What happens when an Asian American visits Asia?
I was privileged to visit Singapore in June 1982 to interview directors and witness preliminary auditions for this production of my play, FOB. This was my first trip to Asia as an adult, and I was curious to find out if I would gain any new perspectives on my own life and identity.
This is what I found. First, I loved Singapore. Second, I came to recognise a provincialism, of which I had not been aware, inherent in many of my attitudes. It hadn't occurred to me, for instance, that not everyone wanted to live in the US — Americans are so busy selling the myth that we are the immigrant’s Mountain of Gold.
Third, and most powerfully, I found that being overseas highlighted those aspects of my character which were most American. In the US, I tend to consider myself different from Anglo-Americans because of my upbringing and the colour of my skin. In Singapore, however, I could be identified as American as soon as I opened my mouth, and the differences between myself and other Americans began to feel smaller. I was reminded again of the importance of environment in one’s upbringing — my values and attitudes unquestionably reflected a Southern California lifestyle.
Returning to Singapore for the Arts Festival, then, I am most curious to see how FOB will be received here. Any work is a reflection of its author, and as I recognised my own American-ness, I also discovered how American a play I had written.
Max Le Blond, FOB’s director, and I have had many conversations on this topic. I’m very pleased to be working with Max, not only because of his directoral expertise, but also because of the valuable access he gives me to what in my play Singaporeans may not may not relate to. We found very American references throughout FOB — from Lifesavers candy, to the University of Southern California, to Torrance Boulevard.
Even the form of the play itself is a challenge. Though it uses a Western naturalistic idiom much of the time its overall structure is much more surrealistic. Characters transform into other characters like chameleons, and the play itself moves abruptly from one form to another, heavily influenced by the American experimental playwright Sam Shepard.
Furthermore, the use of the Chinese figures Kwan Kung and Fa Mu Lan in my play is far from traditional, but is an attempt to create new personalities for these ancient characters in the new environment of America.
Every author writes best about what he or she knows, and seem to have taken the tools of my American environment to create my plays. By focussing on the most specific things, I believe, we expose the largest whole. Surely Singaporean writers, striving to find their own themes and sense of local literature, can appreciate the need to create a very specific sense of place.
So I am curious to see how many of the American experiences explored in FOB will ring familiar to an audience separated by an ocean from its Los Angeles setting. Singapore, like America, is a nation of immigrants, so I hope that we can share in an appreciation of our parents’ warrior spirits, which gave them the courage to cross land and sea for a better life. And as the children of these immigrants, I hope we can also share the confusion that results when we attempt to reconcile our parent’s culture with that of the new land. To create new life from the clash of culture is a task for each generation.
– David Henry Hwang