Theater: Citizen Wong 
Pan Asian Repertory Theatre at A.R.T. New York

Article by the Interested Bystander April 19, 2022 

 

If you enjoyed the HBO drama, “The Gilded Age,” but wondered where all the Asian people were, please consider “Citizen Wong,” the new play by Richard Chang at the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, as your addendum to the show. At the same time (the late 1800s) the rich, white, socialites were moving uptown in Manhattan, and the more influential blacks were populating Brooklyn, the Chinese men who had helped to build the national railroad had settled into Chinatown and were being targeted by politicians. Eventually, President Charles Arthur passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which halted Chinese immigration and, according to the play, deported the “undesirable” ones who were already here. Leading the fight was Wong Chin Foo, an educated lecturer and ultimately the founder of the first Chinese and English newspaper in New York. As portrayed by Whit K. Lee, he is charismatic and acerbic, and in Chang’s script, Chin Foo makes a lot of points that modern audiences will find very familiar with references to Anti-Asian hate crimes as well as using these perceived outsiders as convenient political targets. The play paints a broad canvas of history which may need a budget HBO to do work. As much as directors Ernest Abuba and Chongren Fan and the hard-working cast try, the play feels grounded when it should soar. Still, there’s a lot of informative background given and if the purpose of the play is to highlight the injustices in history, it succeeds handily. Ironically, the most effective part of the epic story is the intimate romance between Wong and Eliza Stanhope (Malka Wallick), a rich heiress who is sympathetic to his cause, especially since those scenes are so well-played by Lee and Wallick. I suggest Julian Fellows hire Chang to help write for the second season of “The Gilded Age” where black journalist Peggy Scott crosses paths with Wong Chin Foo, maybe played by Harry Shum Jr. or Simu Liu. Wong Chin Foo (no relations) and his intriguing story would be quite the revelation in both the gilded and shameful history of New York City.