Frank Chin

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Frank Chin

Frank Chin ( Chinese : 趙健秀, Zhào Jiànxiù; born February 25, 1940 in Berkeley , California) is a Chinese- American writer.

Chin is considered a pioneer of Sino-American theater . In 1974 he became the first Asian-American playwright to perform a work on a major stage in New York City . In addition, he emerged as an editor and wrote short stories, novels and essays.

life and work

Chin was born in Berkeley, grew up in Oakland and studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara until 1965 . According to his own information, he was then the first Sino-American brakeman in the history of the Southern Pacific Railroad , an experience that he later processed repeatedly in his literary work. In 1970 he went to Maui , Hawaii as a worker .

On the occasion of a writing competition of the East West Players in Los Angeles , Chin, who had not planned a career as a writer, wrote his first play, The Chickencoop Chinaman , within six weeks , won the competition and went back to the mainland. There he wrote his second play, The Year of the Dragon , which premiered in 1974 at the American Place Theater in New York.

Chin is a co-founder of the Asian American Theater Workshop in San Francisco , which in 1973 became the major Asian American Theater Company .

In 1974 Chin gave the band Aiiieeeee! Together with Jefferey P. Chan and Lawson Fusao Inada . An Anthology of Asian-American Writing , which at one stroke gave Asian-American literature a public visibility that it had not had until then. Since then, Chan has been considered the "godfather of modern Sino-American literature". Another band followed in 1991, The Big Aiiieeeee!

After the stage plays Chin turned to prose and published in 1988 under the title The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco RR Co. , a collection of eight short stories . The Before Columbus Foundation recognized the book with their American Book Award . Chin began writing novels in the early 1990s. Donald Duk was released in 1991, followed by Gunga Din Highway in 1994 . These works are influenced by both the African-American writer Ishmael Reed and Chinese authors such as Luo Guanzhong and Shi Naian .

Topics that Chin has dealt with again and again are traditional Chinese folk tales, but also the Asian stereotypes widespread in the USA . Chin has repeatedly criticized fellow Asian-American writers who, in his opinion, have promoted Asian stereotypes and the misinterpretation of Chinese folk tales. His criticism of Maxine Hong Kingston in 1991 caused a particular stir . He's also been a critic of Amy Tan and David Henry Hwang for the same reasons .

In 2000 Chin received a second American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lives in Los Angeles .

Works

  • Food for All His Dead . In: Richard Kostelanetz (Ed.): The Young American Writers (1967)
  • Goong Hoi Fat Choi . In: Ishmael Reed (Ed.): 19 Necromancers from Now (1970)
  • The Chickencoop Chinaman (1971), drama
  • The Year of the Dragon (1974), drama (adapted as a television film by Portman Paget in 1975)
  • with Ishmael Reed: Yardbird Reader Volume 3 (1974), Associate Editor, Contributor
  • with Jefferey Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada: Aiiieeeee: An Anthology of Asian American Writers (1974), Associate Editor, Contributor
  • The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco RR Co (1988), short stories
  • Donald Duk (1991), novel
  • with Jefferey Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada, Shawn Wong: The Big AIIIEEEEE !: An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American Literature (1991), Associate Editor , Contributor
  • The Only Real Day . In: The Before Columbus Foundation Fiction Anthology, Selections from the American Book Awards 1980–1990 (1992)
  • Gunga Din Highway (1994), novel
  • Yes, young daddy . In: Mary Frosch (Ed.): Coming of Age in America (1994)
  • Bulletproof Buddhists and Other Essays (1998), Essays
  • Born in the USA: A Story of Japanese America, 1889-1947 (2002), Roman

literature

  • Guiyou Huang: Frank Chin (1940–) . In: Emmanuel Sampath Nelson (ed.): Asian American novelists: a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook , p. 48ff ( online version in the Google Book Search USA )

Documentary about Frank Chin

  • What's Wrong With Frank Chin? (USA 2005, directed by Curtis Choy)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Asian American Theater ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. official website @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.asianamericantheater.org
  2. ^ Asian-American Literary “Authenticity”: Frank Chin's 1991 Criticism of Maxine Hong Kingston In 1975
  3. ↑ Layli Phillips: The Womanist reader , p. 165 ( restricted online version in Google Book Search - USA )
  4. ↑ The American Book Awards / Before Columbus Foundation ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bookweb.org
  5. ↑ a b limited online version in the Google Book Search USA
  6. ^ The Year of the Dragon. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  7. ↑ limited online version in the Google Book Search USA
  8. ↑ limited online version in the Google Book Search USA
  9. ↑ limited online version in the Google Book Search USA
  10. ↑ limited online version in the Google Book Search USA
  11. ^ What's Wrong With Frank Chin? Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Chin, Frank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese-American writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Berkeley, California