The article “Performing a Geography of Asian America: The Chop Suey Circuit” by SanSan Kwan is about a cabaret act that was composed of Asian American entertainers who performed for an American audience in the Forbidden City of San Francisco. The Chop Suey Circuit challenged segregation and Orientalism in an American society which brought a change is American’s viewpoints on Asian Americans.
As orientals, Asian Americans were not easily accepted into society, but through the Chop Suey Circuit, it opened up the separation between Asian Americans and Americans and they were able to earn more acceptance from the Americans. The Chop Suey Circuit “managed to challenge segregation… and reinscribed racial cartography… by playing “Oriental”… [and] performing Americanness” (Kwan, 121-122). The Forbidden City was a place where Asian Americans can be free to express themselves and show off their talents and passion for entertainment in an American society. Chinatown was a place to show the exotic landscape of Asians and offered whites a journey to the Orient.
The Chop Suey Circuit challenged segregation through racialization which Kwan defined such that “race is in part created through place-making and place is largely created through racialization” (Kwan, 121). Kwan defined racialization not by the color of people’s skin but by their race and location. Racialization encompasses location in it’s definition which defines the geographical separation of people into racial categories.
This article addresses Orientalism and how Asian Americans expressed a negatively connotated term into something of more acceptance. This ideology was referenced in Sylvia Shin Huey Chong’s book Orientalism. Throughout her book, she explains what Orientalism entails and how the definition of Oriental has changed throughout the years. She states that Asian Americans can take advantage of Orientalism by using it to market products as exotic, attracting people in other areas. This ideology is similar to that of the Chop Suey Circuit who used their Asian exoticness to bring acceptance to the orientals.
References:
Chong, Sylvia Shin Huey. “Orientalism.” Keywords: Orientalism, keywords.nyupress.org/asian-american-studies/essay/orientalism/.
Kwan, SanSan. (2011). Performing a Geography of Asian America: The Chop Suey Circuit. Tdr-the Drama Review-a Journal of Performance Studies. 55. 120-136. 10.2307/23017593.