Imagining China in London musical theatre during the 1890s: The Geisha and San Toy

For people living in London during the 1890s, China and the Chinese were largely mythical constructions. Attitudes towards China, as well as the Chinese themselves, were being imagined at the time through various media, including popular musical theatre. Two shows, both with music by Sidney Jones and produced by George Edwardes at Daly’s Theatre, were significant in this identity construction: The Geisha (1896) and San Toy (1899). Both musicals are set in East Asia and include Chinese and British characters. In The Geisha, which takes place in Japan, the sole Chinese character is Wun-Hi, the owner of a teahouse. He is less than honorable, and his music is in an ethnic-based music hall style, with nearly speech-sung melodies and unashamed Pidgin English. In Jones’s score for San Toy, which is set in China, characters who endorse Western views sing glorious melodic lines reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan while those who do not sound like Wun-Hi in The Geisha, with clipped articulations and non-standard English.