Resources

Join influential playwright Philip Kan Gotanda to get the inside scoop on the ideas and inspirations behind his groundbreaking body of work, including his play, After the War Blues, which explores the lives of a diverse community in San Francisco’s Japantown in the aftermath of World War II. Gotanda, who teaches theater at UC Berkeley, appears in conversation with Michael Omi, associate professor of Asian American and Asian diaspora studies at UC Berkeley. To set the stage, local actors and musicians perform scenes from Gotanda’s plays. Warning: Contains explicit language.

The Bay Area’s own Ballet Afsaneh, a dynamic ensemble whose repertory focuses on Silk Road regions in Central Asia, will perform colorful, kinetic traditional dance.

After 150 year of civil war, the Shogunate in Japan was determined to enforce and maintain a stable society. The Shogunate further extended its control of the people through a class system with social and economic constraints. The highest class was composed of the samurai, followed by farmers, craftsmen, and at the lowest level, merchants.

Farmers working and resting, 1955, by Fernando Amorsolo (Filipino, 1892 – 1972), Oil on canvas, Gift of Alexander and Cornelia Calhoun, 2005.99. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Fan-shaped box with the Eight Views of Omi (Lake Biwa), Meiji period (1868-1912)-Taisho period (1912-1926). Japan. Lacquered wood with makie (sprinkled metallic powder) decoration; silver. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60M255. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.