Ms Kristina Wong is an American comedian, performing artist and writer, known for her solo shows that treat topics like race, depression, suicide among Asian-American women in sometimes subtle and comic way. She was recently featured in the New York Times’ Off Colour series and has toured over 40 venues since 2006 teaching and performing. During the week, she visited Nigeria as the guest of the United States Consul in Lagos and the Lagos Theatre Festival. In this chat with Newton-Ray Ukwuoma, Wong shares how her being Asian American in America influenced her career and values. Excerpts:
In America, your shows are often about taboos and sensitive issues. Why did you decide to become a comedian?
I think comedy has always been a sort of my defence mechanism. There are three ways of handling unjust situations. The first is you just swallow and accept it. That’s like what most people do: they hear racist things and they sort of quietly accept it. The second is to get really angry and fight back. However, if you are constantly fighting back and fighting back is exhausting. I think comedy, for me, was my third response. I was like, “how I can turn this horrible situation to something different and shift my power to a position where I am not the victim?” Making fun of what society constantly throws at me became my therapy.
What were the things the American society threw at you being Asian-American?
I began to understand political issues many years ago while growing up. I would ignore a lot of racist things that people would say to me or assume of me and I became very angry about it and fought back. After a while, it became very exhausting fighting and getting angry about it. I would have men come up to me and say things like, “I have always loved to make out with a Chinese girl”. And I was like that’s not flattering at all. It is not actually a good pick-up line. It became exhausting because I would get angry, feeling like I was an object. So, I moved from being angry to figuring out how to make this a more enjoyable situation. I actually didn’t think I was going to become a comedian as much as a performing artiste.
How was the reception of your first live show?
My first live show was a parody of Miss China Town. Miss China Town is a pageant that happens in Chinese community all over the world. A lot of Chinese American parents want their daughters to become Miss China Town. That was a mark of success by the way. My Miss China Town parody was a slow moving, not funny catwalk and it was about me coming of age, involved a lot of paints and shadows and drawings.
It ended with a giant vagina coming down from the ceiling with all of this red paint dripping and all over my white outfit. I crowned myself Miss China Town. (It is a taboo, obviously.)And at the end of the show and people were like, “Who is this woman?” The show was messy. And I kind of resented the fact that people are quick to look for a box for me. I am not a person that wants to be in a box. I am more interested in issues than the humour in it.
How long have you been performing and doing comedy?
I graduated from college in 2000. I started to call myself a comedian ten years ago. It was easy to introduce myself as a comedian than a performing artiste. A part of me has always been a comedian. I haven’t just own up to it.
How do you create humour with these serious issues? And what do Americans find funny?
I think there are a few stages of finding the humour in horrible situations like depression in America or meeting people who have survived civil war in Northern Uganda. First, you see how things play out, observe how people react to it and you search for one weird thing, a flawed logic perhaps, and exploit it. For instance, there is a lot of school shootings and tragedies happening in America now. Making fun of the shooting is not where the fun of comedy is but maybe making fun of people who are against banning guns.
Comedy is about finding what is flawed about the situation or a strange logic behind a situation and exposing it creatively. With the depression topic, for instance, I cannot make fun of people who are depressed and killing themselves, that makes no sense. But I can make fun of the fact that I am in denial that the show is not autobiographical. A few years ago when I came back from Uganda, I was like, I am not going to make a joke of the people I met, I am not going to make fun of the civil war but I can make fun of how I bought into the stereotypes about Africa and Uganda. So, there is a lot of taking a step back and asking who is the right person or thing to target for your jokes.
You are in Nigeria now. This is your first time. Before you came to Nigeria what were the stereotypes you had bought into?
The Nigerian Prince, the 419 internet scammers, and Fela Kuti are the two things I knew about Nigeria. I really didn’t know much. I had to do a quick research. And everybody kept throwing that joke at me like, “Say hi to the Nigerian Prince for me”. Because every American has received a mail from the prince of Nigeria saying that you are the next to inherit my dad’s fortune if you can just give me your bank account number.
You will be performing at Terra Kulture later in the week. Would you be sharing this joke?
I wouldn’t be rewriting the show, but the jokes that go well with a few African audience I have met is the story where I pull up the map of Africa and it is labelled the country of Africa. You know, most people see this gigantic continent as a country. And most Americans can only distinguish the countries in Africa based on where a celebrity adopted a kid from. People know Malawi because Madonna adopted a kid there. People know Ethiopia because Angelina Jolie adopted a kid there. So, African is a map of white celebrities to some Americans. Everything looks like a monolith until you actually go and meet it. I was convinced that the civil war ravaged entire Uganda until I went there. I think most Americans are even more naïve about African than I am.
From what you thought about Nigeria and the Nigeria you met, is there a match or contrast?
First, it was very difficult getting a visa coming here. Actually, my experience in the Nigerian airport is what I thought the Ugandan airport will be. The Ugandan airport was very low key, but here I felt there was so much banter between all the folks that came to meet me. I know there is supposed to be protocol and all, but I felt like they were family members talking to each other in very unofficial way. Secondly, we felt underdressed when we got to the hotel and we still feel underdressed still, everyone is so well-dressed. I feel like a backpack with this dress [pulls her black T-shirt out a little bit] and this is my nicest outside clothe.
You mean Nigerians dress well?
Really well. Everyone is like in their very best outfits. And this hotel is the fanciest hotel we have ever stayed in all our lives. I really want to walk outside to see if I can have like some crazy adventure, but we see a lot of gigantic compounds after compounds. It is very intimidating.
Have you eaten any Nigerian food yet like jollof rice?
Yes! I ate so much that I have been having bowl movements since. It is so spicy and nice and I kept eating and eating, couldn’t just stop. Food has been moving in and out of me since I came here. I also have had the vegetables and swallow.
And why did you accept to come to Nigeria?
I was really curious. This is sort of a challenge for me because I have been talking about Africa during my shows and I have some Africans come to tell me that I got some facts wrong here and there. Now, I am here, in the continent. It is kind of intimidating. I am interested in what the feedback will be and after this week I will be going to Uganda to visit my friends in film and music videos. It will go with the album we have made. I will get to see them after five years. At my initial research about Nigeria, I was immediately intimidated because in America, Nigerians have more college degrees than any other group.
They are super smart. The first video I watched on Youtube was top ten things in Nigeria. I was just wowed by the development and what Nigeria has achieved in a little amount of time. I was also wondering what I am going to teach them. I think they know everything and that is super exciting. After the visa process I was like this is the only chance I will ever get to coming here because it seemed like almost impossible to come here as a tourist.
How long has your family been in America?
My grandfather came in 1938 from China and he was married in China so my grandmother came ten years later. Three generations is how we say it.
How is finding love as an Asia-American and female comedian in America like?
My issue with being an Asian-American and doing what I do is that it is very hard for a man to want to marry someone like me. People date online; there is an assumed narrative about facial expressions. But when I explain to people that I am a comedian and performing artist that I dress like a giant vagina and I do shows about depression and suicide, it is usually a lot for anybody to process especially in considering me as a wife material. So, I disappoint a lot of my potential mates because they think I will be more mellow. So, for a lot of Chinese American men, I am a lot to bring to mama, I am not even fluent in Chinese. I do a lot of taboo things, even though there are people who do a lot of taboo things than I do, but some men do not like to bring a comedian home.
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