Chimerica Literary Elements

Drama, stage play

English

The Tiananmen Square Protests in 1989, and New York City in 2012.

The play follows Joe Schofield, an American journalist, and Zhang Lin, a Beijing native and English teacher.

The play's tone is thought-provoking and critical, using dark humor and dramatic irony to create a tense mood.

Joe Schofield and Zhang Lin are the primary protagonists; the laws and corporate interests that censor them are the antagonists

The play's major conflict is Joe's obsession with finding the Tank Man's identity, which leads him to cross legal and ethical lines, destroy relationships, lose his job, and act against his values.

The play reaches its climax when Wang Pengsi reveals that the "Unknown Hero" is not the Tank Man but the tank driver.

When Zhang Lin and Joe reunite in Beijing, Zhang Lin carries two shopping bags. This visual clue foreshadows Zhang Lin's identity as the Tank Man, who famously carried two shopping bags.

When Frank encourages Joe to "settle down" and get a car, he suggests Joe needs a car so Joe will have "somewhere to sleep" when Frank fires him. This foreshadows how Frank fires Joe for crossing ethical lines when reporting on the Tank Man.

In his flashback to meeting Liuli, Zhang Lin insists that the "refrigerator would change [his] life." This foreshadows how Liuli's death and haunting presence in the fridge lead Zhang Lin to rebel against the government, leading to his arrest.

Throughout the play, characters dismiss Ming Xiaoli's cough as a mild illness or due to her age. This is an understatement, as Ming Xiaoli's cough is caused by pollution and kills her, though she is only fifty-nine.

Chimerica uses several pop culture references, historical references, and literary allusions to add social relevance and symbolic weight to its dialogue.

Literary Allusions:
Zelda Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway
Walt Whitman
Henry Miller

Pop Culture References:
Goodfellas - 1990 film by Martin Scorcese about the mafia
The Godfather - 1972 film by Francis Ford Coppola about the mafia
Singing in the Rain - 1952 musical starring Gene Kelly
Huang Xiaoming - a famously handsome Chinese actor
Hildy Johnson - newspaper reporter in the play The Front Page, adapted into the 1931 film His Girl Friday
Piglet and Eeyore - characters from Winnie the Pooh, noted for their respective anxious and depressive personalities
James Bond - famous film franchise about a British spy
Casablanca - Oscar-winning 1943 film about a cynical bar owner helping his ex-lover escape the Nazis
Oprah - famous talk show host
Nancy Drew - the titular character of a book series following a teenage detective
Dixie Chicks - the former name of the band The Chicks, an American southern rock group

Political Allusions:
Nelson Mandela - the first president of South Africa and an apartheid protestor
Ayn Rand - conservative Russian-American writer
Mitt Romney - Former U.S. Senator who ran for president in 2012
Michelle Bachman - former U.S. representative who lost the 2012 Republican nomination to Mitt Romney
Barack and Michelle Obama - former president and first lady of the United States
"Women Hold Up Half the Sky" - a feminist slogan coined by Chinese Communist Party Chairman, Mao Zedong
Henry Kissinger - controversial American Secretary of State who served with Richard Nixon
"binders full of women" - a reference to Mitt Romney's statement during the second 2012 presidential debate, often cited as the statement that lost him the election

"Chimerica" uses its medium to its advantage by combining visual and auditory imagery to create contrast and heighten emotional moments. For example, the play repeatedly uses the classical piece "Ode to Joy" to recall the Tiananmen Square protests and contrast grim visuals with the celebratory song. Other visual devices create surreal and haunting scenes, like the crowd of Liuli's ghosts and the projection of the actual Tank Man footage over the actor playing Zhang Lin.

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Zhang Lin and Joe's storylines parallel one another to highlight differences in American and Chinese censorship. Zhang Lin and Joe are both irreversibly changed by the 1989 protests; Zhang Lin loses his wife and becomes the Tank Man, whereas Joe earns fame from photographing Zhang Lin's iconic moment of protest. Zhang Lin and Joe both attempt to report on injustices and are censored: Zhang Lin by publishing an article about pollution levels, and Joe by investigating the Tank Man's true identity. Zhang Lin suffers more severely and acutely as he is tortured and survives. By contrast, Joe is frustrated and still earns money from his photographs, which are published in a gallery.

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"Chimerica" uses projections of real protest photographs to invite the audience to connect the fictional story with actual historical events. For example, the play opens with a still shot. In the end, the actor playing Zhang Lin synchronizes his movements with actual footage of the Tank Man, demonstrating the anonymous figure's humanity and untold story.

The play frequently uses "split" stages to show contrast and irony. For example, on one side of the stage, Zhang Lin is arrested, while on the other, Joe stands in the gallery.

Zhang Lin's story is told primarily through flashbacks. Whenever Zhang Lin begins "recording," new set decorations are lit, demonstrating that the actors are portraying Zhang Lin's memories, which he is documenting in the narrative's present.