heterogeneous audience. One of her stories, “My
Father’s Chinese Wives,” was awarded a Pushcart
Prize (1995), while other publications and per-
formances have garnered appreciative reviews in
periodicals ranging from the New York Times Book
Review to People magazine.
With a background in painting and piano, an
undergraduate degree in physics, and graduate
study in creative writing, Loh has a good sense of
detail and of the nuances of everyday life—a mind-
fulness that served her well during her time as a
columnist for Buzz magazine (1992–96). Writing
funny, conversational pieces about living in the San
Fernando Valley (some of which formed the basis
for Depth Takes a Holiday), she offered nonfiction
and fictionalized accounts of her own experience
as a late Boomer of Chinese-German heritage
searching for sanity on the outskirts of Hollywood
culture. During this period, she continued the per-
formance work begun in the 1980s, incorporating
in her works material about growing up with im-
migrant parents in a troubled family environment:
Aliens in America (1995) appeared in print in 1997.
This darkly comic serial monologue addresses a
disastrous family vacation to Ethiopia, problems
with successive stepmothers, and the tribulations
of being a teenager in an imperfect body.
After her stint with Buzz, Loh gave two solo
performances based on material from earlier es-
says (Depth Becomes Her [1997] and Bad Sex with
Bud Kemp [1998]). She also published a novel, If
You Lived Here, You’d Be Home by Now, which was
chosen by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best
books of 1997. Loh’s protagonist in this work of
fiction is not unlike the persona of several of her
essays: Bronwyn Peters is a highly trained, ambi-
tious, imaginative young woman struggling to
remain hip, productive, upwardly mobile, and
ethically responsible despite the pressures of L.A.
hype. Much of the book focuses on Peters’s desire
to move out of tract housing and into a higher-
status neighborhood, into a community of the rec-
ognizably “cool.” Thematically consistent with the
author’s shorter narratives, If You Lived Here lam-
poons the fatuous workings of celebrity culture
and the frantic efforts of those seeking to make
a name for themselves. Loh manages to generate
sympathy for the desperate wannabes.
As a radio commentator for public radio sta-
tions KCRW (Santa Monica, 1997–2004) and
KPCC (Pasadena, 2004–present), Loh has sus-
tained a loyal audience for her monologues, which
are frequently heard on National Public Radio. Her
semiautobiographical A Year in Van Nuys (2001),
a comic rendering of her own artistic crisis, was
well received; readers recognized the voice and
persona as vintage Loh (as is the theme of trying
to establish a satisfactory creative identity outside
Tinseltown’s charmed circles). Additionally, two
one-woman shows have kept this artist in the pub-
lic eye: I Worry (2002), a set of riffs on Americans’
news-media-induced anxiety, and Sugar Plum
Fairy (2003), a narrative about family holiday be-
havior and adolescent dreams of dancing the lead
in the Nutcracker Suite.
One of our best writers of performatory prose,
Loh is part social observer, part confessor, part en-
tertainer. With Sarah Vowell, David Sedaris, and
a small number of other postmodern writer-per-
formers, she continues to redefine both story and
performance.Bibliography
Glionna, John M. “The Multi-Cult Semi-Celeb.” Los
Angeles Times Magazine, 9 April 2000, pp. 14ff.
Itagaki, Lynn M. “Sandra Tsing Loh.” Asian American
Playwrights: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Source-
book, edited by Miles Xian Liu, 212–217. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Loh, Sandra Tsing. “Sandra Tsing Loh.” Interview
by Douglas Eby. Talent Development Resources.
Available online. URL: http://www.talentdevelop.
com/sloh.html. Downloaded on January 19,
2005.
Janis Butler HolmLoh, Vyvyanne (?– )
A writer, choreographer-dancer, and physician,
Vyvyane Loh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia (at the
time Malaya), during British colonial rule butLoh, Vyvyanne 173