by Ping Chong
No internment camps were ever
created to contain either
Italian Americans or German Americans.
“We’re charged with wanting to get rid of the Japs for selfish reasons. We do. It’s a question of whether the white man owns the Pacific Coast or the yellow man.”
Scene 9
Welcome Home V-J Day
“We Love You,” a Japanese pop tune based on the interpretation of a Mick Jagger song is heard. The disco ball turns.
PROJECTION: Photos of geishas
(All Japanese Americans reenter, and do a post-internment camp dance. They wear coats, hats, gloves—traveling clothes. The dance evokes displacement as the actors spin with their suitcases, opening and closing them, removing various household and personal objects from them. During the dance, they collect their suitcases and possessions into a pile in the center of the stage, forming a sort of home shrine. In the front of the pile is a framed photograph of the Japanese schoolgirl shown previously.
One of the Dancers opens a suitcase and takes out a music box. She winds it, the music plays. She slowly carries it offstage.)
PROJECTION: A
OA
OBA
BO BA
B A
BOMB A
PROJECTION: Photo montage of postwar Japan and Japanese pop culture artifacts from the 1950s through the 1980s
PROJECTION: A mushroom cloud
PROJECTION: M
OM
OMB
BOMB
BOMB B
PROJECTION: Details of Japanese and American flags
PROJECTION: The Top of the World
U.S.A.
INTERNEE (Reading from the Bible):In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me,
incline your ear to me,
make haste to deliver me!
Be my rock of refuge,
a stronghold to give me safety.
You are my rock and my fortress;
for your name’s sake you will lead
and guide me . . .
PROJECTION: They were bad, we were good.
And God is on our side.
(“We Love You” continues to play. A barely audible, taped voice-over of a radio address given by President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur discussing the Japanese surrender, plays in the background. The Narrator reads select postwar dates and events.)
PRESIDENT TRUMAN: The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. We won the race of discovery against the Germans. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan’s power to make war.
ANNOUNCER: General Douglas MacArthur stood on the deck of the veteran man-of-war, the U.S.S. Missouri, to sign the official documents of surrender with the rulers of Japan.
GENERAL MACARTHUR: We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored. The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battlefields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or debate. Nor is it for us here to meet, representing as we do a majority of the peoples of the earth, in a spirit of distrust, malice or hatred.
As Supreme Commander for the Allied powers, I announce that my firm purpose in the tradition of the countries I represent is to see the discharge of my responsibilities with justice and tolerance, while taking all necessary dispositions to ensure that the terms of surrender are fully, promptly and faithfully complied with.
I now invite the representatives of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government and the Japanese imperialism headquarters to sign the instrument of surrender at the places indicated.
NARRATOR:1945—War ends in Europe. The Japanese army surrenders.
1950—The world population is approximately 2.3 billion. U.S. recognizes Vietnam, sends arms and instructions for their use. 1.5 million Germans are still missing.
1956—Soviet troops march into Hungary. The World Series is won by New York over Brooklyn 4 to 3. The USSR launches Sputnik 1 and 2.
1959—Mario Lanza dies. The Sound of Music opens on Broadway. Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba.
1960—John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States. Song of the year: “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.” U.S. Postmaster General bans Lady Chatterley’s Lover as obscene.
1964—Cole Porter dies. Cassius Clay wins Heavyweight Boxing title. The Beatles storm the pop world. Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Martin Luther King, Jr.
1967—Sweden changes the driving side from left to right. Racial riots in Los Angeles. English singer Arnold George Dorsey changes his name to Engelbert Humperdinck and gains world fame.
1969—U.S. agrees to return the Island of Okinawa to Japan. The Chicago 8 are indicted. World population is 3.5 billion. Richard M. Nixon elected President of the United States.
1970—Student protests rock world cities. Burt Bacharach emerges as a leading music personality with the song “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.”
1972—U.S. Supreme Court prohibits capital punishment. Cowboys defeat the Dolphins to win the Super Bowl.
1974—Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn dies. Bewitched star Agnes Moorehead dies. Composer Duke Ellington dies.
1976—The United States celebrates its two-hundred-year existence with a lavish celebration.
1980—Former B-actor Ronald Reagan is elected President of the United States.
1981—Iran releases fifty-seven American hostages.
1982—Thousands protest the placement of cruise missiles in Europe.
1984—Soviets boycott the Los Angeles Olympics.
1986—Gorbachev is elected head of Soviet State.
1988—van Gogh’s painting sells for eighty-five million dollars.
1989—The Berlin Wall is torn down.
1992—Bill Clinton defeats George Bush to become President of the United States. Miles Davis dies. Robert Reed dies. Marlene Dietrich dies.
(All Japanese Americans have left the stage. “We Love You” ends. A woman in a schoolgirl’s uniform enters. She takes a music box out of one of the suitcases, opens it and lets it play. She slowly carries it off downstage left.)
Scene 10
East Meets West 2
PROJECTION: In the Name of Profit
Product Communication Marketing
PROJECTION: Portrait of the Japanese schoolgirl
(The text above is repeated on the screen many times, alongside the photo of the schoolgirl.
The suitcases remain from the last scene. We hear the ding-dong of a doorbell, then the tape-recorded interview in voice-over again of Morita and Frost talking about Sony products. This fragment repeats several times.)
MORITA: We call this machine discman.
FROST: But it works on a little sort of disc here?
MORITA: Yes, this is standard compact disc.
FROST: And you yourself go around listening to those for pleasure?
MORITA: Yes because I like walkman, I like discman.
(The Narrator enters, walks around the suitcases several times, then bows to them, Japanese-style, his back to the audience. He turns and addresses the audience as a Japanese Businessman:)
NARRATOR: Ohayo gozaimasu. Funny? Your idea of fun is not my idea of fun and your idea of fun seems like no fun to me. Funny? We have so much in common. Income. For example: on my way home late one night, three men mugged me and left me dying in the street. This doesn’t happen in Tokyo. What do you want me to say. The world’s a mess: it’s in my kiss. Let’s be realistic for a minute. The American Express Gold Card is the most discreet and effective sign of recognition worldwide.
My problems are not your problems and your problems do not interest me in the least. However, what I am interested in is how your p
roblems have also become mine. Everybody just has to make up their minds. Is money money or isn’t money money? That’s what makes everybody go crazy, crazy. Once upon a time nobody managed to be useful. Now everything is useful. The war is not over between our two countries. You just can’t say, “No,” and we just love saying, “Yes.” But this is a positive difference. A defining difference. Know your enemy. Know yourself. We are moving closer to understanding the trivialities that link our great nations. Ushering in banality in a big budget sort of way. You’re a favorite customer of mine. You know the meaning of a good yen. Not to mention the meaning of a good yes. Sayonara.
(The Narrator spins around. He faces forward again, now addressing the audience as an American Businessman:)
“Sayonara”? Every time you say “sayonara” I think of Marlon Brando. I fear that your double-talk is beginning to sound like triple-talk, and I was just getting used to your double-talk. Look, I want to show you something big and black. Black being your favorite color.
(He reaches into his breast pocket and pulls out a postcard of a van Gogh painting.)
You purchased this van Gogh painting for eighty-three million dollars, but I’ve sold one hundred and fifty million exemplars of this painting at$1.50 each, yes, $1.50 each (stamps not included). So let’s be realistic. Are we talking about diversity? Are we talking about the fact that your country is more homogenous than mine? Why should you pontificate to us? We have to address our mistakes, but then we have so many. So take a number. I may not be alive when this happens, but there is going to be one hell of a train wreck. And your trains run faster than mine. I can’t agree with your concept of the fat, the happy, the dumb American. Several of them have gone on new and improved diets.
I myself have lost a few. You say we have too many blacks, too many Hispanics, too many lazy workers. Well, so what! We say the same things. You must remember this: money is color-blind and that’s what makes our country great. So let’s put our differences on the back burner and get down to brass tacks. Two thousand. Two thousand? . . . Three? Three. Gridlock. Twenty-five hundred. Twenty-five hundred. Well, on paper I could agree to that. In public I’ll deny that we ever had this conversation. So I guess that means we’ve got a deal. (Faces upstage, snaps his fingers) Photographers!
(He bows to the image of the schoolgirl. He removes his jacket, becoming Vincent van Gogh.)
(As van Gogh) Time to go home. (Projections fade out) Dear Theo. With a handshake in mind . . . it’s time to go. It’s time to go home. Music please.
FILM DIRECTOR: Work lights, please. (Lights shift to work lights) Stage crew. We need to clear the props.
(All but the Film Director exit the stage.)
Thanks fellows. Roll in the fog.
(Fog billows onto the stage. The play now “over,” the cast comes onstage to pack the suitcases. A stagehand picks up all of the luggage tags, one stagehand walks across the stage with the Daimyo’s platform, another crosses the stage with the huge black triangle, an actor walks across the stage reading a newspaper, etc.)
More fog please. Wally stand by for cue ninety-nine. (Electrician answers) Rosemary, how we doing on sound? (Sound Operator answers) Stand by for top of Epilogue. Places please. Mr. Matthews. (Narrator answers) Countdown: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two—lights! action!
(Stage goes black.)
PROJECTION: van Gogh’s “Cornfield with Crows,” in the shape of a fan
(Lights up. Narrator enters from upstage right again as van Gogh’s “sower.” He takes his position in the painting. Three nineteenth century French peasant women enter from downstage left carrying church books, singing:)
WOMEN:Canteroon, canteroon, canteroonose
Canteroon, canteroon, canteroonose
Quanto les coste
Quanto les coste
Quanto les coste les esclopes
Canteroon, canteroon, canteroonose
Canteroon, canteroon, canteroonose
sink sose lo bachos
sink sose lo bachos
sink sose lo bachos les esclopes
Canteroon, canteroon, canteroonose
Canteroon, canteroon, canteroonose. (Phonetical transliteration)
(The Women stop center. They begin talking to someone—Pascal in the audience.)
PASCAL: Bonjour les filles.
WOMEN 1 AND 2: Bonjour Pascal!
WOMAN 3: Bonjour Monsieur Marin.
PASCAL: Voulez vous venir a la fete ce soir?
WOMAN 1: Je voudrais bien y aller!
WOMAN 2: Moi aussi!!
WOMAN 1: C’est a quelle heure?
WOMAN 2: A dix-huit heures?
WOMAN 1: C’est d’accord a dix-huit heures!
WOMAN 3: Je vous en prie, Monsieur. Nous sommes attendues chez la comtesse Tartarin. Adieu! (Sings “Canteroon”)
WOMAN 1: A toute a l’heure! (Goes down) A dix-sept heures trente . . . (Takes a step and turns around again) A dix-sept heures . . .
(The Women exit upstage right. Two Japanese Farmers enter, carrying wood on their backs.
The Farmers walk across the stage from downstage right to upstage center.)
FARMERS: Ohayo. Ohayo gozaimasu. Ohayo.
(They wave and move to downstage left and stop. They start to take off their bundles. The sound of a train is heard. A miniature train moves from right to left, upstage across the tops of the cornfields. They wave to the train and exit downstage left.
All actors enter from downstage left, dressed in contemporary, stylish white shirts and black pants. They perform an abstract movement sequence.
Projection fades out. The back wall is now lit bright red.)
NARRATOR (Entering downstage left selling postcards): Postcards. Postcards. Original works of art. I’ll even sign them. Original signed postcards. This one I painted when I was in a mental insitution. The food was terrible, but they gave you a lot. This one I painted when I was depressed . . . If you ever wanted to see a starving artist, this is what a starving artist looks like. Postcards only eighty-five cents, I’ll even sign them for you. OK, fifty cents. Twenty-five percent off for the cast.
(Dancers do crane movements. They crouch down one at a time, until they are all in the same position.
The Narrator exits downstage right.
Stagehands return with the white columns. They exit and return with crows, setting them silhouetted against the screens. The Narrator reenters, still as van Gogh, and crosses upstage center.)
PROJECTION: Arles will be the Japan of the future
(The Dancers rise from their crouch position one at a time and continue to dance. A tape of Japanese pop music plays. The dance ends with the music. The Dancers come downstage.)
CHILD’S VOICE (Voice-over): We love you, Italians, we love you. We love you Brazilians, we love you. We love you. We love you Tibetan, we love you. We love you Falklands, we love you. We love you Swede, we love you. We love you Belgian, we love you. We love you French, we love you. We love you Basque, we love you. We love you Puerto Rican, we love you. We love you Spaniard, we love you. We love you Koreans, we love you. We love you Finnish, we love you. We love you Greek, we love you. We love you Turkish, we love you. We love you Azerbajani, we love you. We love you Sudanese, we love you. We love you Chinese, we love you. We love you. We love you.
PROJECTION: van Gogh’s signature, in red, fades up, joining:
Arles will be the Japan of the future
THE END
Chinoiserie
For Betty Chong
Production History
Chinoiserie premiered at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska, on September 22, 1995. It was conceived and directed by Ping Chong, with text and lyrics by Ping Chong and Michael Matthews. Additional text was by Regine Anna Seckinger and Ric Oquita. The music was by Guy Klucevsek, the set design and projections were by Jan Hartley, the lighting design was by Thomas Hase, the sound design was by David Meschter and the costume design was by Byron Lars, Carol Ann Pelleti
er and Chan Kwok Yuen. The dramaturg was Regine Anna Seckinger, the stage manager was Courtney Golden and the managing director was Bruce Allardice. The performers were: Ping Chong, Shi-Zheng Chen, Aleta Hayes, Michael Edo Keane and Ric Oquita. The musicians were Guy Klucevsek, Bill Ruyle and Steve Elson.
Chinoiserie was commissioned by the Lied Center for Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Fine Arts Center of the State University of New York at Buffalo, Yellow Springs Institute, Lafayette College, the Walker Arts Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.The commissioning of Chinoiserie was made possible by a grant from the Meet the Composer/ Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. Chinoiserie was produced by Ping Chong and Company as part of the 1995 BAM Next Wave Festival with the support of National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, AT&T, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, and the Rockefeller Foundation.