The Truer History of the Chan Family
May 17, 2025 · Arts Emerson
Projecting Connections World Premiere co-presented by the Boston Asian American Film Festival, with a post-screening Q&A that includes Byron Au Yong, Eugenie Chan, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, and Kar Yin Tham.
Chinese American playwright and wannabe social influencer seeks fame and fortune, American-style—by exploiting her family’s Gold Rush history as sex traffickers and vaudevillians, only to be set straight by family ghosts in a musical odyssey through America’s anti-Asian hate and filial Chinese expectation.
Trailer by Stephan Xie and JT Wu
This new vaudeville, by Eugenie Chan and company, shows the psychological impact of America’s legacy of anti-Asian legislation and sex trafficking on three generations of playwright Chan’s Chinese American family. Original material is layered with historic documents to explore a world of high hopes and hard choices. Throughout, composer Byron Au Yong transforms racist musical tropes into personal vaudeville-inspired songs.
Audio (for educational use only)
The Truer History of the Chan Family, by Eugenie Chan Theater Projects
A New Vaudeville by Byron Au Yong and Eugenie Chan
Details
Duration: 90 minutes
Instrumentation: voices, clarinet, er-hu, piano, and more
Team
Byron Au Yong, composer
Eugenie Chan, lyrics, book, and story
Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, director
Kar Yin Tham, consulting producer
Description
The Truer History of the Chan Family brings the past and present of four generations of playwright Eugenie Chan’s San Francisco Chinese American family through stories about her grandfather and her as they reach for “respectable” society’s highest echelons and try to break from their family’s history as Gold Rush sex traffickers. The film, which started as a stage show, is complete with song, dance, and lotsa variety acts.
From 2023 to 2024, the Eugenie Chan Theater Projects Team photographed and edited The Truer History of the Chan Family as a film to be streamed online and experienced in sing-along watch parties with community partners.
Performances
February 9, 2025
Arts Emerson Projecting Connections co-presented by the Boston Asian American Film Festival, Boston MA
Workshop Showings
February 29, 2020
SF Mime Troupe, San Francisco CA
December 14, 2019
Chinese Historical Society of America Museum, San Francisco CA
July 12 – 14, 2017
The Ground Floor, Berkeley Rep, Berkeley CA
Residencies
July 2 – 21, 2019
Catwalk Institute Writing Retreat, Catskill NY
June 4 – 30, 2018
Montalvo Arts Center Lucas Artists Residency, Saratoga CA
July 4 – 16, 2017
Berkeley Rep The Ground Floor, Berkeley CA