Author Description

Inspired by a true story, Lloyd Suh's piercing and whimsical play draws a stark line from the voyeuristic gawking of 19th century audiences to the anti-Asian violence of today. The Chinese Lady tells the story of Afong Moy, a young woman involuntarily brought from Guangzhou to be exhibited as a curiosity in America in 1834. Forced to present a version of her Chinese identity that is "exotic and foreign and unusual," Afong, with the help--and hindrance--of her translator Atung, also reflects back her own unvarnished perceptions of America. We learn of our own emperor (Andrew Jackson), and our own strange customs, like corsets, and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Chinese Lady is both a caustic examination of racism in America and a deeply American story of migration and self-discovery.