DAVID HENRY HWANG

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:01]History is fundamental, so let's celebrate Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Today, we honor the first Asian-American playwright to win a Tony Award, David Henry Fong.

[00:00:14]David Henry Fong was born in 1957 in Los Angeles, where his father, Chinese immigrant Henry Fong, opened the first Asian-American federally chartered bank in the continental United States called the Far East National Bank.

[00:00:27]He graduated from Stanford University in 1979 with a degree in English and in 1980 he won an OBI award for best new play for fresh off the boat.

[00:00:38]He later attended the Yale School of Drama for a more in-depth study of theater.

[00:00:44]David is also known as America's most produced living opera libertist. A Grammy award winner, he has written 13 liberty, including five with composer Philip Glass. His numerous plays include Shang English and Yellowface, which was revived last year on Broadway starring Daniel Day Kim and won a Tony Award for actor Francis Jew. In 2018, he was inducted into the theater hall of fame and in 2022, he was elected to be in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

[00:01:16]However, he is best known for his 1988 Tony Award-winning masterpiece in Butterfly. It was based on a true story about a French diplomat that had a long love affair with a singer in the Beijing Opera who turned out to be both a man and a spy for the Chinese government.

[00:01:34]David was a major advocate for non-traditional casting in theater during the 1980s and 90s, but opposed casting white actors in roles originally written for minorities.

[00:01:45]This stemmed from a lack of opportunities for minority actors back in the day.

[00:01:52]During that period, casting directors rarely called in minorities to audition for classical works by Shakespeare, Molair, or Sophocles.

[00:02:01]That's why this Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we honor David Henry Palm, the first Asian-American playwright to win a Tony Award.