Trying to Find Chinatown

A collection of work by the pre-eminent Asian-American author.

David Henry Hwang is known for exploring the complex relationships which bridge Eastern and Western culture in modern America. It is a subject that has long haunted American drama: how, in a land of immigrants, does one deal with one's heritage and construct a sense of identity.

Included in this volume are:

Bondage, a one-act study of racial stereotypes and sexual myths set in an S & M parlour

The Dance and the Railroad, a haunting play about the inhuman conditions of the railroad workers in the 1860s American West

Family Devotions, a biting work which probes the religious conflicts in a modern Chinese-American family

F.O.B, meaning Fresh off Boat, explores the conflicts between the old and new worlds

The House of the Sleeping Beauties, based on a novella by a famed Japanese author, Yasunari Kawabata

The Sound of a Voice, another reworking of a Kawabata story set in feudal Japan

Trying to Find Chinatown, concerns two men in New York, one trying to investigate his Asian-American heritage, the other trying to shake free

The Voyage, the libretto for the Philip Glass opera, which re-examines American history.