{"id":1645,"date":"2025-11-20T21:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/?p=1645"},"modified":"2025-11-20T21:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:37:13","slug":"auntie-po-mei-and-prior-unlikely-prophets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/2025\/11\/20\/auntie-po-mei-and-prior-unlikely-prophets\/","title":{"rendered":"Auntie Po, Mei, and Prior: Unlikely Prophets"},"content":{"rendered":"

In The Legend of Auntie Po<\/em>, the character of Auntie Po is an unlikely prophet. In the masculine environment of a Sierra Nevada logging camp post-Chinese exclusion act, Auntie Po\u2019s identity as an elderly Chinese woman contrasts the 1885 stereotypical young white male logger. She also contrasts late-1800s stereotypes of femininity, as her masculine blue pants and red flannel shirt resembles lumberjack clothing, specifically mirroring the image of Paul Bunyan, another mythical figure in the American northwest. Similarly, Prior is an unlikely prophet in Angels in America<\/em>. As a gay man, his being chosen as a prophet is ironic because of Christianity\u2019s view on homosexuality. Similarly to Mei\u2019s role in her story, Prior\u2019s role in Angels is partially to impart the wisdom he gleans from the Angels onto other characters. All three characters challenge the \u201cnorms\u201d of who would stereotypically be chosen in such position of honor by men (loggers) or gods (the Angels) in America.<\/p>\n

While Mei is not seen as a God-like figure herself, her role as a storyteller to the children in the logging camp makes her a prophet. From her visions of Auntie Po, she is able to impart the wisdom of the legend onto the children in the logging camp to act as reassurance during difficult times. Both The Legend of Auntie Po<\/em> and Angels in America<\/em> have significant characters that doubt the legends, particularly in the face of tragedy. Bee\u2019s lack of faith in Auntie Po becomes clear after the logging accident: \u201cNo Mei! I don\u2019t see Auntie Po!…I don\u2019t see pretend Gods!\u201d (197) This is a similarity between the two works, with many characters doubting Prior\u2019s visions of the Angel because of his illness-induced mental state. This doubt ties into the significance of showing unlikely prophets and legends both on stage and in literature. Representation is important, especially in the context of legends which allow children to see themselves in stories told by people they can relate to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In The Legend of Auntie Po, the character of Auntie Po is an unlikely prophet. In the masculine environment of a Sierra Nevada logging camp post-Chinese exclusion act, Auntie Po\u2019s identity as an elderly Chinese woman contrasts the 1885 stereotypical young white male logger. She also contrasts late-1800s stereotypes of femininity, as her masculine blue … Continue reading Auntie Po, Mei, and Prior: Unlikely Prophets<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5706,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344663],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5706"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1646,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions\/1646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}