This February, American Stage is bringing the regional premiere of The Chinese Lady to Tampa Bay.
What makes this play so compelling is not just that it is woven from very sparse historical accounts of a real forgotten person. What truly fascinates us is what this play says about human curiosity, spectacle, and admiration, and how these can arouse the darker, less-than-noble flaws in our nature. Afong Moy was more than just a young Chinese woman who was exploited for commercial and monetary gain: she is a foil and a mirror through which we can understand the American consciousness during a very tumultuous period of our history.
In 1834, long before HSN, QVC and the concept of product placement, Nathaniel and Frederick Carnes plucked a young, enthusiastic girl from Guangzhou, China, and thrust her into the American spotlight. 14 year-old Afong Moy is credited as the first Chinese woman to ever walk on American soil, but it’s apparent that the enterprising Carnes brothers sought to make her a spectacle and gain attention for their “exotic imports”, which they were marketing to the emerging American middle class.
In addition to paying admission to see Afong Moy, an “Unprecedented Novelty”, audience members were treated to a wondrous display of silks, paintings, furniture and other adornments for the home, which they were encouraged to buy. Chinese items, like silk fans, scarves and shawls, grew in popularity and were featured in the latest fashion trends and magazines such as Godey’s Lady’s Book.
As she toured museums and salons all across the eastern U.S., Afong Moy quickly gained public interest and even had the opportunity to meet President Andrew Jackson. She was presented to audiences as an elegant and “exotic” lady whose display of Chinese customs would educate and enlighten the American public. However, as time passed, the public began to disapprove of the practices she shared, especially when they saw her tiny, 4-inch, bound feet. Where foot-binding was considered by the Chinese upper classes to be a sign of cultural refinement, Americans looked upon the practice as evidence of a barbaric, backward country. The press began to characterize Afong Moy as unintelligent because she didn’t speak English, and to view Chinese absolute monarchy as inferior to American democracy. Against her will, Afong Moy’s feet were sometimes unbound and exposed for the audience to see and for doctors to examine. These actions were indignities that would have been considered unthinkable and obscene in China.
Although the Carnes brothers had agreed to return Afong Moy to China after two years, it is assumed that the Carnes suffered severe economic downturns and abandoned her. By 1838, Afong Moy was believed to have been taken in by a New Jersey poorhouse at public expense and she retreated into obscurity.
She resurfaced a decade later as an exhibit in P.T. Barnum’s American Museum. Unlike her earlier tours, there was no attempt at respectful cultural exchange and enlightenment. Instead, Afong Moy was now purely a spectacle to be gawked at, something less than human. Within a few years, she was replaced by a younger Chinese woman whose feet were even smaller than hers. Her last public exhibition was on February 21, 1851, after which she disappeared completely from the public record.
Lloyd Suh’s play continues on where the public record ends by creating a fictional look that lifts Afong Moy from forgotten obscurity and breathes new purpose into her existence. Our heroine not only survives through the Civil War and the end of slavery, but the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and several horrific massacres perpetrated against the Chinese immigrants who began populating the western US in the last half of the nineteenth century. As we watch her describe her life, it’s difficult to avoid the disturbing conclusion that, despite all of the modern advances of the 21st century, we seem to have fallen short of escaping the xenophobic mindset that was part of her world. A mindset that most recently has given rise to the anti-Asian violence that erupted during the pandemic.
Afong Moy was more than just a marginalized, victimized Chinese woman. Her “otherness” made her less than whole in the public eye, which in turn made her vulnerable to unconscionable acts of discrimination and cruelty. Much like audiences who came to see the real Afong Moy, you may be entertained by what you see and hear. but as you walk away, will you think of Afong Moy as something less than human, to be pitied or feared? Will she be forgotten once again?
The Chinese Lady
by Lloyd Suh
directed by Gregory Keng Strasser
Her feet are bound, her freedom is non-existent, the first Chinese woman to step foot in America was treated as a sideshow act in the darkest parts of the 1800s. The Chinese Lady is anything but dark, told with winking humor and forthrightness, it follows the story of 14-year-old Afong Moy, who was immediately put on display for a paying public once she arrived in New York. A beguiling look into this wild journey and the human urge to belong.