David Henry Hwang quotes

I knew I was Chinese, but growing up, it never occurred to me that that had any particular implication or that it should differentiate me in any way. I thought it was a minor detail, like having red hair. (David Henry Hwang)
Yellow Face marks my summation of multiculturalism. View quote
David Henry Hwang
Chinese culture in general is not very religious. Confucianism is more a code of ethics than a religion, and ancestor worship is a way for parents to control you even after they're dead. View quote
David Henry Hwang
I define the American dream as the ability to imagine a way that you want your life to turn out, and have a reasonable hope that you can achieve that. View quote
David Henry Hwang
Sometimes I hate you, sometimes I hate myself, but always I miss you. View quote
David Henry Hwang
Tonight, I've finally learned to tell fantasy from reality. And, knowing the difference, I choose fantasy. View quote
David Henry Hwang
I visited a new cultural center in Shanghai in 2005 that was pretty much perfect, except for the really badly translated Chinglish signs: a handicapped restroom that said Deformed Mans Toilet, that kind of thing. View quote
David Henry Hwang
I felt pretty good growing up. I didnt feel a lot of prejudice or racism. But I do remember, if there was going to be a movie or a television show with Asian characters, I would go out of my way to avoid them, because they portrayed all Asians as either ridiculously good or ridiculously bad; you know, the whole Charlie Chan-Fu Manchu thing. View quote
David Henry Hwang
For a long time, it was hard for me to get my work done in Chicago. Silk Road gave me opportunities to do shows like 'Golden Child' - shows that nobody else seemed interested in. And they bring an artistic integrity to the work that matches anything you'll find at a bigger theatre. View quote
David Henry Hwang
I'm interested in internationalism. It's the new multiculturalism. How we deal with each other isn't sufficient any more. It's about time we examine how we interact with the rest of the world we live in. View quote
David Henry Hwang
I'm happy. Which often looks like crazy. (David Henry Hwang)
It seems to me that the biggest challenge for Chinese theater is to cultivate an audience, which would make possible long-running shows. A show that only runs for a few months, tops, fails to generate enough revenue to pay back the investment required to create it. A Chinese Broadway or West End may help to build an audience, but more theaters alone probably will not achieve this goal. View quote
David Henry Hwang
In 1980, Chinese-Americans were certainly considered perpetual foreigners to America, even more so than today. In addition, Asians, in general, were regarded as poor, uneducated, and manual laborers-cooks, waiters, laundrymen-an image which has turned 180 degrees in my lifetime. View quote
David Henry Hwang
I've studied Chinese in college, but basically, I'm not bilingual. View quote
David Henry Hwang
I was one of the Asian American theatre people who protested the casting of Jonathan Pryce as the Eurasian pimp in the musical MISS SAIGON when it came to Broadway, as an example of "Yellow Face” casting.. The intensity, vehemence, and anger I felt, on both sides of that issue, left me shaken for many years afterwards. So I wrote FACE VALUE, a comedy of mistaken racial identity, to explore the question, "What does it really mean to ‘play' another race?” As noted above, FACE VALUE became an infamous flop, but the idea of doing a comedy of mistaken racial identity stayed with me for the next fifteen years or so. Eventually, I found another way to realize this notion with YELLOW FACE. View quote
David Henry Hwang