Small House of Uncle Thomas

The musical The King and I confronts imperialism in Siam. In the musical, the many children and wives of the king performed a version of Uncle Tom, that we talked about in class. You can see one of the performances here. Instead of there being a Christ, Buddha saves the day. Especially within this context, the anti-slavery message was prominent. Western powers were trying to imperialize Siam. This might be seen as Christian countries against a Buddhist country. What do you think the significance is that the Christ imagery was replaced with Buddha? Do you think this changes the messages about slavery?