In the summer of 1993, Welly Yang began searching through history books and reading stories of Asian Americans.

The original show was produced Off-Broadway in cooperation with the Taipei Theater in New York City in February 1999, bringing on another Columbia classmate, Lenny Leibowitz, as director.

[1] It also had Shawn Ku as choreographer and it was musically directed by David Jenkins and Tom Kitt.

The show employed a cast of Asian American theater professionals,[1] many who had performed with Yang from Miss Saigon.

[2] It starred Hoon Lee, Cindy Cheung, Timothy Huang, Mel Duane Gionson, Thomas Kouo, Mimosa, Michael Minn, Kiki Moritsugu, Aiko Nakasone, Rodney To, Virginia Wing, and Yang.