Ill Communication
As opposed to the similar portmanteau “Spanglish,” which simply refers to speaking a blend of Spanish and English, the word “Chinglish” has a very specific connotation of amusingly garbled English badly translated from Chinese, especially on signs in China reposted mockingly on the internet. To take two examples mentioned in David Henry Hwang’s play Chinglish, now being given its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, a disabled-accessible restroom is labeled “deformed man’s toilet” or the dry goods pricing department becomes “fuck the certain price of goods.” If the latter example seems especially incomprehensible, as the American protagonist Daniel explains in the opening monologue, under the simplified writing system imposed by Chairman Mao, the characters for “dry” and “to do” were merged.
The Waking Point
It’s a good thing that Lisa Kron’s new play has been renamed since its premiere this March at L.A.’s Kirk Douglas Theatre. Down there it was called The Wake, which is misleading because although a funeral is mentioned at one point, it’s not really a major plot point. Now that the world premiere production has come to Berkeley Rep it’s called In the Wake, which may be a bit cryptic but is more apt, as ultimately the play deals with the damage each of us leaves in his or her wake like Godzillas of emotion.
