Act two: a flute trill hurries over a plodding bassoon, chased by string pizzicato, a merry sound that sounds “fun,” “festive,” and “not authentically Chinese“—in this way, not unlike your average takeout, particularly in the rapidity of its delivery. At just about a minute long, Chinese Tea is the shortest divertissement in The Nutcracker. Blink your eyes or blow your nose, and it’s over. But for many people of Asian descent, whether on stage or in the audience, the sound of Chinese Tea is about as festive as a dentist’s drill, and that minute of choreography—which in most renditions includes bowing, scraping, shuffling, head bobbing, and finger jabbing in costumes that are orientalist at best—is an annual testament to centuries of exclusion, objectification, fetishization, and humiliation. Merry Christmas.
“I remember the older girls in the cast would have to do the makeup for the younger children. They have this basic palette they use for all the kids in the party scene. The rehearsal director pulled me aside and said, ‘We have to do your makeup special.’” A discussion on contour and color ensued as Tong sat with her face tilted back at an uncomfortable angle in the makeup chair. “I carried it with me,” she says. “I don’t think badly of this person or the company, but it was weird for a 10-year-old to have it said that her makeup needed to be done differently to homogenize her to look like the other kids—because I looked so different.”
The resulting dances were revelatory for the commissioning company and the choreographers alike. “They’re not final products, not meant to go on stage, but when Yin was showing the work, I was like, ‘This is blowing my mind,’” says Tong. “The music is so triggering. You have this very specific picture in your head. This dance felt like something more than that. Edwaard Liang came in. Then Peter Chu. They had their processes, and we did some interviews with them after. I was very humbled and moved to hear that they had a meaningful experience within it. There were things they hadn’t thought about or confronted or had the time to process. To hear that was really awesome for me. And something changed within myself.”
Tong is also partnering with Chan and Pazcoguin to curate 10,000 Dreams, a festival presenting a choreographer of Asian descent every day in May to celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. “If we are going to artistic directors saying we’re demanding you change and do better, we want to be partners with you to help you get there,” says Chan. “We want you to succeed, so we’re going to be part of the solution: we’re going to suggest 31 Asian choreographers that you might be interested in.”
Unboxed: Yin’s Tea, Mon 5/10; Ed’s Tea, Mon 5/17, and Peter’s Tea, Mon 5/24 (all pieces available online indefinitely after premiere); hubbardstreetdance.com, F.10,000 Dreams, through 5/31, yellowface.org, F.
