Press Play with Madeleine Brand
What it means to reject the Asian American community you grew up in
In the play “King of the Yees,” Larry Yee is part of an obsolescent Chinese men’s club, but his daughter Lauren thinks the club is no longer relevant -- and neither is the Chinatown she grew up in. The play looks at their father-daughter relationship, Chinese American culture, and how Asian Americans are represented onstage.
Photo left to right: Angela Lin, Rammel Chan and Daniel Smith in "King of the Yees." (By Liz Lauren)
In this episode
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The play “King of the Yees” centers on the divide between a father and daughter. Larry Yee is part of an obsolescent Chinese men’s club, and his daughter Lauren doesn’t like the club or her life in San Francisco’s Chinatown. But after her dad disappears, she has to embrace her Chinese-American heritage to get him back.
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