I would like to introduce to readers the Wonderful World of Suzie Wong, a 1960 Hollywood production which was a box-office hit in America. Set in 50s Hong Kong telling the tale of a 'Wanchai Girl' with a heart of gold falling in love with a poor American painter.
This film introduced to American and worldwide audiences for the first time the beauty of the 50s-60s style cheongsam worn by Chinese women in Hong Kong and South East Asia and very popular at the time. As a huge cheongsam fan myself, i loved the tight body-hugging high neckline n slit cheongsams shown in this movie as well as the multitude of on-location scenes of what Hong Kong looked like back in the late 1950s (priceless shots, really!). Please have a watch of what Hong Kong cheongsams (very accurate, verified from a cheongsam 'expert' like me! haha) and Hong Kong looked like back in its poorer days in the late 50s.
Entire film is available for viewing on youtube, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9-A19RezTc&feature=player_profilepage
Also, I love RTHK (Hong Kong's only public broadcasting station) current affairs programs as well as docus alot. They show aspects of Hong Kong society which may not be readily known to outsiders, usually focusing on the underbelly and socially discriminated or disadvantaged groups in Hong Kong and their daily struggles and triumphs. I especially like how they focus on not only the problems of these people, but also on the kindness and unextinguishable spirit of the common person and the optimism and hope one can have to overcome adversity in life. The episodes are available online for viewing (for those whom understand Cantonese or can read Traditional Chinese characters as subtitles are available for most programs in Chinese characters.) here: http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/program_archive.cgi?progdir=tv/commonfolks&event_name=%3F%3F+%3F%3F+銋%3F+甇%3F+%0A
~Enjoy!
2 comments:
But didn't it also reinforce a variety of negative stereotypes about Asians? Cheongsams are all well and good if worn by some people, but the stereotypes are long lasting and very hard to shake.
aimlesswanderer: Actually, that's one of the biggest misconceptions about the movie TWOSW.
For its time (mind you, produced 1959) it was extremely progressively..i read many negative comments about this film beforehand, but after having seen it for many times over, I found it was actually very much against racism and did not perpetuate any/much negative stereotypes on Asians. Watch the movie,you'll see its very progressive and actually pro-Asian for its time.
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