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Ming Xiaoli
Benny is Zhang Wei’s son. A recent Harvard graduate, Benny has just moved to New York at the beginning of the play. Zhang Lin and Zhang Wei worry about him being so far from home—but even when Joe breaks his promise to reach out to Benny and keep an eye on him, Benny seems to do alright on his own. He gets a job with an oil company that he describes as ethically dubious but embraces in hopes of getting his green card. Throughout the play, Zhang Wei and Zhang Lin bring up Benny as both a vessel of hope and a reminder of Joe’s failure to keep his word.
Benny Quotes in Chimerica
The Chimerica quotes below are all either spoken by Benny or refer to Benny. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1, Scene 4 Quotes
ZHANG LIN: Right, your trip. Did it go well?
JOE: Terrifying. You ever been to one of those places?
ZHANG LIN: My brother’s a foreman in a factory, just outside Beijing.
JOE: Mel spoke with these women, they were earning like fifty dollars a month, working fifteen-hour days, sleeping on the floor –
ZHANG LIN: Zhang Wei started like that. The one he works in now, it’s much better. He earns a thousand dollars a month. His son’s been studying at Harvard.
JOE: I just, I felt so guilty –
ZHANG LIN: Yes, you’re right, we all blame you too. I think I read a book once, about the Mayflower, crossing the Atlantic. Apparently this was quite terrifying also. You’ve heard of this ship?
JOE: Yes, Zhang Lin. I have heard of the Mayflower. But they’re not travelling to a whole new country –
ZHANG LIN: Of course they are. It just occupies the same part of the atlas as the old one.
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Act 2, Scene 8 Quotes
LIULI: Let me speak to her –
YOUNG ZHANG LIN: Shh, she won’t understand you.
LIULI looks at KATE, laughs. Somewhere, speakers blast Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’. Tinny and distorted. KATE gestures to her CAMERAMAN to record LIULI. During this, coughing starts, off.
LIULI: We’re going to have a baby. It’s going to be born in the future. It’s going to be a great artist. It’s going to be a doctor. It’s going to own a shop. It’s going to have a doorbell with an electric chime. It’s going to have a car with a refrigerator in it and a rubber dinghy and three pairs of Levi’s. It’s going to have five brothers and sisters who look just like it and all my children, will be fat and happy and clever and kind. You wait. Just you wait.
KATE: Can we check that / for sound?
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Benny Character Timeline in Chimerica
The timeline below shows where the character Benny appears in Chimerica. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1, Scene 4
Zhang Wei enters the apartment and greets Joe energetically. He tells Joe that his son Benny just graduated from Harvard and is moving to New York. Zhang Wei and Zhang Lin...
(full context)
Act 2, Scene 7
...of sending such a conspicuous email. Joe apologizes, and Zhang Lin tells him to call Benny like he promised. He hangs up.
(full context)
Act 4, Scene 5
...and leave, but Joe stops her, asking her to come to dinner with him and Benny that night. They kiss.
(full context)
Act 4, Scene 10
Tessa and Benny sit at the restaurant, silent. A waiter takes the third place setting away.
(full context)
Act 4, Scene 11
Joe calls Zhang Lin, who immediately asks him if he’s alright—he heard from Benny that he never showed up for dinner. Joe asks Zhang Lin no such questions in...
(full context)
Act 5, Scene 4
...Mel says hello. He’s lost an eye reporting on war in Syria. As they’re talking, Benny eagerly cuts in, and Mel leaves, telling Joe his exhibition is “a hell of a...
(full context)
After Zhang Wei leaves, Benny turns to the Tank Man photo on the wall and reminisces about looking at it...
(full context)
