A family discovers culture in an unlikely place in Mu Performing Arts’ new comedy Ching Chong Chinaman
(Minneapolis – Feb 2, 2009) It’s not easy being an average American teenager. Homework, chores, and family take time away from what is really important: video games. But in Mu Performing Arts’ premiere production of Lauren Yee’s uproarious new comedy Ching Chong Chinaman, playing February 14 – March 1 at Mixed Blood Theatre, Upton Wong discovers that the answer is easy, even if the consequences turn his family on its head.
The Wong family is as all-American as backyard barbecues and apple pie. Brainy daughter Desdemona frets over her average math grades and her application to Princeton, son Upton lives and breathes for online gaming, Mom and her domestic skills are taken for granted while her true passions are ignored, and Dad lets lose on the links to get away from it all. But when Upton brings a Chinese refugee with a penchant for dance into the house to take care of the cumbersome tasks that prevent him from seeking the World of Warcraft stardom that he craves, the Wongs are forced to confront their cultural heritage as never before.
For playwright Yee, the story is not just about an Asian American family discovering its roots. “Ching Chong Chinaman was supposed to be the play about white people,” she explains. “I had written so many ‘Asian American’ plays—plays about Asian American issues, plays requiring Asian American actors—and part of me simply wanted to show that as a writer, I could tackle anything with any set of characters and themes.”
Even though Ching Chong Chinaman ultimately became just that—a play surrounding Asian American characters—what arose from Yee’s early intentions became a play that is just as much about being American as it is about being Asian. As Yee observes, “there are Asian American families out there so removed from their culture that in every other way, they could be considered strictly ‘American.’” The Wongs’ attempts at making Upton’s Chinese “slave” feel at home with a barrage of familiar stereotypes simultaneously make fun of and poignantly demonstrate their ignorance of their own Asian heritage. “[They think] the phrases ‘ching chong’ and ‘chinaman’ are acceptable because they themselves are Asian American, yet at the same time, this act of attempting to ‘own’ these racist phrases demonstrates their gross lack of understanding of their own culture.”
Through the comic misadventures of the Wongs, Yee brings a deeper question to life in Ching Chong Chinaman: “Is ethnicity such a conspicuous marker that it will always be of note?”
Ching Chong Chinaman runs Feb 14 – Mar 1 (preview Feb 13 at 7:30) at Mixed Blood Theatre. Performances Thurs – Sat at 7:30, Sun at 2:00. Tickets $9 - $18, available through the Mixed Blood box office at 612-338-6131 or www.mixedblood.com.
About the Playwright
Lauren Yee is a 2008/09 Dramatists Guild fellow, a 2009 MacDowell Colony fellow, and a member of the 2009 Public Theater Emerging Writers Group. She has been a finalist for the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, the Humana Festival's Heideman Award, and the Jerome Fellowship (multiyear). Other honors include writing fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, and the New York Mills Arts Retreat, as well as funding from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and Theatre Bay Area. Ching Chong Chinaman was a finalist for the 2008 Princess Grace Award and winner of Kumu Kahua Theatre's 2007 Pacific Rim Prize. Apart from her writing, she has served as founding executive director of the San Francisco Young Playwrights Festival (2005-2008) and Youth for Asian Theater (2001-2005). She has taught playwriting at the New York Mills Arts Center and Tao House. Lauren is a member of the Dramatists Guild and a recent graduate of Yale University.
What: Ching Chong Chinaman by Lauren Yee, directed by Jennifer Weir. Featuring Kurt Kwan, Maria Kelly, Sherwin Resurreccion, Katie Bradley, Eric Sharp, and Erika Danielle Crane.
Who: Presented by Mu Performing Arts.
When: February 14 – March 1 (preview Feb 13 at 7:30 pm). Thurs – Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2:00 pm. Pay-what-you-can performance Mon, Feb 23 at 7:30 pm.
Where: Mixed Blood Theatre (1501 S Fourth St., Minneapolis)
Tickets: $18 adults, $16 seniors, $9 students (special price), $10 preview. Group rates upon request. Available at 612-338-6131 or www.mixedblood.com
