Words Matter

Paul Stephen Lim: Interview by King-Kok Cheung

2 Paul Stephen Lim Interview by K I N G - K O K C H E U N G I saw Paul Stephen Lim’s play Mother Tongue when it was staged by the East West Players in 1988. I was so impressed by its use of English composition lessons to introduce flashbacks and to advance the plot, its suspenseful revelation of the mother’s tragic story, and its bold treatment of homoerotic material that I wrote the playwright to express my admiration. Rereading the play recently, I was also struck by how much it resonates with current debates in Asian American literary circles over claiming an “American” or a “diasporic” identity. The protagonist, David Lee, was born in Manila but was denied Filipino citizenship because his parents are Chinese. His decision to become a naturalized American citizen sparks a heated confrontation with his mother, whose other son was killed by American soldiers at the end of World War II. The protagonist’s predicament concerning nationality parallels that of the playwright, who says that he never feels “at home” anywhere. Lim was born in Manila of Chinese parents in 1944. He emigrated to the United States in 1968 but did not become an American citizen until 1982. He earned his B.A. and M.A. in English at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, where he is currently an associate professor of English. He is the author of a collection of short stories, Some Arrivals, but Mostly Departures (1982), and eleven plays. Conpersonas, his first play, was judged best original script in the 1976 American College Theatre Festival. Woeman (1978) and Flesh, Flash and Frank Harris (1980) were both produced off Broadway in New York, Points of Departure (1978) and Mother Tongue (1988) at the East West Players in Los Angeles, and Homerica (1985) in Leicester, England (for publication information, see the selected bibliography). Figures in Clay was given a staged reading at the 1990 Modern Language Association convention in Chicago. Report to the River (1997), his latest play, won top prize in the playwriting competition at the Edward Albee Theatre Conference (June, 1999). Lim is also the founder, artistic director, and producing coordinator for the English Alternative Theatre (EAT), a group whose primary objective is to nurture the work of his playwriting students . In 1996, at the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival (KC/ACTF) festival in St. Louis, Lim was awarded a gold medallion from the Kennedy Center for his work with student playwrights. The following interview began in June 1997 when I taught a graduate seminar for the Multicultural Literary Institute in the English Department at the University of Kansas, Lawrence; it was later completed by email exchanges after my return to Los Angeles. Getting to know Lim better was my bonus for visiting the University of Kansas. He was full of stories about his own family members, local Lawrence residents, other writers and artists, and his (male) dog, Imelda, who actually figures in Figures in Clay. But I came away with the feeling that his talent has been insufficiently recognized in Asian American cultural circles, partly because he is “hidden” in Lawrence, and partly because many of his plays do not revolve around Asian (American) characters. What he said of 41 Paul Stephen Lim Taiwanese American director Ang Lee is also true of himself: “The world is . . . his oyster.” K K C What was it like for someone of Chinese descent to grow up in the Philippines? Now that you are an American citizen, do you consider yourself Chinese American or Filipino American? P S L Because they were (and continue to be) a minority group that controlled the economy of the Philippines, the Overseas Chinese were feared, hated, and reviled when I was growing up in Manila from the forties through the mid-sixties . However, as a member of this minority group, I was taught that we were superior to the Filipinos, not just economically , but also intellectually, culturally, etc. Thus, I was not encouraged to develop friendships with people other than other very boring (in my opinion) Overseas Chinese. Here, in America, I consider myself Asian American in general (to include my Philippine background) but Chinese American in particular. There are no Philippine restaurants in Lawrence, Kansas, and I do miss some of the Philippine foods I grew up with. But, if I had to choose between Philippine cuisine and Chinese cuisine...