Los Angeles Times Review of Paper Son |
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| ‘Paper Son’ a deft mix of comedy, gravitas | ||
Byron Yee has been honing his
autobiographical one-man show, "Paper Son," for several years on the
small-theater circuit. That polish shows in the play's production at the
Gascon Center Theatre. A veteran stand-up comic with the timing to prove it, Yee, who was raised in Oklahoma, explains how he went in search of his Chinese roots and discovered a rich and unsuspected past. The title refers to the way many Chinese
skirted the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of the late 1880s, which banned
most Chinese from coming to America unless they were the biological
offspring of immigrants already in this country. By pretending to be the son
of an immigrant, a Chinese man, in effect a "paper son," could gain
admittance — but only after weeks of detention and interrogation by
immigration authorities. |
