NPX Weekly Round-Up: Chinese Republicans by Alex Lin
An extremely revealing treatise on the intersection of politics and race, as well as three plays I'm excited about this week.
I’ve been a fan of Alex Lin for a few years now, and when I heard one of her newer works, Chinese Republicans, was getting buzz, it immediately went on my reading list. After a few people asked me to cover it here on this newsletter, I finally had the perfect excuse to take an hour or two to myself to dive into this play.
I’ve had the pleasure of talking to Alex Lin directly about her work in the past—the first iteration of my podcast “Play-Mates” includes an episode about her play, beth. Truly she was a pleasure to talk to, full of insight and wit. Having loved beth so much, I figured Chinese Republicans would also be a phenomenal read. I was right— though this play is great for different reasons than beth. Honestly the growth that Lin has displayed as a writer is evident in this work, and I learned a lot from reading it.
But first, the summary of Chinese Republicans on NPX:
When high-flying finance it girl Katie Liu loses out on the promotion of a lifetime to a nepo-baby coworker, she embarks on a treacherous endeavor to make a worker's union out of her Republican work aunties. Welcome to the world of CHINESE REPUBLICANS, where the best bags are Birkins, the best shoes are Prada, and the best president is Reagan.
Now I actually find this summary to be a tad misleading. The event described sounds like the inciting incident, but it actually doesn’t happen until almost halfway through the play. Nevertheless, the events leading up to this are still important. They just function more as set-up as opposed to a “traditional” rising action kick-started by an opening event.
The main characters in this piece are all Chinese-American women of different ages. Katie, the listed protagonist (though I would argue Ellen is also) is a plucky and ambitious Z-lennial who has a passion for helping others. When we first see her, she is doing incredibly well at this big Wall Street finance company that they all work for. She has just gotten a promotion and a 20% raise, and all the women gleefully celebrate her and her achievements. As the story progresses, we start to see the differences between the lived experiences of these women, how that effects their views and beliefs, and the toll these things take on their relationships to one another.
This play is truly a study in character. When you read or see this show, you don’t stick around for the plot, though it is well done— you stick around to see how the older characters became what they are, and whether Katie will make the same choices as they did. Katie eventually discovers a bookstore where she begins to actually read and learn about leftist politics, and realizes it’s “what [she] already believe[s]”. This is what ultimately begins to show the cracks between her and Ellen (who I would argue is also a main character). As a leftist myself, I found it fascinating to read what was essentially a break down of why an older immigrant woman of color might be a conservative in this day and age.
As a playwright, sometimes I feel that it is difficult to truly create depth of character in 70 to 120 pages. This is yet another play that shows me that while it may be difficult, it is very VERY possible. These characters felt real, so real in fact I wondered if Lin had perhaps interviewed some older women in her community for research. It made me think of so many wonderful works of theater that do so, which leads me to think about that old adage about writing dialogue: to listen to what others around you say and write it down to learn how people actually speak. All of this to say, I found that depth was created in this play based on the way the characters spoke, how and when they chose to speak, and what they chose NOT to say.
This week, I encourage you to study character in this way— listen to the people around you, and pay attention not only to what they say, but HOW they say it.
To round things out, here is my official recommendation on NPX:
This play is a phenomenal character study. I loved seeing how these women, all from a similar culture, turned out so differently-- and most importantly, WHY. So well thought out, not a word seemed misplaced. I am excited to one day see this staged!
I hope you all get a chance to read this work!
Three other plays that caught my interest this week:
People Should Talk About What’s Real by Ali Hartley-Kong
Shards of Our Heart by Rayan F. Afif
WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE THIS by Jonathan Alexandratos
Have a play you want me to read? Respond to this post via email or the SubStack app!
Have a great week!
Brynn