A transnational vision of The King and I

On American culture and policy in David Henry Hwang's Soft Power

Bibliographic Data

ID2179735
AuthorsZhi-Yun Zhao (0000-0001-5950-2732, corresponding author), Zhiyun Zhao
Year2023
Volume59
Issue6
Pages812-825
Publication date2023-11-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Postcolonial Writing (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-9855 • E-ISSN: 1744-9863
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17449855.2023.2292742
OpenAlexW4390951557
LanguageEN
References cited20

This article takes Soft Power, David Henry Hwang’s “musical within a play”, to foreground the importance of transnational appreciation in an era of superpowers. Hwang offers an alternative vision of world order by critically engaging with debates surrounding the rise of China and the Confucian concept of self-cultivation to expose the arrogance of western culture and narrow-mindedness of unilateral foreign policy. The article identifies Hwang’s strategy as “reciprocal criticism” – utilizing other cultures for self-critique without establishing superiority but rather encouraging mutual improvement – and highlighting performativity: it does not merely describe issues but creates a new reality through the re-imagining of The King and I, an orientalist musical, into a contemporary piece of theatre that elevates Asian American voices. Significantly, Soft Power reveals that any potential solution to the current global crises, such as climate change, regional conflict, and racial inequality, requires transnational visions capable of negotiating different ways of seeing

Aesthetics · Art · China · Criticism · Literature · Musical · Orientalism · Political science · Power (physics · Sociology · Soft power · Vision · Anthropology · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Theater, Performance, and Music History · Theatre and Performance Studies · Gender Studies · Law

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