"There is a contradiction lite that in my background," Lai says. He was born in Washington, D.C., and forced by his father, who was a diplomat, to study Chinese when he was little. He had to practice writing with a brush pen, holding an egg to improve his grip, when he wanted to watch football, and he thought it was a lot of trouble.
「我的背景中是有這麼一個矛盾」，賴聲川道，他生在美國華盛頓，小時被當外交官的父親「強迫」學中文，想看橄欖球時被要求練毛筆字，還要手握一個雞蛋，覺得滿煩的。