Golden Child by David Henry Hwang
"Golden Child" is a play written by David Henry Hwang, drawing from stories shared by his grandmother about her life in China. The narrative unfolds through a ten-year-old ghost, allowing for a unique exploration of generational ties and cultural heritage. The central character, Eng Tieng-Bin, grapples with his Chinese allegiance to his three wives while feeling the pull of American Christianity, which necessitates his divorce from two of them. The play juxtaposes a contemporary American setting with flashbacks to early 20th-century China, where Eng Tieng-Bin returns to his village after encountering new religious and political ideas abroad.
As the story progresses, the tensions between traditional Confucian values and modern beliefs come to the forefront, particularly regarding the future of his daughter, Eng Ahn. The narrative raises profound questions about the legacies of cultural identity, the impact of modernization, and the choices families face as they navigate their heritage. "Golden Child" is part of Hwang's trilogy of domestic dramas, providing a rich context for understanding the complexities of tradition and change within immigrant experiences. The play invites audiences to reflect on how the past shapes the present and the ongoing dialogue between generations.
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Golden Child by David Henry Hwang
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First produced: 1996 (first published, 1998)
Type of work: Play
The Work
David Henry Hwang’s grandmother told stories about her life in China to her young grandson, who precociously recorded them in a novel at the age of ten. In 1996, Hwang’s juvenile novel was finally realized as a stage drama in Golden Child, a play narrated by a ten-year-old ghost. Focusing on the chasm between Eastern and Western religious and political practices, the play features Eng Tieng-Bin, a husband torn between his Chinese devotion to his three wives and his desire to embrace American Christianity, which mandates that he divorce two of them.
The curtain rises on a contemporary urban American scene, but soon the audience realizes that events will be anything but typical. A nervous Andrew Kwong, a young Chinese American, contemplates his imminent fatherhood from the backseat of a taxicab, when the ghost of his grandmother, Eng Ahn, materializes. As he envisions the next generation, as represented by his much anticipated child, she asks him to contemplate those generations of the past to which he is linked by blood. Ahn admonishes her amazed grandson to honor his ancestors and to revere his heritage. Quickly, time reverses itself and place shifts, taking the audience back to 1918 China. Andrew Kwong reappears as his grandfather, Eng Tieng Bin, and the ghost of Eng Ahn transforms into his living daughter, the golden child. The setting for the action of the play is now a humble Chinese village.
Eng Tieng Bin returns from a trip abroad, bringing to the isolated village new ideas about religion, education, and government. His chosen rebirth through baptism in the Christian faith is not mere spiritual transformation but an embrace of the modern. He believes Christianity to be a more enlightened faith than Confucianism, one that will allow the Chinese a foothold in the rapidly changing world of the twentieth century. As his wives struggle to understand their transformed husband and their altered situation—two of them must go—he must decide what to do with his favorite daughter, Eng Ahn. Will her tightly swaddled feet be unbound, or will she remain bound in the traditions of the past?
Golden Child brings closure to Hwang’s trilogy of domestic dramas, which include Family Devotions and Rich Relations, by placing his characters back in China to revisit events that transpired prior to the family’s immigration. The complex questions of which traditions to honor, which to revise, and which to abandon are never fully answered in Golden Child; they remain fertile ground for future explorations.
Bibliography
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