Posted: 8/28/23 at 5:29pm
This is a post I have been wanting to write for a long time. I am a theatre and culture lover, I am 1/4th Asian and I have direct family members that were affected by the Vietnam war.
After years of deep and long discussions with friends and family and listening to the original London version again, we came to the conclusion that this show is a masterpiece. The original London version that is. I will elaborate more on that later.
Every now and then there is a show about historical events. Which can be very confronting, hard or uncomfortable at times. This show is that for us too. But often, the writing of a show or the characters can be portrayed as "out of balance", almost "manipulative", such as in Hamilton, which decides for the audience what is good or bad and takes a run with historical figures and situations.
But not Miss Saigon. This show sends audiences home with a deep motivation to explore their own thoughts about what happened to these people and why they did what they did. Far beyond good or bad. Hundreds of thousands of people have lived this story. From the women working in bars to the boat people to the romances with soldiers to children that were born out of it. I speak from first hand experience.
It is important to understand how complicated this war was. People who were involved in the North Vietnamese side at a certain time, will have different views on situations than people on the South side. I'm sure that depending on which year and which area soldiers were deployed, the experiences are going to be different. The sheer perfection of this show is that it takes no side. It rises above that. It is about the core of humanity. A very delicate balancing act of steel.
I am aware that there are people who do not wish to see facts or would rather see other stories too, but that is ok. Do not watch it then or go write other stories too.
I would like to address some of the "controversies", surrounding this show. Such as "The Vietnamese are portrayed as stereotypes and opportunists". Or "Miss Saigon is a White Savior story". Or "Because of Jonathan Pryce's casting the whole show is wrong".
For the uninformed who ask themselves that; Are you upset because the depictions are historically accurate, or because they’re unpleasant to watch? Let’s put some perspective into this: It’s upsetting that Kim is being sold into prostitution at 17. But in reality she more likely would have been 13, or even younger. It’s upsetting that the dancing bar girls in bikinis had to - or were more likely forced to- turn to prostitution for survival, but the opening number in Miss Saigon is by far a more sanitized version of their ordeal, than what actually took place.
Complaining that the Vietnamese characters are portrayed as “opportunists” is ludicrous— what other choice did they have in order to stay alive? As many times as I have watched “The Heat is on in Saigon”, I’ve never once found it to be pleasant, or believed any of the bar girls were having as joyful a time as they were letting on, If it feels lurid, degrading, and dehumanizing, it’s because that’s exactly what this experience was for these women. Watching the women getting manhandled and treated like property is supposed to make the audience cringe, because unlike the GI’s we are not de-sensitized to these abusive conditions.
Miss Saigon is by no means a “White savior” story. Anyone paying attention can recognize that it’s about America’s realization of its own failures to protect the South Vietnamese from their North Vietnamese adversaries, and the human toll this war took on both the soldiers and the Vietnamese. The Americans are not portrayed as heroes- in fact it’s difficult to find any story about the Vietnam War which strongly depicts US soldiers as heroic and proud. Upon returning to the states these men were often characterized as savages and “baby killers” by their own countrymen. Many of these soldiers could not adapt to life after wartime and lost their minds, became homeless, dropped out of society, suffered from severe drug problems and PTSD and/or took their own lives. Christopher Scott wants desperately to believe he has achieved some good fighting in Vietnam, and that bringing back Kim back home will be living proof he did. It’s a flawed justification, and it illustrates how deeply damaged and naive he is, because with or without Kim, the nightmares will still happen.
Some people also make up "There is male ownership, Chris decides". Which is not the case. Chris does not have power over Kim's life in the slightest. Kim decides. It is in the lyrics: "They think they'll decide your life. No. It will be me". There is only female ownership. The moment when Ellen tells her she's married to Chris, Kim steps over it and makes a plan for her child. Kim decides.
About the casting of the Engineer, I find a vital component to the character regrettably missing in all recent portrayals. I saw Pryce (without prosthetics) in the original Broadway show, and his performance was so phenomenal and spellbinding that it devastated me. The Engineer is "Bui-Doi”, half French-half Vietnamese, and the contrast of Pryce’s western facial features to those of his Asian cast members was heartbreakingly evident. All his life the secrets were written on his face.. and he could not escape or hide them. He could not blend in. This is why he was forever doomed to such a degrading fate in Saigon as a pimp and outsider, and why his “American Dream of moving to a country where he could more easily assimilate mattered so much to him. It’s why he developed the deep affection towards Tam, because he recognized himself in that child. I really dislike how they changed the Engineer to not care about Tam in newer productions. He just became such a bland character recently.
In Pryce’s performance I felt the intensity of his torment and self-contempt lurking beneath all the smiles and ingratiating cordialities. Whereas in all the other productions, The Engineer seems to exist for the purpose of providing comic-relief and tension breaking levity, like an adorable teddy bear. One of the most important aspects of this role is that he is not accepted by the Vietnamese because he doesn’t look Asian. He is the Bui Doi that this show is about.
The new versions with even more sanitized bar scenes and fully Asian engineers that do not stand out in Vietnam and just like to go to America is actually degrading to the real people that have lived through this. People like me and my family. I relate to this very much because nobody can tell I am partly Asian, while in fact it is part of my history. This is something different from complaining what kind of job characters do or good or bad. Even though wanting to hush the stories of these bargirls is also disrespectful.
The Engineer is not a jolly guy. He is ruthless, and we aren’t supposed to root for him. However, by the time he comes on stage to sing about The American Dream, we come to understand him better. He was a strange looking boy, his mom was an addict, and after the dad left them his job was to find French soldiers and persuade them to have sex with his mother for money. That tells us so much about why the Engineer was the way he was, being a pimp was all he ever knew how to be..It’s so tragic.
In the more degrading, sanitized UK version of the show this summer (which portrayed the girls as victims, the Americans as bullies, choosing sides, all the lines and situations so preventive that it actually makes it more uncomfortable), The Engineer was changed to a female. I do not agree with that choice, because the power dynamic is not the same. Males have greater agency and authority in Vietnamese culture, so to be a male and sell your own mother is a far more shameful and devastating predicament to be in. Plus, if the Engineer were a girl, it’s more likely that the mother would’ve sold her daughter to the soldiers.
The original version had this perfect balance of reality and facts, without choosing sides, without writing in good or bad. The quality of writing in this show was majestic and you can see all the research and intense conversations with the real women and boat people paid off. It was a masterpiece. It forced the audiences to look at all sides. Newer versions fail to understand that balance.
I encourage all of you to approach this show with an open, worldly mind, when you see a negative article about this show, or an unfounded complaint, to not let it drag you down into their unfounded hate but to think for yourself.
Updated On: 8/28/23 at 05:29 PM
