In 1834, a fourteen-year-old girl named Afong Moy arrived in New York from Guangzhou, brought by American traders Nathaniel and Frederick Carnes. She was not welcomed as an immigrant seeking a new life, but rather imported as a commercial commodity: the first documented Chinese woman to set foot in the United States. For decades, she was displayed to curious American onlookers as a living exhibit. Audiences paid to watch her perform her culture—drinking tea, handling chopsticks, and walking on her tightly bound feet.

Now, this autumn, her silenced voice is being powerfully resurrected. From September 17 through October 11, Seattle’s ArtsWest, in co-production with Yun Theatre, presents Lloyd Suh’s acclaimed play The Chinese Lady. Directed by Zenaida Rose Smith and Christie Zhao, this production is far more than a historical retrospective; it is a humorous, heartbreaking, and fiercely contemporary reckoning with what it means to be seen, to be "othered," and to finally reclaim one’s own narrative.

"Piercing and Intimate": Giving Voice to a Footnote

Lloyd Suh’s The Chinese Lady takes the fragmented, sparse historical records of Afong Moy—mostly consisting of sensationalized 19th-century newspaper advertisements and clippings—and imaginatively breathes full, complex humanity into her memory. Rather than allowing her to remain a passive object of the Western gaze, Suh structures the play in the first person. Told entirely from Afong’s point of view through a series of intimate, direct monologues, she holds nothing back as she recounts a half-century of cultural performance.

To guide the audience through this poetic, time-bending journey, the play stars Zoe Ding as Afong Moy alongside Sebastian Wang as Atung. Ding, a prominent Seattle-based Chinese actor and producer, brings a wealth of local experience from her work with Yun Theatre, BAT Theatre, Seattle Public Theater, and SIS Productions. Playing opposite her is Wang, a recent MFA acting graduate from the University of Washington who is making his ArtsWest debut. Together, they bring this vital, intimate, and poignant drama to the Seattle stage.

"The Chinese Lady goes beyond an indictment of the imperial gaze, peering through the space that allows someone to be considered an other and asking what it’s made of. Ignorance, yes. But also curiosity, desire, and a wish to understand." — The New York Theatre Guide

Theatrical Time Travel and Modern Resonance

While Afong Moy’s historical documentation fades after she joined P.T. Barnum's sideshow around 1850, Suh’s narrative refuses to let her disappear. Instead, the play employs a brilliant layer of theatrical time travel, extending Afong's life across the decades so she can bear witness to the wider arc of Chinese American history.

Through her eyes, the audience confronts the devastating milestones of systemic anti-Asian exclusion:

• The devastating fallout of the Opium Wars
• The legislative erasure of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
• The horrific 19th-century anti-Chinese massacres in Wyoming and Oregon

By stretching her lifetime across these monumental historical shifts, the play draws a direct, unbroken line from 19th-century cultural commodification to the urgent, contemporary realities of anti-Asian violence in the post-2020 landscape. It becomes a devastatingly modern portrait of America—haunting, whimsical, and darkly comic all at once.

A Promise of Connection

Ultimately, The Chinese Lady is a profound meditation on the human desire for connection. In her lifetime, the real Afong Moy traveled the country with the hopeful dream of educating her audiences and building a bridge between East and West. Though her historical reality was one of exploitation, Lloyd Suh's play achieves what history denied her.

As The Front Row Center beautifully noted, "Afong Moy might not have fulfilled her intention of educating and connecting the world in her life, but The Chinese Lady sure has the promise and potential [to] do so." By confronting the curiosity and ignorance of the past, the play invites modern audiences to examine their own gaze and find empathy in place of objectification.

Performance Details & Tickets

Don't miss this piercing, vital, and deeply moving production.

• Run Dates: September 17 – October 11
• Location: ArtsWest, Seattle
• Co-production: Yun Theatre
• Cast: Zoe Ding (Afong Moy) and Sebastian Wang (Atung)
• Directors: Zenaida Rose Smith & Christie Zhao

Secure Your Seats: Tickets are available now. You can book your tickets directly online through the ArtsWest Ticket Portal.