A Semiotic Reading of the East Asian-Canadian Restaging of the Immigrant Experience and Redress in Marty Chan’s The Forbidden Phoenix and David Yees’s lady in the red dress

Document Type : Original Article

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Abstract

The astounding increase in immigration and the rise in intercultural
relationships within Canadian society resulted in the last decade in the
acceptability of a number of dramatic works by ethnic, immigrant and
second generation Canadian playwrights. This paper examines through
Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce’s theory of semiotics
the East-Asian Canadian immigrant experience and the journey of
redress in two dramatic works: Marty Chan’s The Forbidden Phoenix
(2010) and David Yee’s lady in the red dress (2010). The Forbidden
Phoenix and lady in the red dress, address issues related to exclusionary
policies against early Chinese immigrants to Canada and historical
moments troubled with tension which challenge the audience to examine
the legacy of discrimination and prejudices in a nation’s community. The
two dramatic texts exhibit a complex network of signals not previously
examined in research to date and which according to Saussure and
Peirce’s semiotic theory, may not always be written or uttered, rather,
they are presented as signifiers which can be mental or sensory
impressions by which meaning is both produced and exchanged. The
messages communicated between the performers and the audience in both
plays are based on the “ensemble of rules” (Keir 22) embedded within
the Chinese-Canadian heritage. The conclusions of this analysis reveal
that despite past injustices Canada as a nation can through redress
achieve reconciliation and exhibit “cross-cultural solidarity” (Kirby et
al.100).

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