BIG FLOWER EATER: Women in Asian History and American Theater

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Join Victoria Linchong, Kim Chinh and Katherine Yew in a conversation about their devised experimental play BIG FLOWER EATER, which explores the untold history of women in Asia through shamanism in three different Asian cultures. Excerpts of the play will be performed and screened.

BIG FLOWER EATER is a scholarly and whimsical collage of folktale, ritual, dance and historical text that collides feminism with folklore in the Hmong, Korean and Taiwanese cultures . When Selena pastes her grandmother’s fortunes on her bathroom wall, she unwittingly sets off a host of unearthly activities in her small Lower East Side lavatory. Only her friend Esther can stem the spiritual unrest, but first she has to channel her Korean grandmother and come to terms with the long tradition of shamanism in her now-Christian family. The play was performed at Theater for the New City in February 2013.

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Linchong, Chinh, and Yew will also share their own experiences as Asian-American women theater artists and discuss both the push for gender parity in theater by 2020 and the current struggle for representation of Asian-Americans in mainstream theater.

Author Bio

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Katherine Yew, born in Seoul, South Korea, has been a New Yorker since the age of four. She studied music and voice technique at Columbia University and Manhattan School of Music. She is a member of La MaMa's Great Jones Repertory Company and Pioneers Go East Co. Internationally, she has performed in Tapei, Rome, Spoleto, and Venice, including the Venice Biennalle. Her voice has been featured in such films as "Dummy," with Oscar-winner Adrien Brody, and the critically acclaimed "Man Push Cart. " Her original music compositions have been used to stage "S16:Luna Nera," a multi-media installation piece on the lives of sulfur miners in Sicily, "The Question of Solitude," a mini-opera based on the James Bond legacy, and "Love Cripple," an original dance piece that premiered at LaMaMa ETC.


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Kim Chinh began her acting career at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. She played leading roles in three films by Alice Cox, L to Canarsie, See Something Say Something, and Elizabeth Rose, for which she was nominated for Best Actress in the 4th Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout, sponsored by Asian Cinevision and MTV World. She also played a major role in The Face, a short film written and directed by Elizabeth Browning. Kim originated the role of Lia in Big Flower Eater, an experimental play directed by Victoria Linchong. She most recently played the part of Maggie in The Chinese Restaurant Syndrome directed by April Feld Sandor at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. Kim is currently working on a one-woman show about her experiences in Vietnam, her father's homeland. She lives in Brooklyn.


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Victoria Linchong is a Taiwanese-American theater and film artist. She most recently conceived and directed BIG FLOWER EATER, which workshopped at Horse Trade Theater Company in 2011 and was produced at Theater for the New City in 2013. Previously, she directed and acted in PAPER ANGELS by Genny Lim, which won the 2010 Best of the San Francisco Fringe. Other director credits include RITE OF RETURN (Theater for the New City, 2004) and the short film DOUBLE DEALING, finalist for Asian Cinevision’s 2nd Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout. Notable acting credits include a principle role in Jeff Weiss' OBIE Award winning HOT KEYS (Naked Angels)). Victoria produced the world premiere of Tennessee Williams’ last short plays, several plays by James Purdy (including SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS with Laurence Fishburne), and STOP THE WAR: A FESTIVAL FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, which won an OBIE Citation. She currently is in post-production on the documentary ALMOST HOME: TAIWAN and developing a one-person play, DISPOSSESSED. She is the Artistic Director of Direct Arts, an intercultural theater and film company. www.directarts.org