By Eunice Sung
A story of loss and suffering, family dynamics, beauty standards, refugee and intergenerational trauma, told through one woman, a projector and a chair.
Susan Lieu, a Vietnamese American performance artist, entrepreneur and activist, lost her mother to plastic surgery malpractice in 1996 when she was just 11 years old. Her performance, “140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother,” is a 75 minute, one-woman show that recounts the few memories Lieu had with her mother, her experience dealing with the loss and the new details she learned about her mother along the way.
Lieu brought her performance to the Washington D.C. area on Nov. 6 and 7 at Joe’s Movement Emporium, the third of 10 cities she will be visiting during her national tour.
“I just wanted to prove to my future offspring that I wasn’t a coward. I wanted to know that I can step into my own fear,” she said.
Susan Lieu shares family photos during her performance.
Although the show turned out to be a therapeutic coping mechanism for Lieu to unpack her trauma, that wasn’t her initial intention in writing it. She is currently five months pregnant and is using her show to come to terms with all of her personal aspirations in hopes to not be resentful through her children.
Despite a background in business that lacks any formal acting training, her experience with stand-up comedy, which she began 10 years ago, has led her to prefer being alone on stage with the ability to own all space’s energy.
Lieu implemented her business skills in explaining her decision to write and star in her own show: she described it as her MVP, her minimum viable product.
“So the ability for me to use the device of solo performance allowed me to actually move really quickly, throw it to the wall and see what sticks and keep iterating to create what that product is going to be. Part of having a business background is the ability to not be so attached,” she said.
From left to right: Dr. Jia Li Liu (lecturer and Calvin J. Li Postdoctoral Fellow in the Asian American Studies Program), Susan Lieu and Terry Park (lecturer in the Asian American Studies Program) answer questions during the post-show talk back.
Since the show is about Lieu’s loss, it is very specific to her family and her Vietnamese background. She often spoke in Vietnamese throughout her performance and mimicked the different character’s mannerisms.
However, the broader themes within Lieu’s performance resonated with some University of Maryland students and faculty in the audience.
“It’s important… especially for younger Asian Americans and Vietnamese Americans who may have a similar kind of relationship with their parents where certain things aren’t talked about. A lot of it has to do with the impact of war and militarization and the difficulties of migration. It creates these silences in the household,” said Terry Park, a lecturer in the Asian American Studies Program.
Marjorie Antonio, a sophomore history major, was one of the UMD students at the performance that related to Lieu’s story.
“It made me cry so … much, I didn’t realize I had that much trauma … It was really surprising how she was able to mobilize an audience to tears in a way that was really entertaining and meaningful,” she said.
Antonio Jen, a junior kinesiology major, appreciated the rawness of the performance, which he said allowed him to connect with it on a deeper level.
“What stuck out to me was the performance of it, it was just so real … she wasn’t trying to make it look good, she was just telling her story … It’s not a perfect world and there’s lots of ways to look at it, and I think that’s what makes it a story worth telling,” he said.
Lieu’s next shows will be in Chicago from Nov. 14 to 17.
“I love that, being a part of a 10-city national tour, I get to share this message to anyone that wants to hear it around the country before I, then, have my final performance, which is to become a mom,” Lieu said.