Chay Yew

Playwright Bio

  • Born 1965, Singapore
  • Studied theatre at Pepperdine University when he was 16
  • Returned to Singapore in 1988

-- As if He Hears

  • Boston University, MFA in Communications
  • Playwright-in-residence at Mu-Lan Theatre in London in the early 1990s

-- Porcelain - London Fringe Award

  • New York, 2007
  • Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago since 2011

Highlighted Play: Red

Synopsis: Sonja Wong Pickford, for twenty years an Asian American best-selling writer, visits an abandoned opera house in Shanghai, where she is haunted by ghosts from the Cultural Revolution and from her own past. Master Hua, a renowned Peking opera artist, is challenged by his own daughter, Ling. Ling convinced his father to teach her secretly, but later she joined the Red Guard. The relationship between father and daughter is reversed after she choses the Red Guard. With Hua’s death, Sonja and Ling merge into one.

How this play can be used: The motifs of Cultural Revolution and Chinese opera in Red can be used to arouse students’ interest in Chinese culture and history. It also draws a parallel between opera artist’ resistance to the Cultural Revolution in China and art’s resistance to conservatism and commercialism in the United States, which can be used to learn “NEA Four” and inspire students to think about the role of art in our society. More importantly, it also leads writers to think about how to present and access their own cultural heritage.

Suggested Activity:

In order to lead a rich discussion of Chay Yew's themes of Red, have the students find a partner to share their memories of being outsiders in any circumstance. Then have them find a different partner to share what they think is their cultural heritage.

Discussion Questions:

  • Is Red a universal play? If not, how did you access it?
  • How did Yew explore the theme of identity in Red?
  • Who do you think Yew wrote Red for?
  • How can we access our ancestor’s heritage and present it to people who are not familiar with it?
  • Is Red a construction or deconstruction of Chinese opera?

Annotated Plays

Wonderland

Synopsis: Man is an Asian American businessman in Singapore. He begins an affair with Woman. They eventually relocate to Malibu together. And then along comes Son. Man is an architect, whose specialty is the newly fashionable strip mall called Wonderland, but it is crushed down eventually. Son is shunned by his parents for his homosexuality, reduced to turning tricks and acting in porn before regaining his sense of self. Son’s hope is also crushed because his unseen boyfriend is married with kids.

How this play can be used: Yew constructs Wonderland as a series of hopes dashed. This play provides the other side of American dream. It provides the example of how to write Asian characters in blood and flesh instead of Asian stereotypes. It also sheds light on diverse Asian immigrants’ life and being gay in an Asian family in America.

Porcelain

Synopsis: John Lee, a gay Chinese-British man, has just killed his white lover and awaits trial in a jail cell. The two men first met in a public restroom, where they had oral sex. The two start to see each other frequently until Hope breaks all communications. Lee is devastated and feels betrayed. Lee stalks Hope and follows him to the same public toilet where they first met. Enraged that Hope would cheat on him and renounce their relationship, Lee shoots him six times.

How this play can be used: Despite the obvious racist and homophobic remarks in the play, “Porcelain is not about racism. Nor is it about homosexuality and homophobia or about toilet sex,” says Yew. “It’s really about loving and relationship. It’s also about being different, which is a universal theme”. Porcelain provides an example of how to write from the particular experience that one knows to make it open to the universal, so the play can touch every reader.

Comprehensive List of Plays

As if He Hears (1988)

Porcelain (1992)

A Language of Their Own (1995)

Half Lives (1996)

Whitelands (1996, Trilogy of Porcelain, A Language of Their Own, and Half Lives)

Red (1998)

Home: Places between Asia and America (1998)

Scissors (1998)

A Beautiful Country (1998)

Wonderland (1999)

The House of Bernarda Alba (2000, adaptation of Federico García Lorca)

Blow (2001)

The Face of Ants (2001)

Here and Now (2002)

A Winter People (2002, adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard)

A Distant Shore (2005)

The Long Season (2005)

Question 27, Question 28 (2006)

Visible Cities (2011)

Additional Resources

Chinese Opera

  • Established in Tang Dynasty (618-907) named Liyuan (Pear Garden)
  • Yuan Dynasty: (1271 - 1368) it has been encouraged by court officials and emperors and has become a traditional art form
  • Qing Dynasty: it became fashionable among ordinary people
  • Evolved from folk songs, dances, talking, antimasque, and especially distinctive dialectical music
  • Cross-dressing
  • The Peony Pavilion - A Walk in the Garden by Tang Xianzu

https://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/concerts/peony-pavilion


Bibliography

Chinese Opera. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2017, from https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/arts/chinese-opera.htm

Healy, P. (2012, November 21). ‘Opening Doors’ Means Rattling Some Cages. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/theater/victory-gardens-theater-in-chicago-in-new-era-with-chay-yew.html

Lei, D. P. (2006). Operatic China: staging Chinese identity across the Pacific. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nelson, E. S. (2003). Contemporary gay American poets and playwrights: an A-to-Z guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Oxman, S. (2000, July 05). The Square. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from http://variety.com/2000/legit/reviews/the-square-3-1200463565/

Phillips, M. (1999, October 06). Haze Obscures the Landscape in a Troubled 'Wonderland'. LA Times. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/06/entertainment/ca-19230

Reid, K. (2015, June 24). Chinese immigrant's story in Chay Yew's insightful 'Porcelain'. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/reviews/ct-porcelain-chay-yew-review-story.html

Swarns, R. L. (1999, March 20). An Outsider Determined Not to Be Someone He's Not. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/21/theater/theater-an-outsider-determined-not-to-be-someone-he-s-not.html

The Peony Pavilion. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2017, from https://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/concerts/peony-pavilion

Zhao, X., & Park, E. J. (2014). Asian Americans: an encyclopedia of social, cultural, economic, and political history. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.


Web page compiled by Han Yu (2017)