Is Miss Saigon Racist?

Well, i'm Asian and I don't find it offensive or racist, its just through soeones story and how the writer wanted to portray the people, but how would you feel if the Vietnamiese were played as good people, and the americans played evil? wouldn't that rise some eyebrows????

Yeah basically I felt that they COULDNT portray the americans as bad because that would cause a lot of controversy. I felt like it was really easy to portray the Vietnamese as bad just because of the propaganda during the war. But of course, that was a very controversial war and where everyone stands on it is pretty one-sided.

ok. chris is portrayed as a confused loser. ellen is selfish. thuy is evil, but he's the leader of the communist regime in vietnam, and he tries to rape and kill kim and tam. and the rice line is uttered by the engineer, who a) is half french, and b) doesn't know anything about the vietnamese culture. whoever thinks that this is a racist show only sees the version they want, and don't look at the full understanding of the piece of theatre.

<"Why must our race be obsessed with rice?">

That doesn't sound like a very good lyric anyway.

Well personally, I also feel that the Vietnamese culture was kind of...muddled (for lack of a bettr word). i mean, despite the war and everything, there is a beautiful culture and it's still a beautiful country (despite the war's damages), and the whole musical portrayed how all the Vietnamese wanted to leave. I mean, of course many wanted to leave because of the Communists, but they still had a great love for their country which doesnt really come through. Not to mention completely butchering the language in songs...haha.

It doesn't even remotely address all of Vietman nor is that remotely relevant to the story being told. It's about a very specific group of people who aren't implied to be representative of an entire culture or nation.

"But you know how sensitive those Asians can be about racism!"
I do not know if this was meant to be a joke or not, but it was not funny to me. How dare you automatically group all Asians together and assume that they are all touchy about racism.

"It will only be racist when high schools start doing it with all white casts in yellow make up"
I agree. I would love to do Miss Saigon because Kim is my dream role. We did the King and I at my high school when I was in middle school, and it was awkward because there were two Asians in the entire cast... my brother and sister.

I do not find Miss Saigon racist. It shows the story of two young people falling in love during a war. Never once did I view it as racism. I find that FindingNamo was more offensive to me than anything in this Broadway show.

Reading M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang certainly put a different spin on the Madame Butterfly / Miss Saigon plotline for me.

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What a wonderful point? The Hwang play certainly deconstructs the racist asumptions of the opera and the musical. What I found especially hateful about MS was that itwas really all about the Americans, their anguish and suffering, using the Vietnamese as a jumping off point for an exploration of THAT.Of course the title character suffers, but only (as Hwang's play points out) because of the way she is conceived of in terms of the West.

"Racism" does not require portraying a whole people... That's why, for example, blackface is racist
That's also why a white Dreamgirls is racist.
It's an attitude towards what is being portrayed.

This in inescapable even in great works like Merchant of Venice, which is anti-semitic, no matter how we try to explain it away (and many have tried!)

Updated On: 7/11/05 at 07:49 PM

I think your point about trivializing is crucial here--for me, that's what leads to the concept of racism in the piece (and let's face it, in the source material as well.)

I am Asian. I love Miss Saigon but only when I watched it. When I listened to the recording, I did not like it very much though I am a huge B&S fan.

Based on my observation, a lot of Asian people don't like Miss Saigon, especially Asian men. It maybe hard to understand for Western people. But a lot of my friends complained that the tone of the superority of western culture made them uncomfortable and feel offensive, even though the theme is noble.

Updated On: 7/11/05 at 09:29 PM