The Series | Forbidden TV Series

When the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 took away their path to American citizenship until 1942, the Chinese in America created communities and livelihoods in Chinatowns across the country. They became a haven and a home for economic prosperity for thousands of Japanese, Korean, and Filipino immigrants who faced the same xenophobia, violence, and discrimination in a country that, to this day, homogenizes the experience of being Asian in America.

The nightclubs centered in these Chinese communities during this era stand as a testament to the power of perseverance, hope, and grit. They demonstrate how celebration, beauty, and light can thrive, even in the darkest of times.

LOGLINE

While her shrewd father-in-law conspires to take control of her family’s nightclub, the Forbidden City, Violet Wong fights to preserve the safe haven she has built in 1930’s Chinatown, San Francisco.

SYNOPSIS

Exploring the complexities of a multitude of Asian-American experiences, the rise and fall of the Forbidden City nightclub is seen through the lives of the nightclub’s performers including its headlining burlesque group, The Dynasties. The stakes continue to escalate as the world outside also reaches the brink of war, causing everyone, especially club owner Violet Wong, to test how far they would go to claim a piece of the American Dream.

FORMAT

1 Hour • Scripted Series • Drama

THEMES

assimilation • sexuality • power • patriarchy • misogyny • otherness • racism

THE SERIES