A Review: Golden Child by David Henry Hwang

When I first read David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly in the late 1980s, I said, "Damn. I would have given my right arm to have written this show."

After having seen Dave's latest show, Golden Child, I still have a left arm...but there are a few fingers I guess I could do without...

Understand that Dave and I go back to our undergraduate days at Stanford, so there's a certain amount of subjectivity in what I write about him. Understand, too, self-mutilation, even for friends, isn't exactly normal, so there's reason for what I write...

The latest show from one of Asian America's best known playwrights opened recently at San Francisco's ACT, on Friday, Feb. 13 (great, Dave; opening on Friday the 13th). This was after a long and winding preview trail that stretched from New York to Los Angeles to Washington, DC to Singapore. It will open on Broadway on April 2 (not tempting the fates a second time by opening a day earlier). The April opening should present New York audiences with a very, very good (though, perhaps, not great) play to see.

Golden Child is at its heart another Asian American family play and is akin to his earlier plays, Family Devotions and Rich Relations. Also like some earlier plays (F.O.B. and to some extent, Bondage), it is autobiographical in nature, drawing upon stories told by Dave's grandmother and contrasting them with Dave's own worries about being a father. In a very real way, it is a culmination of both these earlier trends in his work.

The play opens with a modern day Andrew Kwong (Randall Duk Kim, who stands in quite nicely for Dave), who struggles with the idea of impending fatherhood with his wife (played by Ming-Na Wen). He is visited by the ghost of his mother, Ahn (Julyana Soelistyo), who attempts to ally his concerns by telling of her father, Tien Bin, (also played by Kim), his attempts at modernizing/Westernizing his village, his conversion to Christianity and the effects it had on his three wives (Tsai Chin, Kim Miyori and Ming-Na Wen).

Replete with Dave's trademark one-liners and use of ghosts as storytelling devices, Golden Child details the intricate politics played within the household and Tien's efforts to cut this Gordian knot. Some reviewers have dismissed these machinations as too reminiscent of earlier films such as Raise the Red Lantern. These criticism miss the point, however. They smack of Oriental exoticism and view these Asian families as lab specimens--as if Western families don't have such bizarre behaviors.

Above all this, however, these reviews miss the point that Golden Child is an ensemble piece. There are meaty roles for almost all the characters, which represents a change in Dave's work, which, up till now, has been primarily focused on two or three characters.

More importantly, it articulates and struggles to reconcile various ideologies that exist in the Asian American community, some of which have not been previously recognized. In an even handed manner (perhaps too even handed), it deals with the Westernizing effects of Christianity, contrasting it with the preservative effect of traditional Chinese culture and tries to determine the good AND evil of both forces.

Most importantly, it tries to tie these big picture, historical struggles back to current, little picture questions of raising the next generation and questioning our own assessment of our past. I was particularly struck by Tien Bin's questioning of the web of obligations and commitment to the past (recalling my own confusion, on a much lesser scale, of how to deal with compliments, gifts and so forth).

Hmmm. I did say this was a very good, but not great, play, didn't I? Well, a few aspects didn't quite work for me. First, the key character of Ahn as a child comes off as a bit of a cipher. She seems written as a simple child of ten, with the usual child's motivations; it is not clear what her own desires are or if she's aware if she's being used as a pawn. This characterization is a bit jarring when compared to two later scenes (where she "haunts" Second Wife and converts to Christianity), which require some self awareness and quasi-adult motivation.

Second, and more seriously, the depiction of Christianity seems to be a bit off. The appeal of Christianity for Tien Bin seems more intellectual and pragmatic than spiritual and passionate; the evangelical fervor that characterizes many Asian American Christians (particularly among new converts) is lacking in him. While it's true that all conversions are unique, Tien Bin's seems even more so; it's very much a conversion of an upper class, moneyed man. It has little connection with the conversions that had to occur among the peasant and servant class among the same time. The raw, naked passion of John Horton's missionary zeal should have a hypnotic appeal for both merchant man and servant; unfortunately we see only the upper class side of the magnetism.

This lack hurts in two ways. Tien Bin's spiritual joy has to be more intense, for it is a contrast to the later despair he must feel. As well, this fundamentalism of religion parallels the fundamentalism of Marxism which parallels the early Asian American ideology which Dave and I were weaned on. There is a savage joy in the black and white strictures these movements inspire, and it is a savage joy that seems missing in Golden Child.

Still, all in all, this is still a very satisfying and moving piece of work, despite these flaws (which, after all, may be corrected before New York). And I haven't talked about the acting, have I? Well, Randall Kim is an absolute monster on stage; he pulls a Patrick Stewart with his commanding presence and weight of experience. He blew me away with his power and subtlety. And why not? Kim is a veteran of Asian American theatre, having appeared in Frank Chin's Chickencoop Chinaman and Year of the Dragon, the first Asian American plays to appear on Broadway.

Tsai Chin is a delight as First Wife; Julyana Soelistyo is doubly so as Ahn, who ages from age 82 to age 10...in the same scene. I expect a couple Tony nominations here. Ming-Na Wen does her usual fabulous job as the luminous, romantic Third Wife; she combines the shy romance and the conflict between romance and tradition quite well (though I have to say that she's starting to get typecast in these roles). Perhaps Kim Miyori, as Second Wife, is the weakest of the cast, as the character's hardness and manipulativeness doesn't come through as cleanly as it should; however, Miyori has been a relatively recent addition to the cast and will probably make great strides on the way to New York.

However, Golden Child's mark ultimately will not be its cast but its script for it and NOT M. Butterfly will be among Dave's greatest contributions to Asian American theatre. Why? First, M. Butterfly is written for and about white people; it gives them a two by four up side the head about THEIR preconceptions of Asians (and it seems some people need more than a few two by fours). Golden Child is about Asian and Asian Americans. Second, the casting requirements are less demanding; not many Asian American male actors exist who can do drag, after all. That means it's going to get produced more. Third, its subject matter is more digestible and less titillating for Asian American audiences. And fourth, Golden Child is the type of show that Asian American theatres can, quite frankly, do BETTER than regional mainstream shows. A Mark Taper or Seattle Rep can pour more funds and put a shinier gloss and hire more Equity actors than an Asian American Theatre Company or Northwest Asian American Theatre, but far too many mainstream theatres DON'T GET IT when it comes to producing Asian American play; they lack heart and understanding of cultural nuances.

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