Last
night was the second “Les Fleurs de Shanghai” show at Duane Park and it
was another sold out show. I really am totally head over heels for this
show. I am constantly thinking about it, still researching and digging
up obscure film and reading material about Old Shanghai, and last
weekend I took a four hour crash course on classical Chinese dance at
Lotus Dance Studios - just out of curiosity. The class was extremely
informative especially for me since I have no idea what “classical
Chinese dance” was. The little that I know was from my experience seeing Shen Yun at Lincoln Center. In this class, taught by Ms Ling Tao who
was extremely knowledgeable with ten years of dance experience behind
her, I learned the basic postures of Chinese dance and the idea of
balance. To go right, you go left first. There’s a push, then there’s a
pull. A “punch” (jutting one’s shoulder forward) and a “lean” (pulling
the same shoulder back in the opposite direction). We also learned three
choreographed routines covering the basic foot and hand movements, one
using Chinese silk fans, and the last one using ribbons. It was a lot of
information for a Saturday morning and I would do it again. I was able
to integrate some of the delicate hand gestures and poses into my
burlesque routine with modification. To me, classical Chinese dance for
women is very “girlish”. The style from the way one walks to facial
expressions all evoke a young girl’s youthful frivolity and naivete. I
prefer sultry and sensual for my dance styles so some of the more
“girly” movements I modified for the acts I did last night at “Les
Fleurs de Shanghai”.
In
all my research I naturally come across Anna May Wong all the time. For
those who don’t know who she was, AMW was the first Chinese-American
movie star who starred in over 18 films in her career including both
silent and sound films. She starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in
“Shanghai Express”, and I think she was the only truly visible
Asian-American female figure in the American jazz age. Unfortunately her
film roles were heavily criticized for depicting Chinese women as
“dragon ladies” or as scheming, conniving seductresses. As if SHE had
any decision in how the scripts were written back in the old, white
Hollywood days! A sample of these images include
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong
As
a Chinese-American woman raised mostly in the US with a BA in English
from Cornell, a MFA from Columbia University, and armed with the alumni
badge from the New York School of Burlesque (haha!), I don’t find these
images offensive or demeaning instead I think they are powerful,
glamorous, and fierce. Militant “Model Minority” types will object
undoubtedly to my interpretation which then begs the question, at what
point in history can an image be reclaimed to reflect the values of the
people who perceive them? Perhaps the Chinese American women during
AMW’s times objected to these images because there weren’t enough Asian
American representation in the media which would be just limited to film
and paper circulation, and so naturally they did not desire to see
exotified and “orientalized” visual images from a Western imagination.
But as a member of a newer generation, a generation that is
post-feminist that distant herself from the militant feminism
ideologies of the 1970’s, I am inspired by these images. Naturally I am drawn to the costuming. They exude the
feminine mystique. They seduce me in its power and exotic-ness. Why is
it political to be exotic? I am
different than the majority. And frankly I am tired to the
“assimilation” discourse found in immigrant mentality. I WANT to be
different, exotic, and foreign than you. You are “the other” in my book.
Not I.
Anna May Wong
In
the burlesque world we celebrate and honor “The Legends” at annual
festivals. These women are in their sixties and some nearing their
eighties. They were straight up strippers in their days because before strip clubs and poles “burlesque” was stripping. It was not what us new kids will defend to our death pastie beds as an "art form" - it was stripping. We honor these women for
paving the road in an era where women’s roles were limited. These women
were bawdy, brazen, and many are the classic textbook example of women
who come from an educationally disenfranchised background and went into
adult entertainment due to lack of a technical skill (twirling pasties
and ass popping do not count). The rhetoric is seductive. Pioneers.
Ballbusters. Rebels. But at the heart of it, we are honoring older
strippers, because meaning is fluid and it has changed for this generation. Every
year, thousands of burlesque performers both established and beginners
along with fans of burlesque flock to Las Vega’s Burlesque Hall of Fame
festival to meet other performers from all over the world and to compete
in different titles. In the burlesque world, this event is a BIG deal.
It’s the unofficial Oscars of burlesque. We are celebrating the public
display of theatrically removing your clothes in front of strangers!
Check out this amazing MSN clip on Tempest Storm performing in Vegas in her 80s!
This
reminds me of HSBC’s campaign ‘Different Points of Value’ that you see
in airports. The campaign puts the same image side-by-side with a
different caption over each one. The idea is to show you how the same
thing can have different meaning based on the culture, socio-economic
class, education, etc.
HSBC "Different Points of Value" Ad Campaign
HSBC "Different Points of Value" Ad Campaign
If
a stripper from the olden days can become a Legend in the now days,
then likewise the meaning of images like Anna May Wong’s can be fluid.
These images deserve a new interpretation relevant to women now, to
women like me. It’s time to celebrate what she has accomplished on her
own accord in a challenging millieu rather than through the foggy,
scratched lens of the old times.
