“I have noticed that my feet are a source of constant fascination,” she muses as she takes her little stroll. But Afong likes her feet, and she can’t help noticing, too, that some practices in the West are at least as barbaric as foot-binding is purported to be.

“Such as corsets,” she says lightly. “Or the trans-Atlantic slave trade.”

Dexterously directed by Ralph B. Peña for Ma-Yi Theater Company, this quiet play steadily deepens in complexity as we trail the idealistic Afong and the more knowing Atung through the decades, bickering with each other all the way. Ms. Tyo and Mr. Isaac have gorgeous chemistry, and with their rapport they cast a spell that Fabian Obispo’s music and Oliver Wason’s lighting unobtrusively fortify.

The clever set (by Junghyun Georgia Lee, who also designed the costumes) begins as a shipping container, which opens to become the room in the museum. These are the walls that box in Afong and Atung’s cultural identity, as seen through white American eyes.

It’s that gaze that infuses this beautifully acted play with pain and shame and sorrow — so it is both practical and kind that Mr. Suh has softened his script with humor. Because of course it is also human nature to look on difference with suspicion or hostility. That has been a wounding part of the experience of Chinese people in this country, which barred them from citizenship — and severely restricted legal immigration — for many years.