During the month of June, Turner Classic Movies, TCM, looks at Hollywood's portrayal of Asians on the screen in a 35-film festival that includes early depictions starring Anna May Wong to contemporary superstars such as Jackie Chan. Four films I plan to watch are the post war films: Flower Drum Song, Sayonara, The Teahouse of the August Moon and The World of Suzie Wong.
- Tuesday, June 17 The Legacy of World War II
- 8 p.m. Go for Broke! (1951)
- 9:45 p.m. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
- 11:15 p.m. The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
- 1:30 a.m. Walk Like a Dragon (1960)
- Thursday, June 19 Interracial & Intercultural Romance
- 8 p.m. Bridge to the Sun (1961)
- 10 p.m. China Doll (1958)
- 12 a.m. Sayonara (1957)
- 2:30 a.m. The World of Suzie Wong (1960)
During a discussion of the film schedule an individual makes the statement: "We are no longer that society" when commenting upon the success of some of the films made in the 60's. A post WW II America, many of them vets and families of vets who served in the Pacific, enjoyed the glossy soap-opera plot of The World of Suzie Wong, a romantic fantasy concocted by Hollywood.
I was born soon after WW ll, and in the 50's was entertained by TV (Howdy Doody was our nursery school and day care). Protesting anything and everything in the 60's, then serving in Peace Corps in the 70's, meant I needed to be re-educated in the 80's (compliments of some of the last of the government's free money -scholarships), I finally made some money for myself in the 90's. When I heard the statement: "We are no longer that society" I started to ponder the particulars of where society has been during my lifetime, and where does it stand today?
This past weekend angry women were interviewed by the news services. Many of them feel that their time has come and gone, their opportunity lost or squandered. After his victory in Iowa Obama said: "You know, they said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose." Is the Obama campaign enough of a common purpose for society to come together? Will the angry women from this weekend's TV sound bites turn around in the next few months and view the Democratic ticket as a common purpose?
I don't know if Obama has been a "divider" or a "unifier" for this country. Part of me feels that he doesn't have the substance to be one or the other. Martin Luther King said: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." People of all color and backgrounds rallied around and with the man who spoke of matters that pulled us out of our daily pigeon-holed existence.
I love the term "pigeon-holed. In mathematics, the term is applied to the pigeon problem: "If you put 6 pigeons in 5 holes then at least one hole would have more than one pigeon." Our daily routines are often restrictive. We often don't take the time to think and we allow the media to position us in the box, the hole of least resistance.
I hope to use the opportunity presented by TCM to explore the social, economic and historical significance of the 60's and 70's. The musical Flower Drum Song was successful (as the novel had been), garnering six Tony Award nominations and spawning a London production, national tours and a 1961 musical film, but the musical and movie would fall out of favor as the civil rights era re-defined how minorities should be portrayed on film. As I go through this project, I might better be able to understand "Why we are no longer that society" and begin to understand where this society is going and the impact of the Obama campaign.
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