21 Facts About Frank Chin

Frank Chin is considered to be one of the pioneers of Asian-American theatre.

Frank Chin was born in Berkeley, California on February 25,1940.

Frank Chin remained under the care of a retired vaudeville couple in Placerville, California until he was 6.

At that time, his mother brought him back to the San Francisco Bay Area and thereafter Chin grew up in Oakland Chinatown.

Frank Chin attended the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1965.

Early in his career, Frank Chin worked as a story editor and scriptwriter on Sesame Street and as a reporter for KING-TV in Seattle.

Frank Chin is considered to be one of the pioneers of Asian-American theatre.

Frank Chin founded the Asian American Theater Workshop, which later became the Asian American Theater Company in 1973.

Frank Chin first gained notoriety as a playwright in the 1970s.

Frank Chin has accused other Asian American writers, particularly Maxine Hong Kingston, of furthering such stereotypes and misrepresenting the traditional stories.

Frank Chin's novel, Born in the USA, is dedicated to this subject.

Frank Chin was one of several writers who worked to republish John Okada's novel No-No Boy in the 1970s; Frank Chin contributed an afterword which can be found in every reprinting of the novel.

Frank Chin has appeared in Jeff Adachi's The Slanted Screen, a 2006 documentary film about stereotypical depictions of Asian males in American cinema.

Frank Chin was an instrumental organizer for the first Day of Remembrance.

Frank Chin was married for five years to Kathy Chang in the 1970s.

Frank Chin was a Sino-American political activist, writer, and performance artist.

Frank Chin would go on to criticize the movie in the May 1976 issue of Mother Jones.

What's Wrong with Frank Chin is a 2005 biographical documentary, directed by Curtis Choy, about Chin's life.

Frank Chin was interviewed in the documentary The Slanted Screen, directed by Jeff Adachi, about the representation of Asian and Asian American men in Hollywood.

Frank Chin directed a documentary short in 1972, The Last Temple about the Taoist temple in Hanford, California, which dates back to 1893, and the effort to preserve and restore it.

Handman had produced Frank Chin's two plays at the American Place Theatre, and Frank Chin was one of the interview subjects.