{"id":4249,"date":"2026-04-29T11:41:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/?p=4249"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:41:20","slug":"reading-plays-by-asian-canadian-playwrights-in-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/reading-plays-by-asian-canadian-playwrights-in-may\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Plays by Asian Canadian Playwrights in May"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Celebrating this year\u2019s Asian Heritage Month, the Humanities and Social Sciences Library (HSSL) showcases a variety of stories by contemporary Canadian playwrights of Asian Heritage through the Redpath Book Display (also, browseable online<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why read plays?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cWhy Plays Should be Seen\u2014and Read<\/a>,\u201d Isaiah Stavchansky points out that reading a play, rather than watching a stage performance, enables us to have a more intimate interaction with the storyteller and to \u201cpartake in a shared experience of the text.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stavchansky, who edited and published a collection<\/a> of American plays on the theme of immigration, also raises a practical question. Access to theatres is limited to people living in big cities. Given the underrepresentation of Asian Canadian theatre artists on stages,1<\/a><\/sup> opportunities to watch Asian Canadian drama performances are even more limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the cultural traditions imported and enjoyed by early immigrants, such as Cantonese operas popular in Victoria\u2019s Chinatown blocks in the 1860s,2<\/a><\/sup> Asian Canadian plays today consist of \u201chome-grown\u201d stories that reflect Canada\u2019s multiethnic and multicultural social fabric. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the plays on display explore themes such as immigration, racism, stereotyping, identity, generational tensions, assimilation, and upward mobility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some plays depict the lives of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people around us, including but not limited to Asian Canadians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition, some plays depict historical events and fictional stories set in Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Chang, Eury Colin. “Unraveling the History of Asian Canadian Theatre<\/a>“. UBC Public Scholars Initiative Blog<\/em>. Retrieved 29 April 2026. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. Rao, Nancy Y. (2018). “Inside Chinese Theatre: Cantonese Opera in Canada”. Intersections<\/em>. Vol. 38, No. 1-2, 2018, p. 81-104. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.7202\/1071675ar<\/a> \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Celebrating this year\u2019s Asian Heritage Month, the Humanities and Social Sciences Library (HSSL) showcases a variety of stories by contemporary Canadian playwrights of Asian Heritage through the Redpath Book Display (also, browseable online). Why read plays? In \u201cWhy Plays Should … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"[{\"id\":\"5cb97349-6e90-497e-931a-e4783ed37248\",\"content\":\"Chang, Eury Colin. \\\"Unraveling the History of Asian Canadian Theatre<\\\/a>\\\". UBC Public Scholars Initiative Blog<\\\/em>. Retrieved 29 April 2026.\"},{\"id\":\"2a48fb43-6a1c-45c2-9ebb-d6d1d9ed4f6b\",\"content\":\"Rao, Nancy Y. (2018). \\\"Inside Chinese Theatre: Cantonese Opera in Canada\\\". Intersections<\\\/em>. Vol. 38, No. 1-2, 2018, p. 81-104. https:\\\/\\\/doi.org\\\/10.7202\\\/1071675ar<\\\/a>\"}]"},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4249"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4348,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions\/4348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}