THE STORY: The scene is the Chinese laundry that is also home for the Lee family—father, mother and son, Chester. The older Lees are quite obviously Asian while Chester (who is usually taken for Jewish) is not—but his questions as to the possibility of his “real biological parents” are invariably turned aside by the Lees. Chester asks his fiancée (a nice Jewish girl) to meet his family—without telling her they are Chinese—which results in a series of hilarious misunderstandings. The Lees, indignant at Chester’s obvious reluctance to be Chinese, have other plans—in the form of Pu Ping Chow, a sweet little Chinese girl fresh from Hong Kong. In the end the burning question of Chester’s identity is answered but with such wry inscrutability that his future will most likely be as much a dilemma as his past.
Produced on Broadway with
Dr. Fish, this offbeat and wonderfully funny play deals with the plight of an apparently Caucasian young man whose parents are, just as apparently, Chinese.
“…Terribly funny and not unwise, wonderfully theatrical and altogether grand.” —The New York Times.
