In 1897, San Francisco actor/playwright Francis Powers wrote the first serious, realistic play about Chinese life in America. The drama, The First Born, directed David Belasco, played in San Francisco, New York and London. Though the work won national acclaim and was even made into a silent movie, it has neither been published nor produced for almost a century. Contemporary critics, including Frank Norris, raved about The First Born's new mode, realism, and its compassionate, non-stereotyped view of the American Chinese. work was also probably the first homegrown American play to show Chinese actors on-stage. One, Fong Get, may have been the first Chinese-American to be named on a playbill. Chinese immigrants participated with the show's staging, music, and costuming, making The First Born the first joint Chinese/Anglo theatrical production in America. The most remarkable feature of The First Born is its historical content. It was actually a photographic theatrical mirror of life in San Francisco's Chinese quarter. Most characters seem to have been based on actual real-life individuals, and the setting replicates exact street locations in the district. Even the plot appears to have been drawn from contemporary events: the killing of Chinese gangster Fong Ching, a.k.a. "Little Pete"; the Sam Yup/See Yup "tong war" of 1897; and the arrival Chinese Minister Wu Ting Fang. This study reviews The First Born's critical reception, speculates about the realistic details of the play, examines the text, and places the work in its theatrical and Chinese/American historical context. The dissertation contrasts the play to others of the nineteenth century, such as Bret Harte and Mark Twain's Ah Sin and Ambrose Bierce's Peaceful Expulsion; it also compares Powers' so-called "realism" of The First Born with the writings of contemporary Caucasian writers like Arnold Genthe and Charles Dobie, as well as Chinese authors such as Wu Ting Fang, Lee Chew, and Sui Sin Far. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-07, Section: A, page: 1956. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77188 |
| Creators | Nadler, Sheryl Fern |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 497 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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