The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow

by Rolin Jones

Jennifer is just an average girl who re-engineers obsolete missile components for the U.S. Army from her bedroom. When she decides to meet her birth mother in China, she uses her technological genius to devise a new form of human contact. Rolin Jones's irreverent "techno-comedy" chronicles one brilliant woman's quest to determine her heritage and face her fears with the help of a Mormon missionary, a pizza delivery guy, and her astounding creation called Jenny Chow.

Genres: Plays, Drama

72 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2006

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that didn’t age well. A play written by a white dude about an Asian woman? Not looking so great after a year of Own Voices and other calls for people to tell their own stories and experiences.

Here’s the thing: I do think people can write about experiences beyond their own, but it isn’t easy. Wally Lamb and Alan Bradley have both written complex, fascinating, believable female protagonists. The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, even if well meant, struck me as some sort of weird fantasy fulfillment for a white guy with a fetish for Asian women.

While reading, I kept returning to a conversation I’d had a couple years ago with a then-co-worker. She was an attractive Asian woman and had, at a fairly young age, learned the difference between someone being legitimately attracted to her and someone who saw her as a fetish. Her stories about comments made to her by white men – the way so many of them view fetishizing her as a compliment – still leaves me feeling like my brain needs to bathe in bleach.

That’s how Jenny Chow read as to me: the sort of story that, even if intended as well meaning – She’s a genius with robots! She’s an awkward nerd and sexually available! – instead reaffirms the need for Asian woman to tell their own stories. Also, with two down and one to go, the 2006 Pulitzer Prize nominees are a real exercise in mediocrity. Not recommended.

[Si Squires-Kasten · Rating 3 out of 5]

The worst play I’ve read so far in the genre of plays about artificial intelligence. (I’ll plug Marjorie Prime and The Curious Case of the Watson Intelligence here.) Creating AI as a metaphor for raising a child is pretty basic, and Jones’ script isn’t helped at all by the fact that his main character is a mishmosh of stereotypes. Also, I’m tired of playwrights who make brief, joking references to class, as if this excuses them from genuinely considering why they just want to write about rich people.

[Chris Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting, touching, funny look at the life of an OCD, American adoptee of Chinese background. The story is great, but the staging and production described make it even better. It is a creative, compassionate work. Well done.

[Jimbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read some science fiction plays and this was recommended to me. I liked it, but like all plays -- reading does a slight disservice to the piece.

[Bt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was pretty bored during the first half of this play, but the second half was interesting and kind of touching. Nothing really happens in the first half; I feel like it's all exposition, and I really disliked the main character, so there was nothing to care about (but that could have been the acting). If you want to make it work, you're going to have to have a really, really strong lead. And what's with all the sexual references!? They were way out of character for the play, and they were completely unnecessary.

I think the first half of this play should be shortened to about 5 or 10 minutes, making the play a one act featuring the current second half. The first half is so boring I was kind of wishing I could leave at intermission, though of course I'm glad I didn't/couldn't.

Also, the whole thing feels kind of unresolved at the end.

[Adam Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's one thing to read a play, and it's another to see it. I've read this play a few times and seen it a few times, unfortunately I saw the same production three times. Regardless, what I like here is that when I read it, I was able to define the characters in my mind, before seeing actual people in those roles. The production possibilities are endless which makes the play more and more exciting everytime I read it. And having read it, I will go see any production of it within 100 miles just to see what they do with it.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was for class and it was by far one of the best books we read in our Scifi/Fantasy class. In class we discussed a lot about racial identity,etc. But, if you just want to know what I felt when I was reading it, I thought it was one of the funniest and most fun book I’ve read in quite a while.

review cross-posted on my blog: Spectacle Aglow

[Royce Roeswood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great play. Post-modern, current, fresh.

[Kati Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Funny. Original.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little concept and a plot with a lot of things going on but I’m not sure all of the elements have enough room to breath.