Through the lens of theatre as a sociological record, this essay examines three early twentieth American opium den dramas to demonstrate how they reflect, utilize, and perpetuate anti-Chinese sentiment.
Paper
Danielle Goldman helped me immensely with my work. We met each Friday to discuss progress and she gave me concrete goals and feedback that helped me keep the momentum of my project.
Research, Social Justice
Throughout the semester, my classmates and I would exchange drafts and give each other feedback. All of my classmates were from different majors, so this experience allowed me to learn about fields I otherwise wouldn't encounter. I found all of my classmates work incredibly informative and incisive.
Originally, I planned to write more broadly about theatrical depiction of drugs. I then realized I had enough material about opium den dramas to warrant an essay of its own. I feel I could have saved myself a lot of work if I had chosen a more narrow topic from the start. So I would recommend to other students to chose a very specific and build outwards from there - a 30 page paper is not as long as it seems.
This project was extremely challenging but I feel the experience has really helped me improve my writing skills.