72



F

Family Devotions
David Henry Hwang (1981)
In an interview with Marty Moss-Coane, DAVID
HENRY HWA N G accounted for some of the origins
of Family Devotions, a play that opened in October
1981 at the Public Theater in New York City. He
explained that his own Chinese-American family
had often gathered together to engage in “family
devotions.” At these meetings, activities pursued
by historical members of the family would be
lauded, their exemplary conduct cited as a model
for the behavior of the present-day descendants.
God would also be praised for guiding Hwang’s
ancestors toward a life lived justly, according to a
Christian ethos. Hwang told Moss-Coane that he
felt these rituals represented “a clear example of
the meshing of the Christian ethic with the Con-
fucian ancestor worship ethic.” The play shows an
exaggerated version of the “family devotions” that
Hwang’s family practiced. Because the ritual of
ancestor worship based on Christianity involves
traditions from both the West and the East, it can
reveal the differences between the two disparate
cultures. Tensions raised during the “family devo-
tions” also reveal much about the conflicting pulls
of American and Chinese cultures on Asians living
in the United States.
Two elderly Chinese sisters, Ama and Po po,
live in Bel Air, California, in a large family house
owned by Ama’s daughter, Joanne, and her Japa-

nese-American husband, Wilbur. In this house

with many rooms, a barbecue area, and a tennis

court, these domineering matriarchs pontificate

about the efficacies of traditional Chinese values

and Christian ethics to their younger relatives, rel-

atives who live an affluent life in America, scarcely

respectful or appreciative of their extended Chi-

nese family. Jenny, for example, a 17-year-old

granddaughter of Ama, refers to an elderly rela-

tive as “some Chinese guy... another old relative.

Another goon.” During the “family devotions,”

Ama and Po po praise their long-deceased aunt,

See-goh-poh, who, according to a family myth,

brought Christianity into the family, heroically

ensuring that the family (and many associates)

would be forever cocooned within profound

Christian morality. However, Ama and Po po are

shocked when their younger brother, Di-gou, who

has chosen to stay in China, visits California and

shatters their illusions by revoking his Christian

past and insisting that See-goh-poh was not a

Christian heroine, but rather a wretched outcast.

There is, then, a degree of satire against the pre-

sumptions behind ancestor worship: the figures

celebrated are often legendary characters who

share little with the real persons who once lived.

Nevertheless, the play’s more pointed humor sati-

rizes the materialism and cultural moribundity of

well-off Asian Americans who disregard any con-

nection to their roots in Asia.