Flower Drum Song and Mabel Wing
花鼓戏和Mabel Wing

04 April 2019
Flower Drum Song (Mae Wing in the middle)
Courtesy of Mae Wong, Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Collection
花鼓戏(Mae Wing,前中)
Mae Wong捐赠,美国华人博物馆(MOCA)馆藏

Flower Drum Song was a Broadway musical directed by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1958 based on a novel by C. Y. Lee. The choreography of the musical imitated the Chop Suey circuit, an Asian American cabaret thrived in Chinatowns in the 1940s and 1950s. Mae Wing (in the middle) performed as an ensemble dancer in this well-known musical when it first came out. After winning the “Miss Chinatown” in New York Chinese community, 17-year-old Mae was encouraged to try out for the show business by reluctantly against her parents’ wishes and achieved great success in the musical. She was also made “Miss Flower Drum,” official delegate to represent the theatrical troupe and continued in the role in conjunction with the release of the film version in 1961. Mae stayed with the show for three years, in New York and on the road, until starting her career in the dancing company of the Hawaiian Room in Lexington Hotel. The musical gave an opportunity to young Chinese American girls like Mae to have a better career as a dancer but also created an oriental visual landscape to reinforce the racial segregation of Asian women.


《花鼓戏》是1958年由Rodgers和Hammerstein根据黎锦扬的小说导演的百老汇音乐剧。该 音乐剧的编舞模仿了Chop Suey circuit夜总会,一种二十世纪四、五十年代在唐人街蓬勃发 展起来的亚裔酒店歌舞表演。该剧首演时,Mae Wing(居中)便在这部著名的音乐剧中担 任群舞演员。在赢得纽约华人社区的“唐人街小姐”之后,17岁的Mae 不情愿地违背父母的 意愿,被鼓励尝试在演艺界发展,并在音乐剧中取得了巨大成功。她的形象被做成“花鼓 小姐”,作为音乐剧剧组的官方代言人,并且继续在1961年上线的电影版中担任角色。在 纽约和其他地方,Mae演出了三年《花鼓戏》,直到她在Lexington酒店夏威夷房间的舞蹈 公司开始她的职业生涯。这部音乐剧不仅给像Mae 这样的年轻华裔美国女孩一个作为舞者 的更好的职业机会,同时也创造了一个东方视觉舞台,强化了亚裔妇女形象。

Countdown to the TCS NYC Marathon on November 3, 2019: 216 Days.

2019年是美国第一条横贯大陆铁路建成150周年,为了纪念第一批华人来美建设这条铁路所做出的巨大贡献, MOCA将其2019 TCS NYC Marathon的活动命名为 MOCA Spike 150 – Running Forward With Our Stories! 鼓励大家通过马拉松公益跑,全国线上接力,以及一天一个故事的方式讲述150个华人的历史故事,敬请大家持续关注, 讲出华人自己的故事,回顾过去,立足现在,展望未来,共同书写美国历史,使之更加充实完整。

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