FRANK CHIN BLOGSITE: Wynn Handman, Asian America, and the American Place Theatre

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Wynn Handman, Asian America, and the American Place Theatre

"He's a master. Master of his craft. He'll help you get your craft, and it's up to you to make it art."

- Frank Chin on Wynn Handman
from It Takes a Lunatic

Wynn Handman

(May 19, 1922 – April 11, 2020)

Frank Chin's plays (Chickencoop Chinaman and Year of the Dragon) had their openings at Handman's American Place Theatre in New York. His theatre was responsible for having the first Asian American play (Chickencoop Chinaman) done off-Broadway. Condolences to his family and friends.

Catch Netflix's documentary on Handman's life and career in "It Takes a Lunatic"

Wynn Handman and Frank Chin

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Books

"That 'whole voice' which speaks so eloquently in Aiiieeeee! is an amazingly versatile voice. It is a voice that makes one believe in writing again… I herald it with rejoicing." - Kay Boyle, Rolling Stone
"The emergence 40 years later of a tightly edited, slimmed-down version of a long-lost novel from the writer who first defined Asian American literature is an unexpected gift." - Frank Abe, International Examiner. Interview with editor Calvin McMillin here.
"In the telling and retelling of our stories, we create our community of memory. This huge collection invites all of us to become listeners and to claim America." – Ronald Takaki
"Born in the USA uses insiders' accounts of the resisters' lives to explain their cause and their persecution. This is an indispensable contribution to the literature on Asian America." – Lane Hirabayashi, University of Colorado
"Chin gathers lost legends, children's stories, personal histories, tall tales, and polemics and cobbles them together into a startling, comprehensive theory of Asian American culture with an ancient past and a global reach.... The only fearless writer in Asian America is as vital now as he ever was. When the melting pot boils over again, Asian American literature will find itself back at the crossroads. Frank Chin, the trickster-devil, will be waiting." --The Village Voice
"The Year of the Dragon barges through the comfortable stereotypes of the Asian American - the quiet, hardworking contented character who keeps to himself, rarely bothering the white community. It is not an 'easy' play. The language is frequently strong, and the bitterness, even when wrapped in some very funny comedy, is unrelenting...But as a portrait of an Asian American's furious struggle for identity, the play is a searing statement, a powerful cry." -The New York Times
"The stories in Frank Chin’s first collection use fantasy, obscenity, slapstick, and acute introspection to describe the frenzied search for identity of a Chinese American artist." - The New York Times Book Review
"Frank Chin’s unique literary recipe - red hot chop suey laced with laughing powder and amphetamines - makes most so-called ‘modern’ writing look old-fashioned, chauvinistic, and tedious." - best-selling author Tom Robbins
"A complex and compelling work that takes us deep into the multicultural fabric of America." - Los Angeles Times Book Review