Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Danny Chen, who died by suicide after being subjected to hazing in Afghanistan, will be memorialized by readers, including a well-known playwright.
Good morning. It’s Tuesday. We’ll find out about a commemoration for a soldier from Chinatown who died by suicide after being subjected to hazing by other soldiers in Afghanistan. We’ll also see how the first day of Donald Trump’s civil trial unfolded.
A dozen people will stand on a street corner in Lower Manhattan this morning. Each will read a paragraph about Pvt. Danny Chen, who died by suicide after being subjected to hazing and taunts by other soldiers in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, 12 years ago. This is from the paragraph that will be read by Anthony Chen, a cousin who is a college student:
“His funeral was the first funeral I’d ever attended. I was 8 years old. I didn’t know what was going on. Seeing Danny in a casket for the first time was surreal. Danny was always the jokester in the family. I thought any minute now he would pop up and surprise everyone, and everything would be OK.”
The last of the readers at the commemoration will be the playwright David Henry Hwang, who wrote the libretto for an opera inspired by Private Chen’s story, “An American Soldier.” With music by Huang Ruo, it had its premiere at the Opera Theater of St. Louis in 2018 and will be staged in May at the new Perelman Performing Arts Center near One World Trade Center.
Read more at The New York Times