Speak Up! Blog

As a music lover, and an admirer of much of the Asian art and culture I’ve been exposed to, I very much appreciate this concept I read about today.

An Asian American woman shared her sexual harassment story at the website Conducive. She was employed by and Asian American company, and the harasser was the lone American white male employee. I won’t go into the details as her story is like so many others, no matter what level of business, academia, or society, in general. To me, they start to blur…

But I loved the elegance of the response to the story by By Mai Kieu-Loan. She and her colleges have coined their own term for speaking out about abuse. They call it Going Kabuki.

To those unfamiliar with Kabuki theater, it is a highly stylized form of traditional Japanese dance/drama with beautiful costumes and elaborate makeup and masks. Originally kabuki performed only by women until the oppression of women led men to view them as cheapening the art form. Kabuki is sometimes translated as “the art of singing and dancing.”

Kieu-Loan compares speaking up to singing, or using one’s voice:

“…speaking out breaks the mold on keeping silent. Silence, a trait among many traditional Asian cultures to preserve harmony in interdependent relationships, is not as appreciated in more acculturated situations such as a workplace, classroom, or even in the supermarket (for instance, do you stand silently when someone steps in front of you in line?). Ironically, going Kabuki means letting your voice say what you need. Letting your voice sing your need. And, to be seen.”

At SHS, we are all about going Kabuki.

I particularly love the analogy because of the dramatic nature that is so often present in the costumes, make-up and masks worn by the kabuki actors. The word Kabuki is believed to come from the verb kabuku, meaning “to be out of the ordinary.” So someone who goes kabuki and takes a stand against oppression and abuse would be pushing for more than the traditional. This is someone who pushes the boundaries.

To read the young woman’s story and Kieu-Loan’s response: See Yellow Fever Survivor at Conductive

No Comments

No comments yet.

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment