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I’m David Henry Hwang， and my Chinese name is Huang Zhelun. My parents are both immigrants. My father came from Shanghai， and my mother’s a Fujianese-Chinese from The Philippines. My mother was a pianist， and my father was a businessman. There was certainly no expectation that I was gonna grow up and become a writer or any sort of artist， and I wouldn’t have imagined that either for myself.
The whole process of becoming interested in playwriting didn’t really happen until college. When I was a freshman in college， we…the， just the dorm would go and see shows in the city， which is San Francisco， and I remember seeing some plays at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco， and thinking “Oh， maybe I can do that，” so I started writing some plays in my spare time， and I found a professor， John L’Heureux， who was willing to take a look at them—he was a novelist and the head of the Creative Writing Department—and he told me they were really bad， which they were， and that my problem was that I wanted to write plays， but I didn’t actually know anything about the theater. But John was a good guy， and then started to design a program for me， that I could see as many plays and read as many plays as I could， and we essentially created a playwriting major that I could do 1）under the auspices of the English Department， and that was what I ended up studying.
You know， I always feel that my parents were kind of extraordinary in being Chinese-American immigrant parents， who accepted fairly 2）readily the notion that their son was going to become a playwright.
我叫戴维·亨利·黄，我的中文名是黄哲伦。我的父母都是移民，父亲来自上海，母亲是祖籍福建的菲律宾华裔。我的母亲是一名钢琴家，父亲则是一名商人。他们绝对没想到我长大以后会当上作家或是什么艺术家，我自己也不曾想过。
我直到上大学时才逐渐对写剧本产生了兴趣。在我还是个大一新生的时候，我们……呃，整个宿舍会去城里看表演，也就是旧金山。我还记得我们在美国戏剧学院看了几部戏剧，我不禁想“也许我可以干这行”。于是我开始利用空闲时间写了几部剧，并且找到了一位愿意帮我看看的教授——约翰·拉贺。他是一名小说家，还是创意写作系的负责人。他说我那几部剧写得一塌糊涂（它们确实很糟糕），我的毛病在于我想创作剧本，却对戏剧一无所知。不过，约翰是个好人，他随后给我设计课程，让我可以尽情地看表演、读剧本。我们实际上搞成了一个归入英语系底下的剧本写作专业，结果那就成了我的专业。
我一直觉得我的父母很了不起——作为美籍华裔移民，他们欣然接受了儿子要当一名剧作家这件事。
I usually have some sort of question that I’m trying to answer for myself. Writing is a way for me to understand how I really feel about a…a matter， even， you know， sort of in my subconscious， even beyond what I know. For instance， you know， my probably best-known play is M. Butterfly， and it’s based on the true story of a French diplomat who had a 20-year affair with a Chinese actress， and the diplomat claimed that he never knew that his lover was actually a man， and so there’s a very obvious question there： how could the diplomat not have known？ And I think that， when things excite me and make me really curious， then I want to write about them. I feel like all you can really do is write what you wanna write about and write what you believe in. 我常常遇到某个问题，就会尝试自问自答。写作就是一种途径，让我理解自己对一件事情的真实感受……类似于在我的潜意识里的东西，甚至超出了我所知道的范畴。例如，我最有名的戏剧大概就是《蝴蝶君》了，这是根据真人真事创作而成的，讲的是一名法国外交官与一名中国名伶交往了20年，而这位外交官声称他从未发觉自己的爱人其实是个男人，这就带来了一个显而易见的疑问：他怎么可能没发现呢？当这些事情引起了我的兴趣、让我特别好奇时，我就会想将它们写下来。我认为你能做的就是写自己想写的东西，写你相信是对的东西。
I think that there are advantages and disadvantages to being a Chinese-American writer. I mean， I came up during a period when people weren’t， Asian-Americans in general， weren’t writing about ourselves 3）by and large， and so I think it became important for us to define that and be able to create kind of a Chinese-American / AsianAmerican literature， which， where we were able to kind of express the truth and the three-dimensionality of our own lives and experience.
我认为当一名美籍华裔作家有其优势，也有很多不利因素。我的意思是，在我崭露头角的那个年代，一般来说，亚裔美国人大多不会写自己的事情。因此，我们自己给自己的事情下定义、创立华裔/亚裔美国文学流派就显得至关重要了。有了自己的流派，我们就可以真实立体地表达出自己的生活经历。
I’ve had a lot of 4）flops. Everybody， who works in the theater， has more flops than hits by a huge amount. Failure is really important， because if you don’t fail， it means that you’re not taking enough risks， and if you’re not taking enough risks， you’re not going to discover new things. If it goes to 5）Broadway， if it becomes a movie， it’s， that’s all 6）icing on the cake， but it shouldn’t be the cake.
Write something that feels real to you， and that means not necessarily thinking that there’s a formula， that there’s a way to do this so that you’re going to become rich or that you get a movie produced or get a play on Broadway， but you’re writing something that’s meaningful to you.
我也有过很多失败的作品。在戏剧界工作，每个人笔下的失败作数量都远远超过卖座的作品。失败是很重要的，因为如果你没经历过失败，那就意味着你所冒的风险还不够；如果所冒的风险不够，你就不会有新的发现。一部作品如果能在百老汇演出，能被拍成电影，那都只是锦上添花，而不应该是创作的目的。
写出你自己认为真实的东西，也就是说，不要老想着写作有什么定式，别以为写作有那么一条捷径能让你名成利就，能让你的作品登上大银幕或者在百老汇登台——你所写的应该是对你自己来说意义深远的事情。
The whole process of becoming interested in playwriting didn’t really happen until college. When I was a freshman in college， we…the， just the dorm would go and see shows in the city， which is San Francisco， and I remember seeing some plays at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco， and thinking “Oh， maybe I can do that，” so I started writing some plays in my spare time， and I found a professor， John L’Heureux， who was willing to take a look at them—he was a novelist and the head of the Creative Writing Department—and he told me they were really bad， which they were， and that my problem was that I wanted to write plays， but I didn’t actually know anything about the theater. But John was a good guy， and then started to design a program for me， that I could see as many plays and read as many plays as I could， and we essentially created a playwriting major that I could do 1）under the auspices of the English Department， and that was what I ended up studying.
You know， I always feel that my parents were kind of extraordinary in being Chinese-American immigrant parents， who accepted fairly 2）readily the notion that their son was going to become a playwright.
我叫戴维·亨利·黄，我的中文名是黄哲伦。我的父母都是移民，父亲来自上海，母亲是祖籍福建的菲律宾华裔。我的母亲是一名钢琴家，父亲则是一名商人。他们绝对没想到我长大以后会当上作家或是什么艺术家，我自己也不曾想过。
我直到上大学时才逐渐对写剧本产生了兴趣。在我还是个大一新生的时候，我们……呃，整个宿舍会去城里看表演，也就是旧金山。我还记得我们在美国戏剧学院看了几部戏剧，我不禁想“也许我可以干这行”。于是我开始利用空闲时间写了几部剧，并且找到了一位愿意帮我看看的教授——约翰·拉贺。他是一名小说家，还是创意写作系的负责人。他说我那几部剧写得一塌糊涂（它们确实很糟糕），我的毛病在于我想创作剧本，却对戏剧一无所知。不过，约翰是个好人，他随后给我设计课程，让我可以尽情地看表演、读剧本。我们实际上搞成了一个归入英语系底下的剧本写作专业，结果那就成了我的专业。
我一直觉得我的父母很了不起——作为美籍华裔移民，他们欣然接受了儿子要当一名剧作家这件事。
I usually have some sort of question that I’m trying to answer for myself. Writing is a way for me to understand how I really feel about a…a matter， even， you know， sort of in my subconscious， even beyond what I know. For instance， you know， my probably best-known play is M. Butterfly， and it’s based on the true story of a French diplomat who had a 20-year affair with a Chinese actress， and the diplomat claimed that he never knew that his lover was actually a man， and so there’s a very obvious question there： how could the diplomat not have known？ And I think that， when things excite me and make me really curious， then I want to write about them. I feel like all you can really do is write what you wanna write about and write what you believe in. 我常常遇到某个问题，就会尝试自问自答。写作就是一种途径，让我理解自己对一件事情的真实感受……类似于在我的潜意识里的东西，甚至超出了我所知道的范畴。例如，我最有名的戏剧大概就是《蝴蝶君》了，这是根据真人真事创作而成的，讲的是一名法国外交官与一名中国名伶交往了20年，而这位外交官声称他从未发觉自己的爱人其实是个男人，这就带来了一个显而易见的疑问：他怎么可能没发现呢？当这些事情引起了我的兴趣、让我特别好奇时，我就会想将它们写下来。我认为你能做的就是写自己想写的东西，写你相信是对的东西。
I think that there are advantages and disadvantages to being a Chinese-American writer. I mean， I came up during a period when people weren’t， Asian-Americans in general， weren’t writing about ourselves 3）by and large， and so I think it became important for us to define that and be able to create kind of a Chinese-American / AsianAmerican literature， which， where we were able to kind of express the truth and the three-dimensionality of our own lives and experience.
我认为当一名美籍华裔作家有其优势，也有很多不利因素。我的意思是，在我崭露头角的那个年代，一般来说，亚裔美国人大多不会写自己的事情。因此，我们自己给自己的事情下定义、创立华裔/亚裔美国文学流派就显得至关重要了。有了自己的流派，我们就可以真实立体地表达出自己的生活经历。
I’ve had a lot of 4）flops. Everybody， who works in the theater， has more flops than hits by a huge amount. Failure is really important， because if you don’t fail， it means that you’re not taking enough risks， and if you’re not taking enough risks， you’re not going to discover new things. If it goes to 5）Broadway， if it becomes a movie， it’s， that’s all 6）icing on the cake， but it shouldn’t be the cake.
Write something that feels real to you， and that means not necessarily thinking that there’s a formula， that there’s a way to do this so that you’re going to become rich or that you get a movie produced or get a play on Broadway， but you’re writing something that’s meaningful to you.
我也有过很多失败的作品。在戏剧界工作，每个人笔下的失败作数量都远远超过卖座的作品。失败是很重要的，因为如果你没经历过失败，那就意味着你所冒的风险还不够；如果所冒的风险不够，你就不会有新的发现。一部作品如果能在百老汇演出，能被拍成电影，那都只是锦上添花，而不应该是创作的目的。
写出你自己认为真实的东西，也就是说，不要老想着写作有什么定式，别以为写作有那么一条捷径能让你名成利就，能让你的作品登上大银幕或者在百老汇登台——你所写的应该是对你自己来说意义深远的事情。