In the Matter of Asian Peoples versus The Mikado. Why the heck are Asians so sensitive about Gilbert & Sullivan? The Mikado opened at The Savoy theater in London in 1885. A lovely, enduring operetta set in a fictionalized Japan, with characters named Nanki-Poo, Pooh-Bah, Pish-Tush, Yum-Yum, and Go-To. It is worth noting that during this time, the English had developed a fetish for things Japanese. Just before it premiered at the Savoy, a large Japanese exhibit opened in Knightsbrige. It has been suggested that Gilbert took his cue from this exhibit, but scholars contest this did not influence Gilbert’s choice of setting because he had, by then, already finished Act I. In an interview he gave to the New York Daily Tribune in 1885, Mr. Gilbert said it was because of the short stature of three actors which prompted him to think of “Japanese schoolgirls.” He also said that they had invited a “tea-server” from the Japanese exhibition to teach the three actors how to dance. When asked why he had chosen Japan as a setting, Gilbert had this to say, “I cannot give you a good reason for our ... piece being laid in Japan. It ... afforded scope for picturesque treatment, scenery and costume, and I think that the idea of a chief magistrate, who is ... judge and actual executioner in one, and yet would not hurt a worm, may perhaps please the public.” So there you have it. It was an arbitrary choice goaded by a fetish for the mysterious, delicate, and neutered East. After all, where else can a judge and executioner coexist, one that would not harm a worm? Or perhaps, it was about “The Short Women?” The Gilbert & Sullivan Society in Seattle has put up a production of The Mikado with an all-Caucasian cast, much like the original production of 1885. When asked how the production managed to avoid casting even one Asian actor in a role, in a city with a huge Asian population, the response was a familiar one: the material is not Asian. Yes, indeed. It is not Asian. It was written by two Englishmen as a commentary on Victorian England. The setting is incidental to the writers’ intent. This is the same reasoning behind the whitewashing of “The Nightingale,” set in a mythical China, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” where Ceylon was not really Ceylon, and of all things “Julius Caesar,” which manage to transport the entire Roman senate to Medieval Japan, replete with kimonos and samurai swords, but with not a single Asian actor in sight. Yes, these works had nothing to do with ethnicity, or race, or bias, or appropriation – because – they were “mythical.” In all of these cases, the myth was woven by non-Asians. Chinese, Japanese, Ceylonese cultural references were appropriated and stripped of their meanings and contexts. In short, they are no longer markers of a particular culture; they are sets, props, and costume. So why do Asians go on and on about racial bias? One reason is this: we are not sets, props and costume. It’s precisely because of this objectification and devaluation of who we are and our histories that grate. Gilbert said it himself; he set “The Mikado” in Japan for no specific reason. It is a perfect example of Edward Said’s thesis of how the West reduces Oriental cultures into inert, monolithic values that can be observed, analyzed, and replicated. We are the objects of the grand experiment, we are the observed, and the conclusions and epiphanies belong to the observers. This is why, to the observers, there is nothing offensive about how they choose to portray what they observe – because it’s their proprietary construction of what they think, see, smell, taste, and feel. The experience belongs to them. But let’s take cultural theories out of the equation. Let’s look at equality and doing the right thing. There is no law that says you have to use Asian actors in a production of “The Mikado,” but we are justified in asking why and how the producers chose not to use Asian actors in a city with a large Asian population. If, as the producers say, “The Mikado” has nothing to do with race or ethnicity, we are justified in asking how and why they managed to exclude Asians, Latinos, Blacks, and Indigenous peoples in the cast. If, as the producers claim, “The Mikado” has nothing to do with Japan or Japanese culture, we are justified in asking how and why they chose to don Japanese clothes, and alter their facial features to look Japanese. We have the right to ask. It is our obligation to ask.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 17:00:49 +0000
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