Trying to Find Chinatown: The Selected Plays of David Henry Hwang

by David Henry Hwang

David Henry Hwang has the potential to become the first important dramatist of American public life since Arthur Miller, and maybe the best of them all. -"Detroit News"David Henry Hwang has created an extraordinary body of work over the last twenty the Tony Award-winning play, "M. Butterfly"; the OBIE Award-winning and 1998 Tony nominated "Golden Child"; the libretti to "The Voyage" (included here) and "1000 Airplanes on the Roof" (both for composer Philip Glass); and the book to "Aida," which he coauthored. He has received fellowships from the Rockefeller and Guggenheim foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and The Pew /TCG National Artists Residency Program.

This eight-play collection

"FOB" "fresh off the boat" explores the conflicts between old and new worlds
"The Dance and the Railroad" a haunting play about the inhuman conditions of railroad workers in the 1860s American West
"Family Devotions" a biting work which probes the religious conflicts in a modern Chinese-American family
"The Sound of a Voice" a meditation on the traditional roles of man and woman set in feudal Japan
"The House of Sleeping Beauties" a reworking of a novella by Yasunari Kawabata
"The Voyage" the libretto to the opera by Philip Glass, which examines Columbus's arrival in America
"Bondage" a one-act set in an S&M parlor, which examines racial stereotypes and sexual myths
"Trying to Find Chinatown" a two-person play, in which two Asian-American men-one searching for his Asian heritage, the other trying to shake himself free-meet by chance in New York City

"David Henry Hwang knows America-its vernacular, its social landscape, its theatrical traditions. He knows the same about China. In his plays, he manages to mix both of these conflicting cultures until he arrives at a style that is wholly his own. Hwang's works have the verve of the well-made American stage comedies and yet, with little warning, they bubble over into the mystical rituals of Asian stagecraft. By at once bringing West and East into conflict and unity, this playwright has found the perfect

Genres: Plays, Drama, Asian American

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1999

About the author

David Henry Hwang (Chinese: 黃哲倫; pinyin: Huáng Zhélún; born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright who has risen to prominence as the preeminent Asian American dramatist in the U.S.

He was born in Los Angeles, California and was educated at the Yale School of Drama and Stanford University. His first play was produced at the Okada House dormitory at Stanford and he briefly studied playwriting with Sam Shepard and María Irene Fornés.

He is the author of M. Butterfly (1988 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Awards, Pulitzer finalist), Golden Child (1998 Tony nomination, 1997 OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), The Dance and the Railroad (Drama Desk nomination), Family Devotions (Drama Desk Nomination), Sound and Beauty, and Bondage. His newest play, Yellow Face, which premiered at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum and New York's Public Theatre, won a 2008 OBIE Award and was a Finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. He wrote the scripts for the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida (co-author), Rodgers & Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song (2002 revival, 2003 Tony nomination), and Disney's Tarzan. His opera libretti include three works for composer Philip Glass, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, The Voyage (Metropolitan Opera), and The Sound of a Voice; as well as Bright Sheng's The Silver River, Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar (two 2007 Grammy Awards) and Unsuk Chin's Alice In Wonderland (Opernwelt's 2007 "World Premiere of the Year"). Hwang penned the feature films M. Butterfly, Golden Gate, and Possession (co-writer), and also co-wrote the song "Solo" with Prince. A native of Los Angeles, Hwang serves on the Council of the Dramatists Guild. He attended Stanford University and Yale Drama School, and was appointed by President Clinton to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Reviews

[Quentin Nguyen-duy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply brilliant.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm no fan of "M. Butterfly" which I'm glad to report isn't a part of this anthology of plays from before and after Hwang's Pulitzer Prize winner. I much prefer his first three dramas ("FOB," "The Dance and the Railroad," "Family Devotions") and his mid-career one-act "Bondage," an enlightening S&M satire on role-playing. Equally good is "The Sound of a Voice" which, typical for Hwang, is clever without feeling glib, populist without pandering, deep but never ponderous.

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really lovely collection of plays! Because there are so many, I won't try to say anything of interest about them here, but I particularly loved "The Voyage," "The Dance and the Railroad," "Bondage," and "Trying to Find Chinatown."

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cultural identity awesomeness!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The eight plays in David Henry Hwang's Trying to Find Chinatown were written between 1980 and 1996. All of them revolved around race, and there is a definite progression and maturity evident as the years go by. A pair of plays written in 1983, "The Sound of a Voice" and "The House of Sleeping Beauties" were my favorites. Both featured a man and a woman in their later years, both fables of sort, with a cautionary tone. His 1992 play "Bondage," and his 1996 plays, "Trying to Find Chinatown" were certainly his most provocative, and effective in their own way as well. His earlier plays were a bit frantic and overwrought for my tastes.

[MSJLibrary]

The award-winning Chinese American dramatist David Henry Hwang has had an extremely diverse creative life, not only writing plays, but also libretti for the composer Philip Glass, and the book for a production of the famous Giuseppe Verdi opera Aida. This career-spanning collection of plays explores many themes related to the Asian American experience, including the conflict between tradition and American culture, rampant discrimination and ill-treatment, and racial stereotypes.

[Anna-Catherine Lunsford · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review is for “Trying to Find Chinatown.”