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Marching to a Different Drummer

Marching to a Different Drummer. Evolving Representations of Chinatown and Chinese Americans in Flower Drum Song Adrienne Shapiro Chinatowns May 10, 2002 photo credit: The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. 1957 Bestselling Book. photo credit: The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization.

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Marching to a Different Drummer

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  1. Marching to a Different Drummer Evolving Representations of Chinatown and Chinese Americans in Flower Drum Song Adrienne Shapiro Chinatowns May 10, 2002 photo credit: The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization

  2. 1957 Bestselling Book photo credit: The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization

  3. 1958 Musical 1961 MovieMusic by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; Book by Joseph Fields criticisms: inauthentic dated sanitized photo credits: The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization; POTOpera.com, imdb.com

  4. 2001 “Revisical”New book by David Henry Hwang aim: “Write the book that Oscar Hammerstein would have written if he were Chinese-American” photo credit: aaja.org

  5. Historical Context for the Musicals • Asian immigration laws • ideas about citizenship • assimilationist culture vs. multiculturalist culture • Chop Suey or Fortune Cookies?

  6. Picturing Chinatown • Hwang book: factory laborers, concern with perception of Chinatown • R&H: an advertisement for “Grant Avenue, San Francisco, California, USA” • loyalty to book? • Lee raised similar issues of concern about perception • R&H worked with Lee; Hwang didn’t • sentimentality in musicals • R&H as Disney of 50’s

  7. The Generation Gap • R&H: generation gap as universal theme • Lee: generation gap along with conflicts in assimilation • Hwang: generation gap used to problematize assimiliation

  8. Casting • R&H pan-Asian (plus few non-Asian), had wanted all-Chinese • Hwang celebrates pan-Asian cast • political change from 1950’s distinctions to 1970’s/1980’s Asian-American political consciousness

  9. Back to the Future • Recent prestigious San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival had Flower Drum Song movie as capstone film • re-release of C.Y. Lee novel planned • sometimes it takes a timely response to enable us to look back at the original and recognize full historical significance • problem with unrepresentative work is when it’s the only representation, not the work itself

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