Group 7 Blog Post 5

 

After a semester-long research, our group has not only improved our research skills but also gained a comprehensive understanding on the multidimensional impact of the Great Star Theater on the Chinatown community. We would like to discuss our conclusions, takeaways, and unanswered findings in this final blog post. 

From the research of secondary sources and the interview, we learned various ways the Great Star Theater approached the concept of Chinese cinema. In the beginning of its establishment in the 1920’s, the theater focused primarily on cantonese opera from China. It wasn’t until much later in the 1940’s that the theater had decided to play films. Further, in our interview with David Lei, he explained that another way the Great Star theater approached Chinese cinema was through showing films such as Dragon Inn which was one of the most popular films at the time. By showing popular Chinese films, the theater was able to connect to the surrounding community and maintain its original values because the theater’s audience was the surrounding Chinatown community. Further, the majority of the films and entertainment being provided also were based on political events in mainland China such as Xinhai Revolution. These events influenced the types of entertainment and films being played and this affected the theaters' approach to Chinese cinema. We can see through our semester research that the Great Star Theater embraced Chinese films and provided the community with the access to watching various parts of their culture in an entertainment format.

After consulting primary and secondary sources on Great Star Theater’s role in San Francisco Chinatown from the 1920s to 1960s, we had many inspiring discoveries about the changing history, culture, and community in San Francisco chinatown. In terms of history, this area witnessed dramatic political changes from the 1920s to 1960s. The political movements in China greatly influenced the mobilizations in Chinatown.The political rivalry between the Nationalist Party and the Constitutionalist Party in the 1920s seeped into the theaters and resulted in the theaters incorporating spectacular performances to attract political supporters. As World War II approached, movies in the Great Star Theater became effective propaganda to gather support against the Japanese. In this way, the history of China and that of Chinatown were interconnected, and Chinatown took on a symbolic role as a miniature representation of China. Therefore, as residents in Chinatown participated in political mobilizations and attend political gatherings, they were making history for both Chinatown and their home country. In terms of culture, the various performances in theaters like Great Star contributed a lot to the diverse cultural trends in Chinatown. When opera performance was at its peak, teenagers would imitate their favorite characters and learn Chinese characters and reinforce collective memory simultaneously. When performances gradually shifted to movies, the  themes of revenge, loyalty, and justice greatly informed gang culture. The forigen films introduced later to the theaters further enriched the vibrant film culture. Films gradually became part of the cultural experiences for residents in Chinatown and the various genres soothed nostalgia, shaped identity formation, and promoted multiculturalism. In terms of community, the theaters created division and cohesion for the local communities. When immigrants suffered discrimination in teh early 1920s, watching opera performances that poke fun at those unpleasant experiences through comedy and satire enhance the social cohesion among the community. In the early 1940s, movie going took on the symbolic sign as modernity and created a divide between the old and new generation of immigrants. The older generation was reluctant to accept the western modernity because they attributed discrimination to the same mentality. The newer generation, however, was curious and excited to embrace modernity. The identities of the Chinatown communities are always shifting, and theaters played an important role in directing those shifts. 

On top of that, we also developed a more comprehensive understanding towards changing theater spectatorship and relationships. Theater is a multifunctional place where people laugh, cry, experience social cohesion, and dream. The relationship between spectatorship and theaters are mutually influential. The changing political and social experiences of the spectators inform the presentation of the films and also the role of the theaters. Meanwhile, theaters, along with the performances, influence the way people understand themselves. 

Further, after all of our research, we’ve come to realize that the Great Star Theater has had a far greater impact on the Chinese community of Chinatown in the 1900s than we were previously aware of. It functioned in all forms of life, including propaganda, education, entertainment, and news. We found bi-monthyl advertisements for it (and the World Theater) in the East West Newspaper, indicating a great level of success financially and functionally. We also learned of the many small ways that it contributed to the community, such as serving as a place that provided daycare for children. Overall, we also realized that to leave out research on the political climate within which the theater originated would be to leave out an essential aspect of how and what the theater came to be.We also learned of the development of gangs and how it contributed to the fall of theaters in San Francisco’s Chinatown. We would like to know why, specifically, the Great Star Theater has survived after all this time, as opposed to the many other theaters that have existed in Chinatown. We are aware of the issues of modernity and shifting forms of media across the century, but is the theater somehow unique, or was it simply lucky to have been the one theater to survive the times?

  We encountered a few surprises throughout our research. While researching, we became aware of a gap of the sources that had to do with the history of the theater during our initial time period. This was a surprise due to the fact that this was an incredibly rich period of history for San Francisco. We were expecting more information on how the theater was used during the 1960s to 1970s. We also were surprised with the fact that this is one of the last theaters still standing that was built in the 1920’s. This gave us a desire to study its history to see if there was something they might have done differently to give them the chance of success. 

Not only was it a surprise that there was a gap of information about the theater during the 1970’s, it then became a challenge for us to find the sources that we needed. We were able to remedy this through various research tools. The research, particularly our visit to the Ethnic Studies Library, cultivated some secondary sources of the theater in its early history, which made the shift in the timeline necessary. So, as we shifted our timeline, it also opened some primary resources that were found in our early research that had not been considered before because it was not in our initial time period. 

There is also the consideration of the outside challenges that most students face during this semester. We all have busy schedules, which made it so there were periods that we were unable to focus on this project as much as we had desired. There were periods when the other group members had to counteract this understandable challenge to make up for one another. 

    Overall, our group worked very well together. Communication was always present between the group and everyone was willing to help each other and offer clarification which made it a great experience. We had initially only wanted to research the period between the 1940’s and 1970’s because we believed that focusing on the time period would provide us much information to focus on for the project. However, after doing research on the specific time period we realized that there wasn’t much information available which allowed our group to change the period to the 1920’ through the 1960’s and this allowed for us to include the theater’s beginning and how Chinese entertainment was brought to Chinatown in the 1920’s through the introduction of Cantonese opera. Once we finalized the time period, we were able to be selective about the sources that we used and were able to be specific about the information we wanted to present. We learned as a group that the Great Star theater has had a significant impact on the surrounding Chinatown community socially, culturally, and politically. Researching the Great Star theater has given our group the opportunity to learn about San Francisco's Chinatown as well as how the theater impacted the Chinese community and why the theater is significant today. We would like to thank Professor Zhang and Tianyue for all  the inspiring feedback and helpful guidance along the way, and we are excited to continue exploring the more recent roles of Great Star Theater in the future. 

Citations:

Fahlstedt, Kim K.. “Chinatown Modernity: Revolutions and Movie Theaters.” Chinatown Film Culture: The Appearance of Cinema in San Francisco’s Chinese Neighborhood. United  States,  Rutgers University Press, 2020. 

Lei, David. Personal Interview. 11 March 2022.

Rao, Nancy Yunhwa. “Transnationalism and everyday practice: Cantonese opera theaters of North America in the 1920s.” Routledge, vol. 25, no.1, 2016, pp.107-130.