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Overview
Synopsis
An American businessman named Daniel Cavanaugh travels to China in the hopes of scoring a contract for his family’s sign-making business. Ready to tackle the obvious struggles that can come from an American doing business in China (namely language barriers and culture shock), Daniel doesn’t realize that doing business in China is much more complex than he’d hoped. Daniel’s ‘consultant’, Peter, teaches him about Guanxi, the system of social networks and influential relationships that facilitate business in China, and the two of them get started trying to create a relationship with Minister Cai. However, Guanxi gets in Daniel’s way and he needs to find another way in...that’s when the Vice Minister Xi Yan steps in to save the day. Daniel forms a relationship with her and, as he follows her advice, he begins to fall in love. They learn to communicate in their own form of Chinglish, but so they learn that some things aren’t so easily translated.
Show Information
- Book
- David Henry Hwang
- Category
- Play
- Age Guidance
- Mature Audiences (M)
- Number of Acts
- 2
- First Produced
- 2011
- Genres
- Dark Comedy
- Time & Place
- The present. An American assembly room and the city of Guiyang, China
- Cast Size
- medium
- Licensor
- Theatre Communications Group (TCG)
- Ideal For
- Diverse Cast, Regional Theatre, Mostly Male Cast, Includes Adult, Mature Adult, Young Adult Characters, Medium Cast
Context
Chinglish premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 2011, directed by Leigh Silverman. After a successful run it transferred to Broadway later that year, running for about 3 months, and the show was nominated for 3 Drama Desk Awards, including Best Play. In 2015 Chinglish was produced at East West Players in Los Angeles and David Henry Hwang rewrote the ending to better reflect current relations between China and the United States.
David Henry Hwang describes Chinglish as a play
to read the context for Chinglish and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Plot
Act One, Scene 1
Daniel Cavanaugh is in Ohio giving a presentation about doing business in China. We meet him as he’s beginning his introduction where he gives examples of mistranslated signs (he owns a sign-making company), and then gives some history about how Chinese characters were simplified for the masses after the Communist government came to power. He ends his intro with what he believes is the most important thing to remember when doing business in China: always bring your own
to read the plot for Chinglish and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Characters
| Name | Part Size | Gender | Vocal Part |
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Lead |
Male |
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Lead |
Male |
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Lead |
Female |
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Supporting |
Male |
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Supporting |
Female |
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Supporting |
Male |
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Featured |
Male |
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Featured |
Female |
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Featured |
Female |
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Ensemble |
Either Gender |
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Songs
A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.
Monologues
Scenes
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Videos
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Themes, Symbols & Motifs
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