Company One Theatre and Pao Arts Center held a virtual concert and conversation about a new musical informally titled the “Boston Chinatown Musical,” on August 19. The show was written and performed by Kit Yan and Melissa Li, the 2020-21 C1 PlayLab Pao Fellows, and the artists have given Sampan an inner look at their creative process.
“This particular story is based on our own personal experiences in Boston Chinatown,” said Yan. “Melissa’s family lives in Chinatown. Based on some of the interviews that [Alison Qu, associate producer and dramaturg, and Christina Chan, community producer] conducted, we took inspiration from all of the stories that we heard… It was a real group effort, in terms of figuring out source material and inspiration. When it came time to write the story itself, a lot of the inspiration drawn for the story is quite personal, for us.”
Yan said that the musical could be considered a review or song cycle with a loose plot. It focuses on an older woman who has lived in Chinatown for her entire life, who holds on to items that represent or reflect her memories of the neighborhood and its history. She is the last holdout in a building that is intended to be demolished, so that new luxury condos can be constructed. While the wrecking ball is positioned outside of her window, she meets with her trans grandson and explains the meaning of the objects that are within her house to him. The items she collects and preserves come from different parts of her life: a brick from Ping On Alley, a sewing machine from a factory she worked in, and books from Chinese school. Essentially, Grandma Wong and Tony, her grandson, must decide between staying or leaving.
“I’d rather die here than let them take this away from us,” says Grandma Wong, according to the script. “Let the wrecking ball kill me. Better that way, I’ll come back and haunt the new tenants. Turn their fancy coffee machines on and off, break their dishwashers, chip their marble.”
In the process of writing the musical, Yan and Li drew from interviews with current residents of Chinatown. Qu and Chan spent time collecting interviews with community members and picked up on themes that were important to people connected to the neighborhood. Gentrification was a major issue that was brought up repeatedly.
“A huge theme that we heard about was definitely the neighborhood’s gentrification – what gentrification, eviction, and housing security means for everybody,” said Qu. “There were many different perspectives. … We were able to talk to a Boston Chinatown born and bred writer, teacher, and activist, Cynthia Yee. She has a blog, the Hudson Street Chronicles.” She added, “She told us a lot about what it means, the meaty, hearty history and the lived experience of growing up in Chinatown as a little kid, the vibrancy of life and the mixed cultural experience, on the backdrop of the neighborhood’s gentrification.”
Li, who wrote the music, said that the lyrics also tackle anti-Asian racism. They addressed this through the idea of persisting through experiences of racism and the concept of having a place where people can belong, have community, and have built roots in. When opening a complex conversation about gentrification, Li explained that it is not a simple one, as sometimes “things changing is good.” She also described her process of composing original music for the show.
“There’s not a particular genre,” said Li. She added, “Mainly, my guide for this, as with other things I’ve written for musical theater, is what feels familiar and accessible for the folks that are an audience. For this particular one, where she’s recounting the origins of Ping On Alley, talking about this brick from the communal oven, I think back a lot to the songs that I used to hear, the Chinese pop songs that my family used to hear. I really model it a bit after that. Really ‘comfort music’ is what it feels like to me.”
Yan said that in crafting the story, he and Li strove to strongly connect with the characters that they were writing about.
“When we’re tackling the story, it’s important for us to get deep into a person’s mind and a person’s character,” said Yan. “A person’s character can really be the link to the world around them and the history that has come before them. Grandma Wong’s family – the younger generation – is changing, and moving to another place. But for her, she wants to live out her last days in the only place she knows.”
