What is “Miss Saigon” and its importance?
Imagine watching a play, and when you find out an Asian girl finds the love of her life, the ending consists of her death.
In “Close the Curtain on ‘Miss Saigon’”, Viet Thanh Nguyen, a novelist for the New York Times, states the issue on how western entertainment romanticizes stories involving Asian women falling in love with Western men, that may not be as pure as it seems on the surface level. Mr. Nguyen’s article publication is recent (Aug. 3, 2019), therefore, this issue is still relevant to how Asian representation is still flawed. Firstly, the article provides summaries to “Miss Saigon,” “Madama Butterfly,” and “M. Butterfly.” Next, Mr. Nyguen explains his perspective on the three musicals (and plays), and criticizes on the power dynamic between the white male savior and submissive Asian women. And finally, he gives the claim that these plays are paradoxes that the audience love and want people who are seen in completely racist and sexist ways.
So why did I choose this article?
Using emotion-provoking words and credibility sources, Mr. Nguyen persuades his audience to agree with his claims. He has the ability to break your heart and win your trust for his explanations through his use of word choice, sentence structure, personal opinion and quotes from other people, who are relevant to this topic. Some of his impressive strategies he uses throughout his article about the criticism of musicals and plays that involve Asians include: using diction and syntax for pathos, using the informative opinion and his choice in finding credible sources using quotes for ethos.
How was pathos used?
The use of diction (word choice) and syntax (sentence structure) can provoke emotions from readers. That is what Mr. Ngyuen successfully demonstrates when he describes an example from the description of the ending of the musical Miss Saigon.
Mr. Nyugen states, “Left behind, our prostitute kills herself.” Syntax in the sentence provides an emotional feeling because “left behind” is put first in order to emphasize the character’s reasoning for committing suicide. The reader is left with emotions of being pained and sad when it came to learning about the end result of the musical which included the death of Kim, who’s left behind.
Another example is from the description of the ending a play called Madama Butterfly. Mr. Nguyen uses the play of Puccini, the playwright of Madama Butterfly, as an example for similarities in reference to Miss Saigon’s themes — submissive Asian women need to be saved by Westerners. He describes the ending of what the Japanese woman who’s Madama Butterfly is as, “Happy to see that her child will live a better life in the West, she takes her own worthless life.” His use of diction allows for the juxtaposition of the words “happy” and “better” with the word “worthless” when it came to describing Madama Butterfly’s view of her life after giving up her child. The effect on the readers is that they are persuaded to be both sympathetic and frustrated because her life’s worth is degraded for the sense of giving up everything, as a mother, to see your child succeed. Although the use of pathos can trigger readers to have negative emotional reactions, those same reactions persuades the readers to stop seeing these plays and musicals as purely entertainment.
What about logos?
Mr. Nyugen furthers his argument by stating his informative opinion as well as using credible sources. He argues that, “The enjoyment of this show is based on the privilege that the audience feels … Asian woman who kills herself … seeing the world from the viewpoint of the powerful white male savior who can both be so attractive that a woman would kill herself over him …” This informative opinion persuades the readers by stating the obvious of not being able to be empathic of the character, it shows how this affects Asian and gender representation through media because the story about love and suicide becomes glamorized and romanticized.
Furthermore, Mr. Nguyen uses a quote said by a character in a play, M. Butterfly, that includes a gender role reverse of Madama Butterfly. The character is Song Liling, a beautiful opera singer who is secretly a man spying on a French diplomat, plays as Madama Butterfly. Song provides a vivid example of a blond girl falling in love with a Japanese businessman and how the reactions this girl received would differ if she were Asian. Song explains, “He treats her cruelly, then goes home for three years … when she learns he has remarried, she kills herself … because it’s an Oriental who kills herself for a Westerner … you find it beautiful.” This example elaborates on the romanticized idea of Asian women not being able to do anything so their only option is to prove her love through suicide. Therefore, Song, being an Asian woman in the play, can speak in place of how the situation is presented due to the fact that they are a character in the play.
What is “good writing”?
Mr. Nyugen’s use of these rhetorical appeal strategies makes his article grabs the attention of the reader and shines a new light on a topic that many people gloss over. Good writing includes rhetorical appeals to either persuade or inform readers using emotions (pathos), credibility (ethos), logic (logos), the call to action (telos), or setting the urgency of the moment (kairos). Mr. Nguyen’s use of appeals made his writing have personality and was very persuasive and informative on the romanticized, yet negative representation of Asian women in films and entertainment.
Work cited
“M. Butterfly.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 July 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Butterfly.
“Madama Butterfly.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama_Butterfly.
“Miss Saigon.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Saigon.
Nguyen, Viet Thanh. “Close the Curtain on ‘Miss Saigon’.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 Aug. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/opinion/miss-saigon-play.html.
