After the deeply divisive reception of “The Birth of a Nation,” director D.W. Griffith released “Broken Blossoms,” in which a young, abused girl finds comfort in the company of a kind Chinese man.
The 1919 silent film, based on Thomas Burke’s short story “The Chink and the Child” and also known as “The Yellow Man and the Girl,” was not only a box office hit but also a notably compassionate depiction of a Chinese character, as it was released amid antimiscegenation laws and during the “Yellow Peril” era of widespread anti-Chinese sentiment throughout the U.S. “Griffith chose a tragic story of impossible love, love impossible in this world of passions and prejudices and brutal forces .
.. and ‘Broken Blossoms’ came to the screen, a masterpiece in moving pictures,” read the New York Times’ review .
“But though the photoplay is distinctly Mr. Griffith’s achievement, it is not his alone. A number of unnamed persons must have contributed to it, in addition to the cast.
” Entertainment & Arts East West Players’ new artistic director is Lily Tung Crystal, who currently leads Theater Mu, the largest Asian American theater company in the Midwest. She co-founded Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company in the Bay Area. May 15, 2024 More than a century later, a new play puts that movie’s anonymous participants at center stage.
Titled “Unbroken Blossoms,” the East West Players world premiere applauds the two Chinese consultants hired to work on Griffith�.