Headscratchers / The World of Suzie Wong

• If Suzie has been a prostitute since she was ten, how does she not have any STDs by now?
  • In the book, it's explained that Suzie went to live with a relative who at first worked as a High-Class Call Girl and convinced Suzie to do the same after a few years. They worked at a dance hall, and most of their clients were respectable businessmen - so they could afford to not sleep with that many. It's only relatively recently - after her baby was born in fact - that she has been working the Nam Kok.
  • In the book it's also said that as for the agreement with the Nam Kok, the prostitutes all have to have weekly medical check-ups that the hotel organises. So if you see one of the girls working, she must be healthy.
• Does Kay really not believe that Suzie and Robert were together?
  • Well at the first time they meet, Suzie is just Robert's model for his paintings, and Robert doesn't seem like the type to get a prostitute. Kay is also possibly aware of Suzie being Ben's mistress, so she might have assumed Suzie was only Robert's model. Of course the point is that Kay is very classist and elitist, even if she doesn't appear to be. In her mind, she couldn't imagine Robert actually dating Suzie and using her for anything other than sex.
• Why does this have a reputation as a "horrible, racist film" - as it's called in The Joy Luck Club?
  • Quite simply because the story has an Asian woman falling for a white man who is more privileged than she is. People tend to be a bit iffy about the Asian Hooker Stereotype, and this is the film that helped popularise it.
  • Some of it is Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch. A journalist interviewed Nancy Kwan once, and in the article it gets mentioned that a lot of Asians and Asian-Americans grew up hearing about the film and hated the idea of it - but never actually saw it. Asian-Western relationships are a touchy subject too, and the school of thought is that films dealing with it have the unfortunate implications that white men are more worthy of love than Asian men. The same journalist admits that he watched the film after interviewing Nancy and was surprised that it was nothing like its reputation led people to believe.
  • It's similar to the attitudes towards Flower Drum Song and Sayonara. These were some of the first contemporary stories to deal with Asian relationships to modern America, so they understandably carry the values of the time they were made. David Henry Hwang talks about how he loved Flower Drum Song growing up because it was about people who looked like him and were shown as Americanized - and was deeply saddened when it got attacked for not being 100% politically correct over the years.
• Why does Suzie attack Minnie-Ho?
  • Minnie got Robert to exchange some money for her. Suzie only sees Robert handing over money, and Minnie kissing him, and assumes he paid for her services. So her jealousy kicked in. In situations like that, The Unfair Sex tends to blame the woman rather than the man - which is unfortunate Truth in Television.

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