The Fall of Miss Saigon (2 of 2)

“Miss Saigon portrays the Vietnam War as romantic and beautiful,” said Ching-In Chen, AARW’s Director of Programs.  “They sing love songs and have big dance numbers, but the stark realities of the Vietnam War are nothing like that.  It’s an insult to the millions of Vietnamese and several tens of thousands of American soldiers who died because of American military action in Vietnam.”

“The original musical has been a perennial favorite for much of America since it was first produced in the 1980s,” says Jane Jung, Director of Missed Sigh Gone. “It’s marketed as a love story, but the play ends with the Vietnamese female lead taking her own life rather than live without a white American man.  The public tends not to give any thought to this kind of demeaning portrayal of Asian women as weak and submissive toward white American men.”

Without foundation grants or other legitimizing institutions, the voluntary and spontaneous artistic organization of Missed Sigh Gone recalled the spirit of guerrilla theatre and community-based art of the 70’s. However, production values were dramatically higher. The manifest support of the audience indicated that they spoke for a growing and conscious community.