56 Time November 11, 20198 Questions‘
I NEVER
EXPERIENCED
OVERT RACISM,
BUT YOU ALWAYS
KNEW THAT
YOU WERE NOT
COMPLETELY
ACCEPTED
’
How have the increased geopolitical
tensions between China and the
U.S. complicated your identity as an
Asian American? It reminds me more
of when I was a kid. I never experienced
overt racism, but you always knew that
you were not completely accepted. And
at that point, the United States had
been at war with practically every Asian
country. So having this face means
that you kind of look like the enemy,
in history or in current events or in
movies.You were almost killed when you
were stabbed in New York in 2015.
Has it been difficult to regain a basic
trust in the world? Not so much. I
think I repressed the whole thing suf-
ficiently that I was able to just go about
my business. But that anxiety has to go
someplace—and it went into this play.Do you think classic plays with
problematic elements—like The King
and I or Porgy and Bess—should be
retired? I don’t advocate the retirement
of plays. I feel like there are wonderful
things, craft-wise, about a lot of these
works. I think it’s quite possible some
of these works will be retired as they
outlive their usefulness. But in the
meantime, it’s fine to be aware of what
we’re seeing—and be rigorous about
understanding the context in which
they were made.You studied playwriting with Sam
Shepard. What’s the most enduring
thing you learned from him? He was
really rigorous about work that feels
honest, as opposed to something that
feels contrived for effect. I certainly
write things that are contrived for
effect —in this show I manipulate
musical-theater tropes or white-savior
tropes. But I think the root of Soft Power
comes from a very personal and honest
investigation of what it means to be
Asian American, and therefore, what my
relationship is to China.
—Andrew r. ChowY
our plays Soft Power and
M. Butterfly are extensions of
The King and I and Madame
Butterfly, respectively. What interests
you about creating work in dialogue
with classics? When I was an Asian kid
in America in the ’60s, and whenever
there was any TV show or movie with an
Asian character, I would go out of my way
not to watch it because I just assumed it
was horrible. I’ve come to realize, maybe
from working on Soft Power, that as a kid
I felt oppressed by American popular
culture. Therefore a lot of my adult life
has been about trying to gain access to
the levers of that culture.Do you still feel like American
pop culture is oppressive? I think
American pop culture is still pretty
oppressive. Hollywood has begun to
realize that diversity is more than just
a suggestion —it’s really economics. As
the writer Jeff Yang puts it, racism is no
longer a viable business model. That
potentially means that things are getting
better. But it’s not hard to find examples
of American pop culture now that
recycle tropes that are racist and sexist.Soft Power explores the differences
between the Chinese and American
approaches to creating art. Are
the two fundamentally different?
They are and they aren’t. People who
are making art in China are subject to
content restrictions. But one could argue
that in the West, you’re also working
under content restrictions—they’re
just capitalist. However, I think there
is probably an inherent contradiction
between China’s desire for soft power
and its top-down control of artists.What can Americans learn from the
Chinese perspective?
In terms of civil society, China’s lack
of freedom is a problem. But the com-
munal understanding and care for one
another—that feels like something
America, in its hyper individualism and
runaway capitalism, could learn from.David Henry Hwang The playwright on
growing up Asian American, learning from
Sam Shepard and his new play Soft Power