Miss Saigon – 26.01.003.IMG_WOM.MissSaigonBroadway.2017.MatthewMurphy

Premiering in 1989, the musical Miss Saigon, based on Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly, depicts a tragic love story portraying the protagonist—a seventeen-year-old Vietnamese bargirl—as helpless and desperately in love. While it originally received acclaim, community groups protested its portrayal of Vietnamese women.

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The Asian American Studies Center acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and pay our respects to the honuukvetam (ancestors), ‘ahiihirom (elders), and ‘eyoohiinkem (relatives/relations) past, present, and emerging.

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