Philip Kan Gotanda (right) performing his original music in 1979 with David Hwang. (Photo courtesy of Philip Kan Gotanda, copyright Diane Takei 2021)
In the second part of a three-part series, playwright and UC Berkeley professor Philip Kan Gotanda discusses how he began to write music during the emerging Asian American movement, which began at Berkeley in the late 1960s. And how, after his music career didn’t take off as he’d hoped, he went to law school, where he wrote his first play. Now, he’s one of the most prolific playwrights of Asian American-themed work in the United States.
In the last episode, playwright and UC Berkeley professor Philip Kan Gotanda shared what it was like growing up in Stockton, California, as a Japanese American after World War II.
Philip Gotanda: I had all this, basically, internalized racism, self-hate, you know, which was not uncommon at that time if you weren’t white. In particular, if you were Asian. You didn’t want to be Asian, you didn’t like being Asian, you didn’t hang with Asians because it was uncool, in my generation.
Today, in the second part of a three-part series, Gotanda discusses how he began to write music during the emerging Asian American movement, which began at Berkeley in the late 1960s. And how, after his music career didn’t take off as he’d hoped, he went to law school, where he wrote his first play.