For trans and queer artist Che’Li, leading American Stage’s two-person production of “The Chinese Lady” is a form of drag. The entertainer views acting as “persona work.”
“It really is a matter of putting on masks, faces and personas, of immersing myself in a world while also serving as a refuge and steward for stories and characters,” they explain. “‘The Chinese Lady’ centers the history of Afong Moy, allegedly the first Chinese woman to come to America, and it’s been exhilarating to explore the heightened femininity she was forced to take on as someone who doesn’t identify as a lady.”
Moy arrived in New York from China in 1834, a contracted journey with merchants Nathaniel and Frederic Carne. The brothers exploited her to sell goods in a sideshow act dubbed “The Chinese Lady.”
Her story inspired playwright Lloyd Suh’s work of the same name. The play is billed as “a story that reminds us history isn’t always black and white” and was announced last April as a part of American Stage’s 46th season.
The company said it was designed to “show the diversity of the human spirit.” That includes through the human rights injustices found in “The Chinese Lady.”
“Her feet are bound, her freedom is non-existent; the first Chinese woman to step foot in America was treated as a sideshow act in the darkest parts of the 1800s,” its synopsis reads. “‘The Chinese Lady’ is anything but dark, told with winking humor and forthrightness. It follows the story of 14-year-old Afong Moy, who was immediately put on display for a paying public once she arrived in New York [in a] beguiling look into this wild journey and the human urge to belong.”
The production is led by Director Gregory Keng Strasser, who was drawn to the project as a mixed-race Chinese person who’s experienced “dysphoria with my own identity.” He dedicated the production to the Chinese women in his life who have helped him “see what Chinese is,” something he invites theatergoers to do as well.
“She believed she was a cultural ambassador of sorts and sought to build bridges of empathy and kindness between the two nations,” Keng Strasser says of Moy. “In reality, she was trapped and forced to perform Chineseness to help sell her employer’s wares.
“‘The Chinese Lady’ provides an opportunity for us to sit in the discomfort of a dark history for the United States,” he continues, “but in the play’s resolution, opens our eyes to the beauty and splendor of hope, audacity and how we live now.”
Che’Li leaned on their experience as someone with marginalized identities to play Moy. They note that “being hyper vigilant about surveillance is already very much a part of my everyday experience, unfortunately.”
“Coming into a project that very explicitly engages with what it means to be surveilled, to be looked at, to be a spectacle, that was a really big pull for me in the work because the piece is very meta-theatrical,” Che’Li explains. “Afong Moy directly addresses the audience and that creates a really beautiful tension in the play.”
The entertainer views Moy as a performer herself, but also a historian and journalist who sought to bring cultures together through exhibition.
“Her super objective throughout the whole play is to be that interface and that bridge,” Che’Li says. “I found a lot of solace in how smart she is and how deeply she wants to apply everything she’s learned in the new world.
“She knows that knowledge is not a fixed thing but something to be shared, exchanged and transformed,” they continue. “Approaching it from that lens, especially given the global context and genocide that’s happening all over the world is very much my goal.”
Che’Li is joined on stage by actor Jacob Yeh, who plays Moy’s translator Atung. It’s with his assistance that they recount her life throughout the show, from the time she spends in the sideshow to the racially motivated violence Chinese-Americans faced in the 1800s.
“It is a really great privilege to embody Afong Moy’s story,” Che’Li says. “Especially as a trans person; I don’t think there has been a trans actor playing Afong Moy before, which does not go over my head.”
The entertainer notes that they’ve been able to bring their authentic self to the stage with the full support of the cast and crew. Che’Li specifically cites the solidarity they’ve felt from their “wonderful, wonderful” costar and director.
“Getting to work on the regional production of this piece brought me to Florida and I would have never thought I’d be here to do this kind of work,” they say. “I’ve met people who see me, who may not have the same shared identities as me but who understand how important it is for me to be a queer and trans body in this space. That unspoken affinity has meant so much to me.”
While “The Chinese Lady” examines Moy’s past, it also urges audiences to consider our future.
“Since the pandemic, xenophobia and specifically anti-Asian hate has been increasing,” Che’Li says. “Afong Moy is asking us to be a part of a bigger world, even a world that is not necessarily here yet, which I feel like is representative of a queer futurity and what it means to practice and live into a utopia.
“Even in her isolation, she wants to be part of the world,” they add. “I think that desire is an urgent one and a timeless one — it feels like she’s asking us to really look and see what’s going on in the world, to participate in it and to be on the right side of history.”
“The Chinese Lady” plays Wednesdays-Sundays through Feb. 25 at American Stage, located at 163 3rd St. N. in St. Petersburg. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit AmericanStage.org.
