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Frank Chin (born February 25, 1940) is an American author and playwright. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Asian-American theatre.
Early in his career, Chin worked as a story editor and scriptwriter on Sesame Street and as a reporter for KING-TV in Seattle.
Chin is considered to be one of the pioneers of Asian-American theatre. He co-founded the Asian American Theater Company with Filipino-American playwright Melvyn Escueta in 1973. His play The Chickencoop Chinaman was the first by an Asian-American to be produced on a major New York stage. As an author, Chin has won three American Book Awards: the first in 1982 for his plays The Chickencoop Chinaman and The Year of the Dragon, the second in 1989 for a collection of short stories entitled The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco R.R. Co., and the third in 2000 for lifetime achievement. His full length novel, , was written in the early 1970s, but was not published until nearly four decades later (2015) by Calvin McMcmillin, a literary scholar specializing in Asian American literature. The work is a sequel to The Chickencoop Chinaman and follows the further adventures of Tam Lum, the original work's protagonist.
Stereotypes of Asian Americans and traditional Chinese folklore are common themes in much of his work. Many of his works revolve around criticism of the racism in the United States. Frank Chin has accused other Asian American writers, particularly Maxine Hong Kingston, of furthering such stereotypes and misrepresenting the traditional stories. Chin also has been highly critical of American writer Amy Tan for her telling of Chinese-American stories, indicating that her body of work has furthered and reinforced stereotypical views of this group. On a radio program, Chin has also debated the scholar Yunte Huang regarding the latter's evaluation of Charlie Chan in his writing. This discussion was later evaluated on the activist blog "Big WOWO."
In addition to his work as an author and playwright, Frank Chin has also worked extensively with Japanese American resisters of the draft in WWII. His novel, Born in the U.S.A., is dedicated to this subject. Chin was one of several writers (Jeffery Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Shawn Wong of CARP, Combined Asian American Resources Project) who worked to republish John Okada's novel No-No Boy in the 1970s; Chin contributed an afterword which can be found in every reprinting of the novel. Chin has appeared in Jeff Adachi's The Slanted Screen, a 2006 documentary film about stereotypical depictions of Asian males in American cinema. Chin was also an instrumental organizer for the first Day of Remembrance.
Chin is also a musician. In the mid-1960s, he taught Robbie Krieger, a member of The Doors, how to play the flamenco guitar. After a stroke in 1990, he lost his ability to play the guitar and, temporarily, to laugh.
Chin was married for five years to Kathy Chang in the 1970s. Kathleen Chang (October 10, 1950 – October 22, 1996), was better known by her performance name Kathy Change. She was a Sino-American political activist, writer, and performance artist.
As an actor, Chin, appeared as an extra in the riot scene of the Television film adaptation of Farewell to Manzanar. Chin was one of several Asian American writers who appeared in the movie; Shawn Wong and Lawson Fusao Inada, who, like Chin were co-editors of the anthology Aiiieeeee!, also acted in the riot scene.
Chin would go on to criticize the movie in the May 1976 issue of Mother Jones.
Frank Chin was interviewed in the documentary The Slanted Screen (2006), directed by Jeff Adachi, about the representation of Asian and Asian American men in Hollywood.
Chin wrote the script for the 1967 documentary And Still Champion! The Story of Archie Moore. Chin's script was narrated by actor Jack Palance. Some of Chin's experiences would be worked into his first play, in which the protagonist is making a documentary about a boxer.
Chin researched and hosted Chinaman's Chance (1972) an Ene Riisna directed documentary focusing on the conditions of Chinatown communities in America. Interview subjects included Roland Winters, Betty Lee Sung, and Ben Fee.
Chin also directed a documentary short in 1972, The Last Temple about the Taoism temple in Hanford, California, which dates back to 1893, and the effort to preserve and restore it.
Theatre Communications Group produced the Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project, a series highlighting influential figures in the American minority theaters. Set to be released in 2017, one of the episodes focuses on Frank Chin, his time with the Asian American Theater Company, and Chin's influence.
In 2019, It Takes a Lunatic a Netflix distributed documentary about Wynn Handman was released. Handman had produced Chin's two plays at the American Place Theatre, and Chin was one of the interview subjects.
Be Water, a 2020 episode of the ESPN documentary series 30 for 30 about Bruce Lee, featured archival footage of Chin.
Archival footage of Chin being interviewed at the first Day of Remembrance appeared in the PBS documentary Betrayed: Surviving an American Concentration Camp
Bibliography
Plays
/ref> A parable play which went through a workshop development and rehearsals directed by Chin, although it ultimately went unproduced.
Books
Works in anthologies
Movies
The Year of the Dragon was an adaptation of Chin's play of the same name. Starring George Takei, the film was televised in 1975 as part of the PBS Great Performances series.
Documentaries
What's Wrong with Frank Chin is a 2005 biographical documentary, directed by Curtis Choy, about Chin's life.
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See also
External links
Categories: 1940 Births, American Novelists Of Chinese Descent, Living People, American Dramatists And Playwrights Of Chinese Descent, 20th-century American Novelists, Writers From The San Francisco Bay Area, American Short Story Writers Of Chinese Descent, 20th-century American Dramatists And Playwrights, American Male Novelists, American Male Dramatists And Playwrights, American Male Short Story Writers, 20th-century American Short Story Writers, Activists From California, American Book Award Winners, 20th-century American Male Writers
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