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The Vietnam War forced ~300,000 women into sex work serving US GI's. Miss Saigon whitewashes this, the power relations w/in it & the violence of US imperialism to sell you a love story where a bargirl deems her life so worthless she ends it for a white man lat.ms/2MkFQ1O
It feels dumb to critique some bougie Broadway play, but you have to contextualize it w/in the Cold War. The central character, Kim, is a stand-in for E. Asia--weak and helpless, she spends most of the story longing for the return of her white savior....
...After she commits suicide, Chris, the American GI, takes their son back to raise in the US, which can be seen as symbolic of the paternal relationship between the US and East Asia, in which the latter needs the benevolent guidance of the former
Also, a few other things:
1.) As someone mentioned in the comments, the main character Kim, is only 17 in the story. (wtf?)
2.) Real Vietnamese lines were only added to the script in 2014. Prior to that, actors spoke in gibberish when the script called for Vietnamese
1.) As someone mentioned in the comments, the main character Kim, is only 17 in the story. (wtf?)
2.) Real Vietnamese lines were only added to the script in 2014. Prior to that, actors spoke in gibberish when the script called for Vietnamese
