Kelly Lim Harris is ready to sing about your Yellow Fever at Melbourne Fringe

Being told you’d be great in Miss Saigon might come across as a compliment, but for Kelly Lim Harris, it has happened enough times to inspire a song. In Yellow Fever, the WAAPA-trained performer turns her own experiences of fetishisation, tokenisation and being reduced to her ethnicity into an original cabaret about the realities of being an East Asian performer. Ahead of Yellow Fever's Melbourne Fringe Festival premiere, Lim Harris spoke to us about the stories behind the show, the contradictions of representation and finding her own voice through cabaret.

Yellow Fever has come from things Lim Harris has actually been told and experienced, with little need to heighten or reshape it for audiences. “All of it! All of it is real!" She exclaims. "I have two running jokes with my friends: ‘the show wrote itself’ and ‘it’s not trauma it’s material’. Yellow Fever is shaped around true moments from my own life. It’s such a charged topic that I was very careful not to speak on behalf of Asian women. This is my story, my words, my songs. I want to serve as a real human connection between the audience and what can feel like nebulous societal issues. The stories themselves required only minimal shaping to protect the identities of men who could pursue legal action! The biggest challenge was selecting which incidents served my narrative journey."

Something else the show looks at is the contradiction of being perceived as fully East Asian while not always fitting the expectations others have of what being Asian should look like or mean. "To most people I look fully East Asian, so consequently I carry the prejudice and fetishisation that can entail. But on the other hand, I was born and raised in New Zealand to a Malaysian Chinese mother and a New Zealand European father so culturally, I don’t fit the flattened image of ‘Asianness’ that many people, including some casting teams, expect," Lim Harris explains. "Sometimes I get frustrated that I’m not ‘Asian enough’, but with maturity I’ve realised that my experience of being Asian is just as valid."

Lim Harris has established a career in opera, musical theatre and now cabaret, a performance genre that has allowed her more creative freedom. "The breadth of my experience has given me a deeper understanding of how East and Southeast Asian representation is a lineage. The most famous example would of course be the 1904 opera Madama Butterfly which went on to form the basis of the 1989 musical Miss Saigon," she tells me. "But what I love about moving into cabaret is that I get to stand on stage as an Asian woman, and be my authentic self, and in the process rewrite the stories people have been told about us for hundreds of years."

Which leads us to the remark that she would be a perfect Kim, which gets its own song in the cabaret, "(Please Don’t Tell Me) I’d Be Great in Miss Saigon”. "Look, I admit I still take it as a compliment!" Lim Harris laughs. "People always say it with the best intentions and if they think I can still pass as a seventeen year old I’m flattered. But I digress…"

"I wrote the song out of frustration. I’ve been told this over and over again my whole life, it literally happened to me three weeks ago! And whilst I appreciate the sentiment it can feel like being reduced to being Asian rather than an artist with so much more than my 'diversity' to offer. And to be clear, I have no vendetta against Miss Saigon! But if that’s the only show Asian people are good for, our career prospects are going to be pretty dire."

While there is plenty of laughter to be had and fun anecdotes to be shared, Lim Harris has made sure the humour is balanced with a serious examination of where ‘yellow fever’ comes from and the way women are treated. "I see the audience laughter as a reclamation of power: ‘You tried to make me small, but now we are all laughing at how ridiculous you are," she says. "But at the same time I believe in the power of empathy. It would be cheap to have a show that’s just a trauma dump. That doesn’t solve anything. I wanted to go further - where does ‘yellow fever’ come from? Why do they treat women this way? Because in understanding this we can enact real change. But there is no wallowing here, it is fast-paced with highs and lows moved along by original pop-rock songs and sound!"

FRINGE FIVE FAST ONES

1. My pre-show ritual is elaborate.
2. If a song was to play each time I entered a room, it would be 'Short Skirt / Long Jacket' by CAKE.
3. If I could instantly become amazing at one skill, it would be peace negotiations.
4. If I were forced to eat one meal for the rest of my life, it would be yum cha.
5. The hill I will die on is bring back nuance. 

SHOW DETAILS

Venue: Trades Hall, Cnr Lygon & Victoria Sts, Carlton
Season: 7 - 18 October | Wed - Sat 8:15pm, Sun 7:15pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Tickets: $28 - $34 Full | $26 - $28 Conc | $26 Preview | Wednesday Hump Day $21
Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Images credits: Ven Tithing and Maedforu