Frank Chin Notable Asian Am

program. Only about 55 percent of the students whostarted actually graduated. My engineering friends and Ihardly had time to do anything but study to just keepafloat" It was a grueling program, but one that taughtChiao some valuable lessons. "We learned to look things upfor ourselves and to discover things on our own. This abilityhas become crucial to me in my career." In 1985 Chiaoearned a master of science degree from the University ofCalifornia at Santa Barbara, where he also received his doc-torate in 1987.

Chiao's first job upon graduation was with Hexcel, amedium-sized material supplier to the aerospace industry.Here he was given the opportunity to work on a project inconjunction with NASA—bringing him a step closer to ful-filling his dream of becoming an astronaut—and the JetPropulsion Laboratory developing materials for futurespace telescopes. From here Chiao moved to theLawrence Livermore Laboratory, a government-fundedresearch institution administered fay the University of Cal-ifornia and located on the Berkeley campus. He contin-ued working in materials science and applied to theastronaut training program at NASA.

Soaring to New Heights

In an interview with Jim Henry, Chiao described theapplication process for the astronaut program. Of themany thousands of applications NASA receives over thecourse of two to three years, a final 2,500 are reviewed asworthy of serious consideration. Of these, 100 are inter-viewed, and 23 chosen. In other words, 1 percent of the

selected and began training in 1990, becoming an astro-naut in 1991.

As a mission specialist on the July 1994 Columbialaunch, Chiao conducted life and material sciences exper-iments in the International Microgravity Laboratory II, orthe Space Lab, as it is commonly known. This lab is a pres-surized module within the cargo bay of the shuttle thatoffers the astronauts extra room in which to conduct theirexperiments. He was trained as one of two mission special-ists who will go on any space walks outside the shutdeshould some minor problems develop.

Chiao said his training for space flight was intensive, yetfun and very exciting. To practice weightlessness, he andhis fellow astronauts were taken up in an Air Force KC135,a converted passenger airliner, where they replicated zerogravity by going into 20,000-foot free-falls. These typicallylasted twenty to thirty seconds, during which time theastronauts floated freely in the specially designed cargobay, just as if they were in outer space.

Chiao was able to fulfill his dream of becoming an astro-naut through perseverance and, most importantly,through education. His parents' examples were not lost

Sources:

Periodicals

Chiao, Leroy. 'Your Rocket to the StarsSpecial Edition, 1993-94, pp. 2-3.

Other

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, "Bio-graphical Data," Houston, 1994.

Chiao, Leroy, written interview with Jim Henry, Februan1994.

Chiao, Leroy, telephone interview with Jim Henry, March2, 1994.

—Sketch !>y Jim Henry

provided afte"I have

Frank Chin(1940-)

Frank Chin describes himself first antwriter." In the biographical profile hedeclining to be interviewed, he ishort fiction, plays, nonfiction, reviews, essays,research pieces on Chinese and Japanese America. I havealso written the backs of bubble gum cards, 'stupid' radiocontests, documentary films on fishing and boxing, andhacked." His writing career is marked with milestones,including the distinction of being the first Asian Americanplaywright produced on a New York stage-—The Chicken-coop Chinaman at American Place Theatre in 1972. A yearlater, Chin founded San Francisco's Asian American The-atre Workshop which evolved into the Asian AmericanTheatre Company, one of the nation's foremost AsianAmerican theatres. Together with Jeffery Paul Chan, Law-son Fusao Inada, and Shawn Wong, Chin also was respon-sible for creating what is widely considered the seminaltext of Asian American literature, Aiiieeeee! An Anthology ofAsian American Wnters, published in 1974. Its follow-upcompanion, The Big Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Chinese Ameri-can and Japanese American Literature, was published in 1991.

In addition to his status as an established and respectedwriter, Chin is equally well known as a critic of AsianAmerican literature. He and his three Aiiieeeee! editorshave been dubbed "the gang of four," fighting in an AsianAmerican literary war between what they describe in anintroductory essay as "the real," with its "sources in theAsian fairy tale and the Confucian heroic tradition," a"the fake," widi its "sources in Christian dogma and

Western philosophy, history and literature," as repre-sented by such Asian American writers as Maxine HongKingston, David Henry Hwang, and Amy Tan.

History of a Chinaman

Frank Chin was born in Berkeley, California, in 1940. Inhis biographical profile he described himself as a "fifth-generation Chinaman." In the past, particularly early inhis career, Chin made a clear distinction between the useof "Chinaman" and the term "Chinese American" whichfor him was inscribed with a sense of complicit assimila-tion into the controlling white society. Chin wrote that heis "the son of a Chinese immigrant father and fourth-gen-eration Chinatown mother whose father worked in thesteward service of the Southern Pacific Railroad." Chinfollowed his grandfather's career on the railroad, firstworking "clerk jobs" around the Western Pacific Railway'sOakland Yard between 1962 and 1965. "Between tracks ofstanding and moving boxcars I did everything but gethurt, get lost and get scared," Chin recalled. He left therailroad for the University of California at Berkeley fromwhich he graduated in 1966 with a degree in English.After a brief stint at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Chinreturned again to the tracks, becoming "the first Chinese-American brakeman on the Southern Pacific since Chi-nese built the Centra! Pacific over the Sierras."

In 1966 Chin moved to Seattle, Washington, workingfirst for television station KING-TV where he filmed docu-mentaries on the Seatde Repertory Theatre and the his-tory of Seattle's Chinese New Year's celebration, and a filmbiography of former light heavyweight champion ArchieMoore. Chin moved on to King Screen Productions, thefilm company owned by King Broadcasting Company,where he worked as a story editor and scriptwriter for"Sesame Street."

In 1972, Chin made theatre history as the first AsianAmerican playwright to have work produced on a main-stream stage in New York. The Chickencoop Chinaman wasmounted off-Broadway at The American Place Theatre. Inthis irreverent work, Chin introduces three unpredictable,often comic characters who defy generalizations of anykind and who challenge and satirize existing media stereo-types of Asian Americans. A hip and raunchy piece, a newgeneration of questioning Asian Americans found in TarnLum an unlikely hero who, according to Chin in the play'scast list, has "a gift of gab and an open mouth, [a] multi-tongued word magician losing his way to the spell whotrips to Pittsburgh to conjure with his childhood friendand research a figure in his documentary." After the play'sopening to glowing reviews from such publications as theNew Yorkerznd Newstveek, Chin wrote in "Backtalk," an arti-cle in The American Place Theatre's newsletter, "That thisplay is the first play by an Asian American to, in any sense,make it, that people should be surprised at our existence,is proof of the great success white racism has had with us.America might love us. But America's love is not good. It'sracist love. I don't want it."

Chin's next play, The Year of the Dragon, was mounted in1974, again at The American Place Theatre. The play'stheme is the disintegration of the Chinese American fam-ily: Pa Eng, the respected mayor of Chinatown, is dying;Ma Eng sings about Chinese slave girls; first son Fred Eng,head of Eng's Chinatown Tour 'n Travel hates himself forhaving built a business whose success demands that heassume a demeaning persona not unlike the humble, pas-sive Charlie Chan; daughter Mattie chooses Boston andescapes Chinatown with a white husband; and youngJohnny is litde more than a hoodlum. On the whole, theplay received generally good notices and went on to befilmed as a PBS production in 1975. Chin's other worksfor die theatre, though lesser known, include Gee, Pop!,Chinatown Mortuary, and Oofty Goofty.

A Writer's Legacy

An established playwright, Chin was encouraged by theAmerican Conservator)' Theatre (ACT), the San FranciscoBay Area's oldest and largest regional repertory theatre, tofound the Asian American Theatre Workshop (AATW).With financial support and donated space from ACT,AATW began in 1973 as Chin's personal vision: "I foundedthe workshop as the only Asian American theatre that wasconceived as a playwright's lab and not a showcase foryellows yearning to sell out to Hollywood. I failed. I wasdirector of the workshop until 1977," wrote Chin in hisbiographical profile.

Frank Chin Notable Asian Am

While Chin might be quick to dismiss his involvementwith AATW, his achievement is undeniably long-lasting.According to Frank Abe, one of the original workshopmembers who is currently communications director forSeattle politician Gary Locke, AATW provided "both a the-atrical and cultural experience." Abe explained, "Many of

time. Mine was stricdy suburban Californian. Through theworkshop, I came to understand and embrace the fact thatAsian American was a unique sensibility with a unique his-tory. Through the written word, the goal was to recover ourhistory, that which had been lost, falsified and suppressed."

As AATW grew and evolved, the focus shifted from thewriters to the actors until, as Abe described it, "theinmates took over the asylum." In frustration and disgust,Chin left AATW in mid-1977. After his departure, AATWcontinued as a theatre group, renaming itself a "Com-pany." As an expanded group, the Asian American The-atre Company (AATC) flourished, attracting numerousAsian American writers, actors, directors, and designers.More than twenty years later, AATC is a stalwart part of the

In 1978, Chin's "theatrical sense combined with [his]scholarly nature and need to make things right" led to"Day of Remembrance," which he described as "ceremo-nial events that restored history and civility inside Japa-nese America, and between the Japanese Americans andSeattle and Portland." The events publicized the cam-paign to redress the constitutional grievances suffered byAmericans of Japanese ancestry during World War II: "Iput together groups of Japanese American leaders andactivists to lead a return to the county fairgrounds outsideof Seattle and Portland that had been converted into con-centration camps for the Nikkei in 1942. The Day ofRemembrance included participation by the NationalGuard, local politicians, a display of art and artifacts fromthe concentration camps, a huge potluck dinner and acouple thousand Japanese Americans in both cities,"explained Chin.

Out of Theatre

Chin eventually abandoned all of the theatre world. Hewrote with finality, "I am out of theatre. I will not workwith any theatre, producer, writer, director, or actor whoplays and lives the stereotype. So I write fiction, essays, andarticles." Chin has "written extensively on Chinese andJapanese history, culture and literature, and presence inpopular local news magazines, TV documentaries, and lit-erary journals." His fiction includes The Chinaman Pacific& Frisco R.R. Co., a collection of short stories published in1988, and two novels, DonaldDuk, published in 1991, andGunga Din Highway, published in 1994.

In addition to writing, Chin has "taught Asian Americanhistory and ideas using storytelling, theatre and writinggames, in four- to five-week long workshops" at Washington

State University, Michigan State University, and in five Port-land high schools.

In both his writing and teaching, Chin's goal is toexpose and correct "the white racist characterization ofChinese fairy tales and childhood literature as teachingmisogynistic ethics and despicable morals as fact." Chin'sharshest criticisms are directed at best-selling authors Max-ine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan and renowned play-wright David Henry Hwang. As he explained in "Come AllYe Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake" in TheBig Aiiieeeee: "What seems to hold Asian American litera-ture together is the popularity among whites of ... King-ston's Woman Warrior. . . Hwang's F.O.B and M. Butterfly. .. and Tan's Joy Luck Club. These works are held up beforeus as icons of our pride, symbols of our freedom from theicky-gooey evil of a Chinese culture where the written wordfor 'woman' and 'slave' are the same word (Kingston) andChinese brutally tattoo messages on the back of women(Kingston and Hwang). . . . Kingston, Hwang, and Tan arethe first writers of any race, and certainly the first writers ofAsian ancestry, to so boldly fake the best-known worksfrom the most universally known body of Asian literatureand lore in history. And, to legitimize their faking, theyhave to fake all of Asian American history and literature,and argue that the immigrants who settled and establishedChinese America lost touch with Chinese culture, and thata faulty memory combined with new experience producednew versions of these traditional stories. This version ofhistory is their contribution to the stereotype." Chin andothers argue that readers who know little about Chineseculture are being constantly misled about Chinese andChinese Americans, which in turn feeds the stereotypes ofa white racist America.

In answer, Chin has, "like the Cantonese and Chinesebefore me, wherever Chinese literature and languagehave been banned, taken to storytelling and the comicbook as a tactic for making the real accessible in a hostileliterary and learning atmosphere." One of his currentongoing projects is to condense and retell "the most pop-ular stories and operas from the Chinese fairy tale andheroic tradition to fit sets of drawings from old Chinesecomic books." Chin remains a crusader of "the real," act-ing as the voice of conscientiousness, welcomed or not, in

Books

Chin, Frank. "The Chickencoop Chinaman " and "The Year ofthe Dragon": Two Plays by Frank Chin. Seattle: Universityof Washington Press, 1981.

Chin, Frank, Jeffery Chan, Lawson Inada, and ShawnWong. Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers.New York: Mentor, 1974.

. The Big Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Chinese Americanand Japanese American Literature. New York: Meridian,1991.

Periodicals

Chin, Frank. "Backtalk." News of The American Place Theatre,vol. 4, no. 4, May 1972.

. "Confessions of the Chinatown Cowboy." Bulletin ofConcerned Asian Scholars, vol. 4, no. 3, Fall 1972, pp. 58-70.

. "Don't Pent Us Up in Chinatown." New York Times,October 8, 1972.

Other

Chin, Frank. Biographical profile provided by Chin.

—Sketch by Terry Hong

Margaret Cho(1968-)Comedian

eration Korean American, Margaret Cho was barely intoher twenties when she became known as the reigning AsianAmerican funny woman. A child of the eighties, she's bro-

s and stereotypes by performing on such televi-as the "Bob Hope Special," "Evening at the

Improv," "Arsenio Hall," and "Star Search." In 1994, Chowas the first Asian American lo siar in her own televisionshow, "All-American Girl," a sitcom about a Korean Ameri-can family. The comedy was designed by Cho with co-pro-ducer Gary Jacobs, a veteran writer and producer. Membersof the casiagree that ihis is a period of expanding opportu-nity for Asian Americans in the performing arts.

Drive to Perform

Margaret Cho was born December 5, 1968, and raisedin San Francisco. She derives much of her material fromher upbringing in a liberal yet religious Korean AmericanFamily. "My father writes Korean books like 1,001 Jokes forPublic Speakers, real corny stuff," said Cho in a pressrelease. As a child, her parents encouraged her to learnvoice, dance, and piano, but stopped short of endorsingher venture into acting at age thirteen. Undaunted, Chopursued her dream of becoming an actor, gaining admis-sion to San Francisco's prestigious High School of Per-forming Arts and later enrolling in San Francisco StateUniversity's theatre department. She had hoped to con-tinue her acting studies at Juilliard or Yale, but becamefrustrated by the limited roles available to Asian women. Itwas then that she turned to stand-up comedy at the sug-

Margaret Cho

"I wasn't sure I could make it as an actor because Ididn't see any successful Asians," she told the Daily Bruin."Stand-up is a way to acting but it's also its own art form.I've grown to love and respect comedy." Cho developedher comedy act at a club built, coincide n tally, on top ofher parents' bookstore, where she worked part time. Onher breaks she would go upstairs and perform a set. Herparents were initially less than pleased that she quit col-lege to perform in nightclubs. "Stand-up goes against anytypical Asian aesthetic," she told the Daily Bruin. "It's toopersonal. You have to reveal yourself. It's not what awoman should do." But since Cho has gained broad popu-larity—as well as support from the Asian American com-munity, her parents relented. "Now my mom says, That'smv baby on TV!'"

Cho's comedy routine pokes fun at her own gcnera-

Ihe only pleasure we have left," said Cho in a press releasehighlighting some of her work. "We have so many restric-tions—no sex, no drugs—the only vice left was greed, butwhere did that take us? 'Just Say No' has become the'Keep on Truckin' of my generation." The press releasereveals that Cho's ethnicity and gender arc fair game aswell. "Men look at me and think I'm going to walk ontheir backs or something. I tell them the only time I'llwalk on your back is if there's something on the other