You have to know that figure skating, and any kind of performance, is geared towards a mass audience. Perception is more important than an individual's personal intention, unless you make that public to the media, such as Polina T talked about her SP this season is not about Game of Throne, it is about an artist not happy with her paintings. So many choice of music, has a dominant interpretation, following the movie/tv series storyline, and an alternative interpretation, which a skater/performer can alter. But unless you make your alternative interpretation known to the public, or your performance showed significant deviation from the original story, the mass audience would assume you follow the storyline of the original.
So it does not matter to the average audience, what Mao or Satoko or any other skater was thinking in their head, or they agree or disagree with the theme of the story, the perception is that they are portraying role of the leading Asian lady as in the original literature. So I am not projecting what they think, because it does not matter. I am only talking about the impact of choosing an "Orientalism" themed program.
By the same merit then, if perception is what matters (as in what the audience perceives from the skater through their skating), I do not perceive Satoko as a weak vulnerable Asian woman in her Miss Saigon performance XD (even though I am aware what the story is about). and seriously though, since when is being vulnerable a weakness unless one allows others to take advantage of it. It is a very human trait.
You have to ask yourself - for the audience to perceive her as the protagonist in Ms Saigon (thus personifying the weak Asian woman so often portrayed in Orientalism pieces) they would have to know the story pretty well.
How many in the audience really knows the storyline of Miss Saigon? How many have watched the play, if at all? Or do they just see it as another piece of music?
This is very dependent on the audience's personal level of knowledge, and usually people play to the lowest common denominator.
Not being glib here, but that is my take from it.
being Asian myself, I am not comfortable with aspects of Orientalism in Western literature/ art pieces. Though I also am not comfortable with painting things with a broad brush either. 'Right' or 'wrong' is the same thing on different side of the coin. I think it's rather unfair to put the responsibilities on these skaters (on top of their programs and what with they have to do, they gotta think whether or not the music is totally PC and even then there will ALWAYS be people who are offended anways. you can't make everyone happy) regarding their music choices. By the same merit, one can also argue if Yulia's Schindler's List is totally appropriate since the movie is about the genocide of the Jews. Is such a sombre event suitable to be skated to, to be reduced to spins and spirals, applauded and cheered when it is over? But that's figure skating for you. Somehow it always toeing the line between what is appropriate and what is not.
To be honest, I do think we should welcome more Asian-inspired music pieces that our skaters of Asian descent can skate to while embracing their heritage proudly.
For example, I absolutely love the medley of Korean folk songs that made up 'Homage to Korea' (I still rue the extremely short lifespan of that program, I wish Yuna would use it more!). Somehow I notice there is always that concern among skaters that such music wouldn't be embraced by Western audience. But Denis Ten did so well with his Silk Road program, and Hanyu with Seimei. Perhaps more of the ladies can follow suit
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