While popular American culture presents much of the Asian American experience as found in Chinese slippers, Panda Express and fake Kate Spade bags on New York City's Canal Street, the reality of being of Asian descent and being American is much more complex. Tonight in a special event in the Balch Arena theater, Los Angeles-based performance artist Dan Kwong explores the Asian American experience in his one-man show entitled "From Inner Worlds to Outer Space."
In a multifaceted show featuring elements of storytelling, athletics, visual arts and technology-based multimedia, Dan Kwong attempts to find truths in the Asian American experience, based on his life growing up as a Japanese and Chinese American "in the shadow of the Hollywood sign." Covering themes such as masculinity, homophobia and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, Kwong uses a wide array of performance styles and set designs. From purple slime to swords to a straightforward monologue, Kwong literally runs, kicks and fast-talks his way through stories whose topics range from baseball to AIDS.
While Kwong's show is largely aimed at the Asian American audience, he also strives to aim for something broader.
"I want my art to be useful to people - to somehow enhance, clarify or incite their understanding of themselves and the world," Kwong notes. For college students in particular, Kwong feels his performance has special relevancy.
"Much of my work is about examining 'socialized identity' - understanding the ways that society has, for better or worse, shaped our picture of 'who we are' ... College students are at a point in life when they are beginning to make major decisions about their direction in the next phase of their lives, and self-knowledge and understanding ... is particularly crucial at such a time in life."
As for the Asian American aspect of his show, Kwong remarks, "Sometimes [the Asian American perspective is] simply a context; the frame through which I look at other things like class, gender or sexuality. And I believe that what lies at the heart of an honest, well-told story is something fundamentally human - and therefore universal."
Tufts drama professor Claire Conceison, who is coordinating tonight's event, feels that Kwong's performance is something of particular importance to the Tufts community. "I think after seeing the show, Tufts students will have a deeper, more complex understanding of the many issues that surround discussions of race and gender in our society, particularly as regards Asian American students and citizens."
Conceison, who teaches a course called "Asian American Stage and Screen," believes that Asian Americans today still face significant prejudices and misperceptions in American culture. "Asian American students at Tufts can tell you that when they look at American popular culture they see very distorted images reflected back at them, if any at all," according to Conceison. "What does it mean when Rob Marshall casts Chinese actresses to play Japanese characters in the upcoming film 'Memoirs of a Geisha,' sending the message that all Asians are interchangeable?" asks Conceison.
While the Tufts campus prides itself on diversity and awareness of many cultures, the Asian American experience may still be something not entirely understood by non-Asian Americans.
"I feel that you can try to explain 'the Asian culture' or 'the Asian experience' to someone who is not Asian, but you can't really make them understand it," says sophomore Monica Wang, who moved to the United States from China as a young child. Wang also points out many stereotypes within American popular culture that depict Asians and Asian Americans in a certain light, from the belief in the perfectly studious Asian American student to the expectation of the submissive Asian wife.
"[Non-Asian Americans] have this notion about what it means to be Asian American. They have expectations of Asian American culture. A lot of those notions are not true," Davit Nguyen, a sophomore of Vietnamese descent, said. "I feel that the stereotypes can sometimes be absurd, but that just makes it easier for me to joke about them, and I take them less seriously than if there were some truth to the stereotypes."
In Dan Kwong's view, the pervasiveness of these stereotypes in popular culture is one of the main reasons he performs a show that attempts to convey the Asian American experience. "Unfortunately, there is still amazing ignorance in this country about the Asian American experience," he acknowledges. "I hope my work can shed some light there."
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