Group 2 Post 5

This past week was super eventful for our group. Between now and the previous blog post, we held four interviews over Zoom, a phone call, and one in person where we went back to SF to meet with Roger Pincombe for another tour of the theater. The different interviews (David Lei, Roger Pincombe, Gregory Li, and Sherlyn Chew) were very enriching. We were able to get more information on some of our research questions, and all speakers were able to give insight into different parts of the theater's history. There was a little bit of hesitation over what we were going to get out of the interviews especially because we were asking many of them about things that happened so long ago. However, they were all able to share very insightful personal experiences while also repeating enough general information to give it a greater sense of credibility. Some of our questions from the previous blog posts were answered with greater clarity on the culture around screening films from an audience perspective, and that raised curious contrasts with how the same theater space was utilized and received as a space for film screenings or performances like Chinese operas. 

In terms of use for our research and understanding as well as our own personal enjoyment and involvement, I think the interviews were the highlight of our research project. It was so fun getting to talk to everyone, and the ability to ask questions and follow up in unexpected directions gave every conversation a result we wouldn't have expected beforehand. After trying to originally reach out to people in the beginning of the semester I wasn't sure what to expect emailing David Lei, but everyone was so eager to talk to us and happy to find room in their often busy schedules. I only wish we could have conducted many of these interviews sooner as Sherlyn's in particular was only possible on Sunday and having more time would have allowed us to spend more time with the information. Regardless, I'm very happy with how much we learned and all the work we were able to put into it.

For the space of the Great Star Theater, we learned a lot about how the venue has changed over the years, and how the type of media being shown or hosted has in turn affected the audiences and the role of the space in the community. Gregory Li and Sherlyn Chew in particular talked about the theater experience when there were more live operas and their observations and reactions around it. Gregory was brought by his parents, so he spoke about being drawn to the cartoons shown between performances and his perception of the physical theater space. Sherlyn was much more interested in the opera at a young age and was able to share a great video resource she made on the history of Chinese opera in the bay and the way they would communicate cultural myths and values to the community.

The relationship between spectators and cultural performance changed with the rise of martial arts films where gangs became more frequent, copying the fervor and intensity of the characters in the films. They had a similar experience of finding values and ideals from the performance space, just different ones than what might have been absorbed from the opera. The theater because a common space for foreign-born teenagers especially, with families and women being said to go less frequently. Even for kids who didn't speak Mandarin or Cantonese, the subtitles still engaged them with national Chinese cinema or in some cases fostered a familiarity and eventually a fluency with the languages. 

Talking with Roger was very interesting regarding the kinds of shows he is hosting or looking to produce, There's a balance that needs to be struck as a non-profit between larger shows that can keep up the maintenance and restorative costs and the smaller shows that connect the theater back to the community. It's a hard choice to make, as Roger explained some of the larger productions are the ones that sell out and they can make a significant amount in one weekend compared to often losing money hosting smaller shows that don't sell out. While he would like to do more shows closer to the community, the (often Western) larger shows are necessary to have the financial freedom for the more personal ones. It was a little disappointing to hear that none of the people we spoke to had really been to the theater in recent years or since it opened under Roger-- but with Covid still a problem it wasn't unimaginable. They recently hosted a Chinese opera and they are independently producing a show for an upcoming holiday celebration, so hopefully there will be more engagement. 

There were still some questions left unanswered, mostly about the specific operation of the theater during the previous time periods. Roger was able to answer many questions about current up-keeping and management, but we only have perspectives from spectators before Roger took over the theater.