A play by Lloyd Suh that tells the true story of Afong Moy, a Chinese woman displayed as a living exhibit in 1800s America, staged in the first person from her point of view.
The Chinese Lady is running at ArtsWest through October 11, part of their A Visible Existence 2026-2027 season. It's a co-production with Yun Theatre, written by Lloyd Suh and directed by Zenaida Rose Smith and Christie Zhao. Zoe Ding takes the lead as Afong Moy, with Sebastian Wang playing Atung.
The play is based on the true story of Afong Moy, a Chinese woman who was displayed as a living exhibit in 19th-century America. It's staged in the first person from her point of view, and she spends the show recounting half a century of performing her culture for curious onlookers. As she tells her story, her dreams and aspirations shift with the passing years, and she works to reclaim her own narrative from the people who paid to watch her.
Critics have described it as a funny, heartbreaking, and devastatingly contemporary portrait of America seen through the eyes of a young Chinese woman. The New York Times called it "piercing and intimate," and The New York Theatre Guide described it as "beyond an indictment of the imperial gaze."
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It's been running since September 17, so you've got until October 11 to catch it at ArtsWest in Seattle. The production is part of the A Visible Existence season, which runs through 2027.
