The comedy Chinglish by Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang presented in San Francisco to celebrate Asian Heritage Month

(SAN FRANCISCO) Chinglish, a play written by Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang, is presented in San Francisco performing from May 4 to June 10 in celebration of Asian Heritage Month.

The play is a comedy about an American businessman desperate to launch a new enterprise in China. It premiered in Chicago, Illinois, in June 2011 and later on Broadway in October 2011.

In 2015, Chinglish was performed in Los Angeles. After the Los Angeles-born Hwang saw the play at his namesake theatre, David Henry Hwang Theater in the Historic Union Center for the Arts, he decided to rewrite the ending of the play to better reflect the current relations between China and the United States. The new ending was premiered in Los Angeles during the two-week extension.

"The U.S. and China are at a critical moment in history—each nation is deeply interested in, but knows very little about the other. Chinglish was born from the many visits I have made to China over the past five or six years to witness the exciting changes there. During one visit, I toured a new arts center where everything was first-rate—except for the ridiculously translated English signs. It was at that moment I thought of writing this play," said Hwang.

Hwang is an Chinese American playwright and the first Asian American to win the Tony Award in the American history for his best-known play M. Butterfly premiered in 1988.

Hwang's early plays focused on the role of Chinese American and Asian American in the contemporary world, according to Wikipedia.

Hwang received his bachelor's degree in English from Stanford University and master degree in drama from Yale University. He continues to work on his plays and teaches at Columbia University in New York City.

In the comedy Chinglish, the American businessman travels to China in search of a lucrative contract for his family's sign-making firm. He soon finds that the complexities of the venture, he learns that the differences in language, customs and manners are far more than he expects.

In celebration of Asian Heritage Month, San Francisco Playhouse, located at Union Square, presents the Chinglish from May 4 to June 10. The comedy is performed in English and one quarter of the dialogue in Mandarin with projected English supertitles.

Chinglish's San Francisco performance is directed by Filipino-American Jeffrey Lo and played by Michael Barrett Austin as the American sign manufacturer, Alex Hsu as the Minister of Culture in China, Sharon Shao as a translator and a prosecutor, Nicole Tung as the Vice Minister of Culture in China, Phil Wong as a translator and a judge, Xun Zhang as a translator.

More information of the Chinglish performance in San Francisco can be found at www. sfplayhouse.org.