Review: The Chinese Lady at Stages

Always the insightful dramaturg, Stages has set up the usual museum-quality context in the lobby to prepare and frame the production before we even enter the theater. The program is also filled with historical information that is both broadly global and specifically Houstonian. For instance, in 1910 there were reportedly only 30 people of Asian descent in Houston: 20 Japanese, and 10 Chinese. There was a specific board dedicated to the known timeline of Afong Moy, who was 14 years old at her 1834 arrival. The last reported exhibition was in 1850, meaning that she “performed” until she was at least 30.

As mentioned, this story is based on real events, but only the facts of the matter, since nearly all real evidence has long been lost to history and well over 150 years has elapsed. That is why Suh has structured The Chinese Lady as a “performance within a performance.” All of Afong Moy, the titular character’s dialogue, is closer to what she might be thinking in the moment rather than any actual conversation she was having with the people who had come to see her. More than likely she barely spoke at all, and when she did it was in Cantonese, translated by her handler Atung.