Another take on our violent history
Stefanik against law that helps prevent suicides
The Front Page
Morning Update
Friday, June 24, 2022
By Ken Tingley
I wondered where the play “The Chinese Lady” was going.
Was it an indictment of Chinese culture or a celebration of it? Or maybe it was an indictment of how we look at those different than us.
We were halfway through opening night at the Wood Theater and I still wasn’t sure.
The Adirondack Theater Festival production is based on a true story of 14-year-old Afong Moy and how she was brought to the United States in 1834 - her father sold her to American entrepreneurs - and put on display to curious Americans.
Afong Moy was reported to be the first Chinese woman in the United States. Sitting in traditional Chinese garb, she showed audience members how she eats, pours her tea and endured the torturous act of breaking and re-breaking the bones in young Chinese girls’ feet in a ritual known as “binding.”
Afong Moy’s two years turn into four, then six and then forever.
The show is taken on the road. She meets President Andrew Jackson in a humorous turn. And she gradually acknowledges she has become more American than Chinese as she has gotten older. She no longer can remember what her mother her father look like.
Eventually, she ends up as a sideshow performer for P.T. Barnum. It is a sad indictment of this young Chinese girl’s life. But then we learn something more important, not about the Chinese, but about ourselves.
Afong Moy tells of her travels to California and the mass immigration of Chinese workers in the 1850s to work in dangerous mining and railroad construction jobs for cheap wages. It may have been the first time that white workers raged that immigrants were coming to steal white jobs.
We learn that during the hard economic times of the 1870s Congress overwhelmingly passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigration for 10 years. A decade later it was renewed for another 10 years and eventually extended for 60 years.
It is the beginning of our history lesson of how Chinese immigrants were brutalized during the 19th century; another Skelton revealed from our closet.
In 1871, 17 Chinese men and boys were lynched in Los Angeles after a white man was accidentally killed in a shootout between rival Chinese gangs. Eight of the white rioters were eventually convicted of manslaughter, but their convictions were overturned.
In 1885, the hate for Asians grew violent in the Wyoming Territory when 100 to 150 vigilantes surrounded and attacked Chinese mineworkers, killing 28 and burning 79 of their homes. Federal troops were required to keep the peace for the next 13 years.
The atrocities were new to me, but not surprising considering the history of slavery and the treatment of American Indians in our country.
Once home, I went to the computer and found more atrocities, right into the 20th century.
In 1854, the California Supreme Court ruled that Asians could not testify against a white person in court. The case in question was about how a white man who had murdered a Chinese immigrant.
An outbreak of Bubonic Plaque in San Francisco in1900 was blamed on the Chinese community. The city’s Chinatown district was surrounded by police and all residents were prevented from coming and going as they pleased.
There was the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and Ku Klux Klan attacks on Vietnamese fishermen during the 1970s.
During the pandemic, hate crimes against Asian Americans spiked 150 percent as if they were to blame for the Coronavirus.
None of this is in the play, but it could have been. It is a long and sad history.
It was a reminder of a part of American history that is rarely taught in school. And also a reminder of our inability to accept those that are different than us.
Late start
Last Sunday I got a call from one of the folks at the Adirondack Theater Festival that Sunday’s performance had been canceled. I was told it was because not enough tickets had been sold. I was told other performances had been canceled as well.
The show was re-scheduled for Tuesday night where the Wood Theater appeared about half-full for an opening night. Of course, it was a Tuesday.
Adirondack Theater Festival is a unique and amazing part of the Glens Falls arts community. If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, you need to do that.
We all need to support the Adirondack Theater Festival and not take it for granted.
Pro suicide
In 2020, 45,979 Americans died by suicide. That is an average of 130 suicides a day. It was the 12th leading cause of death in the country in 2020 with over 1.2 million attempting suicide.
I suspect that most of you know someone who has killed themselves.
A former Adirondack hockey coach committed suicide.
A star high school basketball player killed himself.
One of the most important reasons for having a “Red Flag Law” is that friends, relatives and acquaintance can take action to keep a loved one safe and have their firearms removed from their possession if they are deemed a threat to themselves, but only after a hearing.
Congress is working on a bill that would provide $750 million in crisis prevention grants for states with “Red Flag Laws” that has support from Republicans in the U.S, Senate.
Rep. Elise Stefanik told the Adirondack Daily Enterprise this week she will vote against the bill.
Apparently, she is pro suicide.
The Adirondack Theater Is such a great opportunity to see live acting, not pre-edited movies. My friend and I saw The Chinese Lady and were amazed how great the acting was including even an actor who could flip backwards yet play the violin beautifully, and how both actors could appear either young or aging and old. We enjoyed the humor of their interactions as well as how they gradually came to care for each other, and sadness of parting. You could see the youthful enthusiasm of the girl as well as how she kept pushing on ahead despite setbacks and sad situations.
And Stefanik is one of the worst politicians ever.