and mercilessly deconstructs them without abandoning its sincere admiration for the endearing excesses and shitty shortcomings of comic books, sci-fi and superheroes” (Stiffler). The OBIE Award-winning Vampire Cowboys is located in New

York City, and is the “first and currently only professional theatre organization to be officially sponsored by NY Comic Con” (quinguyen.com). Nguyen’s body of theatrical productions includes plays such as Krunk Fu Battle Battle (2011), Soul Samurai (2010), ​ ​ ​ ​ War is F**king Awesome (2012), and She Kills Monsters (2011). ​ ​ ​ Aside from geek theater, Nguyen has also written plays about Vietnamese refugees, such as Trial by Water (2006) and Vietgone (2015). Trial by Water tells the ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ story of two brothers fleeing Vietnam during the Vietnam War, but their boat breaks

Nguyen 73 down in the middle of the China Sea. The play was produced Off-Broadway by Ma-Yi

Theater Company four years after Nguyen graduated from Ohio University. Nguyen says that in his early years of writing, he struggled to find his voice as a writer and often would try too hard to replicate playwrights that he admired. In an interview, Nguyen cites writers who inspired him such as David Henry Hwang, Lloyd Suh, and Stephen Adly

Guirgis (broadway.com). At the time when Trial by Water was written, Nguyen said that ​ ​ the writer who influenced him most was David Henry Hwang. As the first Asian

American playwright to ever win a Tony for Best Play, Hwang has undoubtedly influenced many other Asian American playwrights. In multiple interviews, Nguyen has recalled the story of his mother coming to see Trial by Water and telling him that the play ​ ​ did not sound like him (American Theatre Magazine). In Trial by Water, Nguyen said ​ ​ ​ ​ that he imitated Hwang as best he could, and when he asked his mother what she thought,

Nguyen said that his mother told him, “You’re mischievous and you’re funny and you like to goof around, and this play doesn’t show any of that” (American Theatre ​ Magazine). In another interview, Nguyen said that his mother more specifically scolded, ​ “With the violins, these sounds of ocean waves, everyone so solemn? You cuss! You like hip hop!” (Baldwin). As a response, Nguyen started Vampire Cowboys with director ​ ​ Robert Ross Parker and producer Abby Marcus.

Vampire Cowboys became an outlet for all of Nguyen’s action-packed productions. Their mission statement declares their goal as:

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To create and produce new works with an emphasis on action/adventure and dark

comedy with a comic book aesthetic. To deliver shows that actively mix multiple

genres, styles, & forms. To be a theatre that is soaked in the cultural bloodstream

of the now. (VampireCowboys.com)

In an interview, Nguyen said that it is one of the company’s priorities to allow for diverse representation onstage. Many of their productions include strong female leads, LGBTQ+ characters, and actors of color. Nguyen said that the only diversity they have yet to get onstage is genderqueer, and they are working on it (Q. Nguyen).

Nguyen has an affinity for stage combat, and he is an experienced fight director.

He has worked as an instructor and fight choreographer for Columbia University, Ma-Yi

Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Public Theater, to name only a few

(VampireCowboys.com). Nguyen’s strong background in stage violence shines through in many of his productions, including Vietgone. ​ ​ Vietgone: The Process ​ Vietgone tells of Nguyen’s parent’s lives in a refugee camp in Arkansas. Vietgone ​ ​ premiered at South Coast Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa, California in October, 2015.

Nguyen was commissioned in 2013 as a part of South Coast Repertory’s CrossRoads

Commissioning Project, an initiative that brings playwrights “into Orange County to engage with the area’s diverse communities during exploratory residencies” (South Coast

Repertory). The aim of the residency is to invite playwrights of color to spend a week in

Orange County and to give the artists opportunities to connect with organizations and

Nguyen 75 people that exemplify the local area’s cultural diversity. In the CrossRoads

Commissioning Project, the artist comes first. The artist is given the opportunity to explore whatever issue or subject they want and are not limited to writing stories directly inspired by Orange County. In an interview with Andrew Knight, the Associate Literary

Director at South Coast Repertory, he says that for some CrossRoads writers, they participate in the residency—usually about a week or so—and then they have a year to write plays inspired by their findings (Knight).

Orange County has the second-largest Vietnamese population in the United

States, right behind San Jose. Nguyen had originally planned to write a piece inspired by the comic book scene in Orange County. However, in the Southeast Asian Archive at the

University of California, Irvine, Nguyen found pictures of Vietnamese refugees in Fort

Chaffee, Arkansas. Nguyen was inspired to write a story about his parents, who had stayed in Fort Chaffee as refugees during the Vietnam War (South Coast Repertory).

Nguyen said that he had always wanted to write a story about his parents and family, but he wanted to wait until he was “mature enough to tackle those stories correctly” (American Theater Magazine, 46). In an interview, he said he equated maturity ​ ​ with a certain level of seriousness, but has since come to the conclusion that maturity and seriousness are not always connected. While doing work with Vampire Cowboys,

Nguyen always told himself he would get back to writing family stories after he got all of the rebellious energy out of his system, but as he got older and had kids of his own, he realized that his style and voice was unique and was not going to fizzle out as he matured.

Nguyen 76

He decided to just “bite the bullet” and write his family story in his Vampire Cowboys voice (broadway.com). Thus, much of the Vampire Cowboys aesthetic and influence can be found in Vietgone. Vietgone may take place in a refugee camp in 1975, but the play ​ ​ ​ ​ includes rap musical numbers, ninjas, and characters who speak like teenagers from the

2010s.

Vietgone: The Production ​ In the first scene, a character known as Playwright introduces Quang and Tong, characters based on Nguyen’s father and mother respectively. The production is written for an entirely Asian cast, but the characters’ syntax clearly distinguishes the Asian characters from the American characters. In the opening scene, the Playwright specifies that the Asian characters will sound like, “Homie, I’m just enjoying the ride, bro,” instead of “Herro! Prease to meeting you! I so Asian!” (Q. Nguyen). All of the American characters speak in exaggerated Southern accents while saying things like “Me am pirate king hi-ho Midway. Here yellow banana ventriloquist” (Q. Nguyen). As the play ​ ​ progresses, the way the American characters speak in broken English can be interpreted as a commentary on how Asian immigrants are ridiculed for speaking broken English.

The flipping of the language barrier allows the Asian characters to shine through, and illuminates for Native English speakers the difficulties of being in a new environment when one does not speak the language, a very real hardship often overlooked in conversations today about immigration.

Nguyen 77

The play begins with Quang and Tong living with their their separate families in

Vietnam. Tong has a boyfriend and Quang is married with two kids. The play follows

Quang and Tong on their separate journeys to the same refugee camp in Arkansas. Tong was forced to leave her brother behind, and Quang is forced to leave his wife and kids in

Vietnam. In an interview, Nguyen confirmed that all of the events, such as Quang and

Tong leaving their families behind in Vietnam, actually happened. But the Playwright character makes it clear, that “this is not a story about war—it’s a story about falling in love” (Q. Nguyen 48).

In the epilogue, the character of Qui Nguyen, also called Playwright, interviews his father. His father is reluctant to answer the Playwright’s questions, instead opting to sing songs and talk about funny memories of the Playwright as a child. After consistent pressure, the father becomes somber and talks about the realities of war and how the

American perception today of the Vietnam War is disrespectful and hurtful. Quang tells his son:

QUANG: And now, 40 years later, all I hear is politicians using Vietnam as a

symbol for a mistake. ‘If president not careful, this will be another Vietnam.’ This

is not how any Vietnamese wants Vietnam to be remembered. Son, if you wanting

to know about Vietnam then I will tell you about Vietnam. If you wanting to

know about Vietnamese people, then let me tell you about its people. But if you

only wanting to know about war, then go rent a movie. (Q. Nguyen 67)

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Vietgone: The Response ​ In an interview that I conducted with Andy Knight, the dramaturg for the original production of Vietgone, he said that the play overwhelmingly received positive responses ​ ​ from all ages. He said that the show brought in many young people of color and that the energy of the audience as a whole was much different than a traditional regional theater.

Knight said that the show also struck a chord with older audiences, because “the Vietnam

War didn’t age well” (Knight). Many of South Coast Repertory’s usual patrons were older people who remember the war very vividly, or personally protested against the war as it was happening. The Vietnam War was a personal event for most of them, but Knight said that Quang’s monologue towards the end really opened a lot of peoples’ eyes to perspectives that they had not considered, especially coming from the Vietnamese perspective. The epilogue of the play helped to humanize the Vietnamese people and their perspective of the war:

QUANG: To Vietnamese, the war was not political, it was real. It is not

something we choose or not choose to be in. The Vietcong was killing us, stealing

what we work so hard to have. They kidnapped our people, murdered, raped, and

humiliated our people so they can destroy our spirit, crush our hope, and take

away our dignity… And when America come, they gave us hope. They fought

beside us as we fought beside them. Yes, there were very many mistakes… But

that not change this one fact, many of them died so I could live—so I can be here

right now (Q. Nguyen 67).

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In the development of the play, Nguyen was especially interested in the opinions of second generation Vietnamese-Americans. The Vietnam War is not actively part of their personal history, because they did not live through it, but the after-effects of war have likely been present through most of their lives because of their parents’ or grandparents’ involvement in the war. In an interview with me, Nguyen said that he was interested in the second generation because he wanted to portray immigrant parents as vibrant, strong individuals, and specifically through an Asian American lens, as opposed to the White perspective. Nguyen said that the terms “immigrant” and “refugee” have become buzzwords for big politicians because immigration is a hot-button issue (Q.

Nguyen). Stories like Vietgone are especially important in the current political climate ​ ​ because thousands of people have been reduced to a political debate, instead of actual human beings. Nguyen wanted to highlight that refugees are people. Nguyen’s characters make it clear that Vietgone is not a war story, but a story about falling in love. Nguyen ​ ​ focused on telling an immigrant story that separated itself from the war-focused perspective of mainstream America. South Vietnamese history is often diminished to

Vietnam War stories told from White American perspectives.

Vietgone: Social Justice Education Methods ​ Vietgone can be a tool for social justice education as an exhibition of social ​ ​ criticism and a catalyst for conversations of race. The play is an example of creating counter-narratives, reclaiming of historical stories, and helping audience members recognize their own place in systems of oppression. Vietgone exemplifies Asian ​ ​

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Americans taking control of their own stories, and the play addresses issues such as racial stereotypes, immigration, and war.

Theater is a good tool for social justice education because stage productions can be used to develop a critical consciousness, or what Freire calls conscientização (Adams ​ ​ et al. 28). TDSJ writes, “Critical consciousness connects the personal with the ​ ​ socio-political to understand both external systems of oppression and the ways they are internalized by individuals” (Adams et al. 16). Vietgone is a good example of a play that ​ ​ can be used to develop critical consciousness in many ways.

An example that is perhaps most poignant to White audiences is the intentional accent switch of the Vietnamese characters and the American characters. For many audience members who only know Asian characters to have foreign accents, the accent shift can be a little jarring. When I saw the Off-Broadway production of Vietgone, ​ ​ multiple White patrons stood up and left the theater when they heard the American Guy character speak his first line, “Yeehaw! Get’er done! Cheeseburger, waffle fries, cholesterol!” (Q. Nguyen 48). One of the goals of developing a critical consciousness is to “develop awareness or mindfulness of the social and political factors that create oppression” (Adams et al. 16). The language barrier is an undeniable factor that causes and justifies oppression against immigrants and other non-English speakers, particularly for immigrants of color.

Foreign accents are often mocked in the media, reserved for caricatures or comedic relief, like the characters of Tricia Takanawa (Family Guy), Dong (The ​ ​ ​

Nguyen 81

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (The Simpsons) and Leslie ​ ​ ​ Chow (The Hangover trilogy). Asian accents often portray inferiority in fictional ​ ​ characters, and are rarely seen in main characters. In an article on Vice, Asian American

Youtube comedian Andrew Fung of The Fung Bros said that, “Our accents are comparable to having a lisp or some kind of speech impediment, they aren't used for authoritative voices" (qtd. in Yim). Adding to the layers of offensiveness, many portrayals of Asian accents in cartoons are performed by white actors. Tricia Takanawa is performed by Alex Borstein and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is voiced by Hank Azaria.

Prominent South Asian celebrities, such as Kumail Nanjiani and Hari Kondabolu, have publicly criticized Apu for his long-time run on the beloved Simpsons, for reinforcing ​ ​ negative stereotypes about South Asian people as well as the impact the character has had on aspiring South Asian actors in Hollywood. Exaggerated accents are often used in

Hollywood to characterize people within antiquated TV tropes. According to

TvTropes.org, some tropes for Asians include: All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu,

Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow, Identical-Looking Asians, Chinese Launderer, Asian

Rudeness, and Asian Store-Owner.

Vietgone flips the script on exaggerated accents for the Asian and American ​ characters. The American characters become the comedic relief and the props for the

Vietnamese characters’ stories. Vietgone allows audience members to engage with a new ​ ​ perspective of Asian characters they might never have encountered in mainstream media.

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Conclusion: Where to go from here?

“The challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense of community that we need to make our nation a better place, just as we make it a safer place.” –Marian Wright Edelman (qtd. in Chen 87)

I want to hold the theater community accountable, not to attack them. I believe that we, as theater artists and as human beings, can do better. As artists in our current political climate, we have a responsibility to engage our audiences in important discussions, as well as entertain. To willfully ignore and remain apathetic to social issues and discourse is a social privilege.

Regional theaters are starting make the push for diversity. Initiatives are being put into place to increase the diversity in theater, such as East West Player’s “2042: See

Change” initiative. The initiative lays out a plan for theater companies to sign, agreeing that by 2020 the theater companies will have at least 51 percent of their artists or production personnel be either women, people of color, or people under the age of thirty five (East West Players). The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) also has its own initiatives to increase diversity in theater production and has its own

Diversity Committee (USITT). The implementation of a diversity committee is a small step towards addressing systemic dilemmas, but there is so much work that must be done to unlearn problematic behaviors.

Theater educators have a responsibility as influencers for the future of American theater, especially in encouraging young, diverse voices onstage. I have often encountered theater educators, however, who have yet to learn how to respectfully engage and cast diverse actors. I have personally witnessed acts of sexism and racism, as

Nguyen 83 well as prejudice against disabled people in classrooms and rehearsal spaces. I do not think that the traditional model of diversity trainings—the way social justice education used to be taught—is effective in the workplace, and I fear that it would not fare much better among arts administrators. Because theater is supposedly an open-minded community, I believe that White theater artists and administrators would be especially resistant to social and racial justice education, and attempts to diversify theater companies could have the opposite effect. Jonathan Zimmerman of New York Daily News ​ writes of the negative effects of diversity trainings:

Consider the 2016 study by sociologists Alexandra Kalev and Frank Dobbins,

who analyzed compulsory diversity trainings for managers at over 800 companies

between 1985 and 2000. The takeaway was sobering: Companies that required the

training ended up hiring fewer minorities and women. Participants were often

annoyed by the accusatory and moralistic overtone of diversity training, which

made them less likely to diversify their workforce. (Zimmerman)

Despite this research on diversity trainings from 1985-2000, new models of social justice pedagogy are developing as society progresses. From my experience, it is too much to ask for isolated diversity trainings to significantly change a workplace environment. Social justice education must be a fundamental part of theater culture to be effective and have long-lasting effects. In the future, I hope to collaborate with organizations to further develop effective social justice education workshops. I am particularly interested in working with theater administrators and educators to promote diversity trainings and to encourage a more welcoming space for diverse voices. I support

Nguyen 84 theater companies that provide an venue for diverse plays, such as Ma-Yi and East West

Players, but I would like to see change in the mainstream and for the future of American theater. If social justice pedagogy can become an integral part of theater culture, we can accomplish a more equitable and diverse theater environment.

Nguyen 85

Acknowledgements

Writing this thesis has been a transformative journey with occasional hardships, but mostly exciting discoveries. There are so many people in my life that have contributed to this thesis directly and indirectly. First and foremost, I must extend my deepest gratitude to Dr. William Condee. Dr. Condee has been an integral figure in my academic career, as an academic advisor, professor, and thesis advisor. He has always been honest about my flaws as a writer, but has always been the most supportive editor.

This thesis was made infinitely better because of Dr. Condee’s guidance and insight.

I would like to thank all of the interviewees that contributed to this thesis: Andy

Knight, Mike Lew, Qui Nguyen, Ralph Peña, and Dan Winters for taking time out of their day to speak with me and share their wisdom. I would also like to thank Lorraine

Wochna at Alden Library for supporting my research, helping me acquire materials, and for generally being a cool woman. In addition, I would like to acknowledge Students

Teaching About Racism in Society (STARS), for providing me an outlet to share my research and develop my own social justice education methods, as well as being a cohort of passionate individuals that I now consider family.

Next, I would like to thank my parents who have always supported me and my journey with activism. My mother lovingly inspires me with her strong will and tenacity, and my father with his steadfastness and his dedication to learning about the world.

Finally, I would like to thank all of the Asian American activists who came before me in their quest for a more socially just world. I hope to walk in their footsteps, and to one day make this world a better place.

Nguyen 86

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