The Chickencoop Chinaman by Frank Chin
**Overview of *The Chickencoop Chinaman* by Frank Chin**
*The Chickencoop Chinaman* is a play by Frank Chin that explores the complexities of racial identity and cultural heritage as experienced by a Chinese American writer named Tam Lum. Set against the backdrop of historical discrimination faced by Chinese Americans, the narrative follows Tam as he visits Pittsburgh to gather materials for a documentary about a famous black boxer. This journey prompts Tam to confront his struggles with his own identity, having previously distanced himself from his cultural roots in an attempt to assimilate into mainstream society.
Throughout the play, Tam reflects on his childhood memories of listening to his grandmother's stories about Chinese railroad builders and gold miners, recognizing a profound absence of such narratives in his current life. His earlier aspirations to write about the heroism of his people clash with the societal pressures that urge him to forget his heritage. The turning point comes when he realizes the importance of embracing his identity and sharing these untold stories with the younger generation. Ultimately, the play culminates in a poignant moment where Tam encourages children to listen to their cultural history, reaffirming the significance of preserving one's roots in the face of assimilation.
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The Chickencoop Chinaman by Frank Chin
First produced: 1972, at the American Place Theatre, New York City
First published: 1981, with The Year of the Dragon
The Work
The Chickencoop Chinaman is a subtle depiction of the experiences of a Chinese American writer who loses and then regains his racial identity and cultural heritage. Laced with historical allusions to legislative and euphemized discrimination against Chinese Americans, the play centers on a visit the writer, Tam Lum, makes to Pittsburgh to collect materials for a documentary film about a famous black boxer. The events that take place during his visit make him realize that what he should do is pursue the lonely mission of telling stories to the unassimilated children of the Chinese railroad builders and gold miners.
The play begins with Tam telling an airline hostess that he was born to be a writer for “the Chinamans sons of Chinamans.” As the ensuing scenes show, he has never had a chance to write about the heroism of his people. When a boy, he used to sit in the kitchen, listening to his grandmother’s stories of the Chinese railroaders, but he heard no such stories on the radio. In his desperate search for a hero of his own race, he imagined that the Lone Ranger with his mask was a Chinese American in disguise. To his dismay, the Ranger turned out to be a decrepit white racist who ordered Tam to go back to Chinatown to preserve his culture.
Ironically, there was no Chinatown to which Tam could return to preserve his culture, for the old people there were trying to forget their history in order to survive. They urged him to destroy the past and get assimilated. Thus, he turned his back on his father, eradicated his memory of the railroaders, and married a white woman. A few years later, he found himself incompetent as a writer, deserted by his wife, and forgotten by his children. In order to keep himself busy and give his children a gift, he decided to make a film about a black former boxer and his father, Mr. Popcorn, who lived in Pittsburgh.
In Pittsburgh, Tam discovers that the boxer has invented a father. Mr. Popcorn adamantly refuses to play a fake father in a documentary film and chastises Tam for betraying his real father. Tam’s plan for the film collapses; however, he learns that he must be true to his own identity and fulfill his destiny. The play ends with Tam standing in a kitchen, asking a group of children to turn off the radio and listen to the stories that his grandmother used to tell him about the Chinese railroaders in the Old West.
Bibliography
Chin, Frank, et al. Aiiieeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers. New York: Mentor, 1991. Contains Act I of The Chickencoop Chinaman and some biographical information.
Chin, Frank. “Confessions of the Chinatown Cowboy,” in Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars. IV (Fall, 1972), pp. 58-65.
Chin, Frank. Interview by Roland Winters, in Amerasia Journal. II (Fall, 1973), pp. 1-19.
Chen, Jack. The Chinese of America. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980.
Davis, Robert Murray. “Frank Chin: Iconoclastic Icon.” Redneck Review of Literature 23 (Fall, 1992): 75-78. A brief analysis of many of Chin’s works, including The Chickencoop Chinaman.
Kim, Elaine H. Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982. Contains a synopsis and an evaluation of many of Chin’s works, including The Chickencoop Chinaman.
Kim, Elaine H. “Frank Chin: The Chinatown Cowboy and His Backtalk,” in Midwest Quarterly. XX (Autumn, 1978), pp. 78-91.
Li, David Leiwei. “The Formation of Frank Chin and Formations of Chinese-American Literature.” In Asian Americans: Comparative and Global Perspectives. Edited by Shirley Hune et al. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1991. Explains Chin’s reordering of Chinese American history and his application of that history to The Chickencoop Chinaman. Evaluates Chin’s impact on Asian American literature.
McDonald, Dorothy Ritsuko. “An Introduction to Frank Chin’s The Chickencoop Chinaman and The Year of the Dragon.” In Three American Literatures: Essays in Chicano, Native American, and Asian-American Literature for Teachers of American Literature. Edited by Houston A. Baker. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1982. Probably the best critical analysis of The Chickencoop Chinaman and The Year of the Dragon (1974).
Samarth, Manini. “Affirmations: Speaking the Self into Being.” Parnassus: Poetry in Review 17, no. 1 (1992): 88-101.