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    A Study Guide for David Henry Hwang's "Trying to Find Chinatown"
    A Study Guide for David Henry Hwang's "Trying to Find Chinatown"
    A Study Guide for David Henry Hwang's "Trying to Find Chinatown"
    Ebook37 pages24 minutes

    A Study Guide for David Henry Hwang's "Trying to Find Chinatown"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for David Henry Hwang's "Trying to Find Chinatown," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 12, 2016
    ISBN9781535841641
    A Study Guide for David Henry Hwang's "Trying to Find Chinatown"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for David Henry Hwang's "Trying to Find Chinatown" - Gale

      12

      Trying to Find Chinatown

      David Henry Hwang

      1996

      Introduction

      David Henry Hwang's Trying to Find Chinatown was first produced in 1996 for the Humana Festival, which is held at the Actors Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky. It was published along with another one of the author's short plays, Bondage, that same year. The volume Trying to Find Chinatown: The Selected Plays was released in 1999. It is a collection of eight short plays by the playwright.

      Like many of Hwang's plays, Trying to Find Chinatown focuses on the concepts of ethnicity and identity in the United States. It is a brief one-act play that only casts two actors. An encounter between two strangers on the streets of New York leads to important questions about what defines an individual's culture and ethnicity, as the two characters share their conflicting points of view about what it means to be Asian American. Within this single act, Hwang skillfully explores the concepts of ethnicity, assimilation, and self-identity.

      Author Biography

      Hwang was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1957. His parents, Henry and Dorothy Hwang, were first-generation Chinese immigrants. Henry was a banker, and Dorothy was a music teacher. Hwang studied the violin as a child and developed an interest in music and performing arts. Hwang earned a bachelor of arts degree from Stanford University in 1979. He then attended the Yale University School of Drama from 1980 to 1981.

      Hwang's successful career as a playwright began in the 1980s. He staged his first play, F.O.B., at Stanford and showcased it at other venues, including in New York. The play won an Obie Award in 1981; the Obie Awards are presented by the Village Voice to new and creative productions performed off-Broadway. This success was quickly followed by The Dance & the Railroad, which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 1982. Hwang, however, is best known for his groundbreaking play M. Butterfly. M. Butterfly won an Antoinette Perry Award

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