94
day, the spirit of Ahn reminds her Chinese-Ameri-
can grandson about her and her father’s achieve-
ments in removing the negative aspects of Chinese
culture from the family, but the audience may
wonder if Chinese communities had to comple-
ment these changes with such a wholesale accep-
tance of newfangled Western characteristics.
Bibliography
Hwang, David Henry. Golden Child. New York: The-
atre Communications Group, 1998.
———. “ ‘Making His Muscles Work for Himself ’: An
Interview with David Henry Hwang” by Bonnie
Lyons. Literary Review, 42, no. 2 (1999). 230–244.
Kevin De Ornellas
Gotanda, Philip Kan (1951– )
Widely recognized as one of the most represen-
tative Asian-American playwrights of our time,
Philip Kan Gotanda is a sansei (i.e. third-genera-
tion Japanese American). During World War II, his
father, Dr. Wilfred Itsuta Gotanda, was interned in
a relocation camp in Rohwer, Arkansas. Upon his
release and return to Stockton, California, after the
war, he met and married Catherine Matsumoto, a
local schoolteacher. Philip is their youngest child.
Gotanda spent his formative years playing the
guitar, composing songs, and playing in bands.
In 1969 he entered the University of California at
Santa Cruz to study psychiatry, no doubt influenced
by his physician father. He left Santa Cruz the fol-
lowing year to travel to his ancestral homeland of
Japan to study pottery under Hisroshi Seto.
Upon his return to the States, he entered the
University of California at Santa Barbara, drawn to
what he termed “a particular vision of what Asian
American creative expression could be.” Upon his
graduation in 1973, Gotanda returned for a spell
to his first love, music. Gotanda formed a band
with fellow playwright DAVID HENRY HWANG, with
whom a friendship would be sustained through-
out their writing careers. Gotanda also pursued a
legal career, with a degree from Hasting College of
Law in 1978. During this time, Gotanda wrote his
first play, The Avocado Kid (1978), a musical based
on a popular Japanese children’s tale “Momotaro
the Peach Boy” and staged by East West Players, an
Asian-American theater company in Los Angeles.
For the next decade, Gotanda continued to
write exclusively for Asian-American companies;
however, with the staging of The Wash (1985), a
play about a nisei woman’s efforts to come to terms
with her own identity, and YANKEE DAW G YOU DIE
(1988), a dramatic piece on the portrayal of Asians/
Asian Americans in the popular media, Gotanda
became a formidable presence in mainstream the-
aters. His plays Ballad of Yachiyo (1996), about
Asian workers at a Hawaiian sugar cane plantation
set in the early 20th century, and Sisters Matsumoto
(1999), portraying the lives of Japanese Americans
immediately following the internment, have been
staged in London and Tokyo respectively.
Gotanda’s other representative works include
Fish Head Soup (1987), a narrative about genera-
tional conflicts in a Japanese-American family; A
Song of a Nisei Fisherman (1982), the life history of
a nisei fisherman; Natalie Wood Is Dead (2001), an
account of two women’s experiences in Hollywood;
and The Wind Cries Mary (2003), an exploration of
Asian-American identity in the tumultuous 1960s.
Gotanda is also widely respected for his indepen-
dent films, with no fewer than three works (The
Kiss, Drinking Tea, and Life Tastes Good) featured
in the Sundance Film Festival.
During his writing career, Gotanda received an
impressive array of awards, including the PEN/
West Award, the Rockefeller Artist Award, and the
Guggenheim Award. Gotanda currently resides
in San Francisco with his actress-producer wife,
Diane Takei.
Kihan LeeGrass Roof, The Younghill Kang (1931)
Using the fictional character of Chungpa Han as
the protagonist, YOUNGHILL KANG introduces Korea
to Western readers in this lyrical, fictional autobi-
ography. Set in rustic Korea, the first half describes
his carefree childhood, during which he is trained
by his poet uncle. His adventures in the country-
side and interactions with his family and friends94 Gotanda, Philip Kan