Stage Play

Richard Chang's play offers a fictionalized portrait of the real-life journalist and activist Wong Chin Foo, who championed the rights of Chinese Americans in the late 19th century. Ernest Abuba and Chongren Fan direct the world premiere of the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. Other Gilded Age historical figures, such as the anti-Chinese labor leader Denis Kearney and the socialite and suffragette Alva Vanderbilt, are woven into the fabric of the story.

Citizen Wong

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre's world premiere of Richard Chang's Citizen Wong dramatization riffs on the life of Wong Chin Foo, a journalist, political activist, and lecturer, who was the first to identify himself as a Chinese American.

Citizen Wong

The play is grounded in historical fact, but it is often overwhelmed by the fictional romance between Wong and Eliza Stanhope (vivaciously portrayed by Malka Wallick), a suffragette and the daughter of railroad tycoon Leigh Stanhope (Klavan).

Citizen Wong

Malka Wallick and Whit K. Lee
Photos by John Quincy Lee

Citizen Wong

Before Wong comes on the scene, the Stanhopes' association with Chinese immigrants extends only to transcontinental railway workers and servants, including their devoted cook Wong Si Ping (Shing Chung, who moves effortlessly among a handful of roles).

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Citizen Wong

Strikingly, most of the scenes take place in homes, theatres, and political spaces controlled by whites. Asians are often relegated to off-stage references or recordings. (Chinese rail workers and protesters are presented as voiceover chants in Joseph Wolfslau's sound design.) Photo by Corky Lee

Citizen Wong

Mostly, though, Citizen Wong offers a fairly straightforward account of the subject's life. Notably, there are Wong's skirmishes with Denis Kearney (Scott Klavan, who does well in several parts), an Irish labor leader and anti-Chinese firebrand.