hardboiled

review: ching chong chinaman

A pizza place hardly seems like the ideal location for a theatre production, let alone the basement of a pizza place. Yet, it is in LaVal’s Subterranean that “Ching Chong Chinaman” executes its biting satire, delivering the story of an ultra-Americanized Chinese American family without pulling punches.

Written by Bay Area native and Yale graduate Lauren Yee and directed by Desdemona Chiang, the story begins and takes place mostly in the Palo Alto kitchen of the Wong family. The play, which began as Yee’s senior thesis and debuted during the New York International Fringe Festival in 2007, explores what it means to be Asian American.

Ed (Dennis Yen), the dad, leads his life as the breadwinner of the family, while his marriage with his clueless wife Grace (Lisa Kang) loses its spark. Desdemona (Cindy Im), the daughter, clings desperately to her dream of getting into Princeton as her math grades plummet. Upton (Arthur Keng), the son, aspires to qualify for – and win – a World of Warcraft tournament in Korea, but his schoolwork and family obligations get in the way of possible gaming hours.

In one of the very first scenes, Ed tells the family to make sure their eyes are nice and wide for the family portrait. They comply and smile brightly as the shutter clicks and the stage dims. The audience – both Asian and non-Asian – drop everyday pretenses and laugh.

The attack on stereotypes and clichés intensifies as Upton finds a solution to his problem. In a soliloquy in front of his laptop, Upton cites the practices of Charles Crocker, one of the railroad barons responsible for the Transcontinental Railroad, and decides to hire his own indentured servant to do his homework and chores. The dark irony is, of course, that Upton has lost touch so much with his heritage that the only thing he learned from Asian American history is how to exploit immigrants to his own advantage.

The next morning, the family discovers Jin Qiang (Sung Min Park) sitting at their dining table. Unable to pronounce his name properly, he becomes known to them as Ching Chong. When Desdemona takes offense to the racial slur, Ed claims that since they themselves are of Chinese descent, they are allowed to use it, “like the n-word.

And he’s right. Whether it is right or wrong, racial epithets are generally accepted when they are used by members of the offended race. The existence of this very play proves it.

Drawing back to the title of the play, Yee shows that she is not afraid to address racism and stereotypes head-on, blatantly using “Ching Chong Chinaman” to attract a somewhat shocked but curious crowd. In some sense, she follows in the path of comedians such as Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, and Dave Chappelle in bringing humor into what is ordinarily an uncomfortable subject. She doesn’t quite hit the funny bone as deftly as those comedians do, providing more chuckles than roars (though LaVal’s beer could help with that).

In just under two hours, “Ching Chong Chinaman” pushes us to laugh and think about the fluidity of our own ethnic identities. By forcing upon the audience an over-the-top whitewashed Chinese American family, the play compels us to think about how much race really functions in our own lives. It questions the importance of retaining cultural heritage in the face of an assimilative society, and allows the viewers to come up with their own answers.

The play will continue its run at LaVal’s Subterranean on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. through October 11.