31 Asian American Plays in 31 Days
#19. CARRY THE TIGER TO THE MOUNTAIN by Cherylene Lee
A drama based on the seminal Asian American civil rights case of 1982 where a young Chinese American man, Vincent Chin, mistaken for being Japanese,was beaten to death by two Detroit autoworkers. When Vincent Chin’s assailants are sentenced to 3 years probation and a 3 thousand dollar fine for beating a man to death, Vincent’s mother, Lily Chin, becomes the face of an Asian American political movement seeking justice for her son. Using America’s love of cars and the practice of tai chi as two opposites tracking the final outcome, the play explores the complex social, legal, and personal roadblocks Lily Chin faced in her fight for justice.
The case of Vincent Chin still resonates 25 years later, even more so in the contemporary age of Black Lives Matter, Trump and Brock Peters. The term hadn’t been invented yet, but white privilege certain applies here, showing the long, systematic favortism that has evolved to disenfranchise marginalized people has been at work for far long than most (white) people thing.
1998 Contemporary American Theater Festival. Photo taken from the 1999 East West production (and posted for the Cherylene Lee Memorial . (Shown in the photo are Beulah Quo (center), Kim Montelibano (left), and Cindy Cheung (right), Richard Gallegos (back); Grimm fans, note that Reggie Lee was featured as Vincent Chin in the East West production).
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