01 Dec / Fixer Chao by Han Ong + Author Profile [in aMagazine: Inside Asian America]
aList 100
23. Han Ong: The Literary World’s Latest Darling
Han Ong finds it “surprising and shocking and ticklish” that his first book is doing so well. Called an “inventively malevolent debut novel” by the New York Times, Fixer Chao is about a Filipino hustler turned Chinese feng shui master. Darkly funny and filled with countless scathing allusions to everyone and everything, Ong’s novel seems to find intense pleasure in exposing the theater world, which, ironically, is where Ong found his original acclaim.
Also known as a talented playwright with such credits as Chang Fragments at the Public Theater, and last year’s acclaimed Middle Finger at Ma-Yi (that title should not go unnoticed), Ong is, for the time being, taking a hiatus from scripts and sticking to prose. He’s concentrating on a new novel: “I can’t say anything about it because it will probably change,” he insists. But he’s got a self-imposed deadline to finish – the middle of next year – because that’s when the generous grant that came with being named a MacArthur Genius in 1997 runs out.
“During the grant period, I haven’t had to worry about getting a job, I could concentrate on writing and not tailoring my writing to suit commercial tastes.” Now as he scribbles away, the Philippines-born Ong has got an even loftier goal in mind: “I’m waiting to become a little more famous, so that maybe someone will give me a free pass to get my [U.S.] citizenship.” For now, he says, “I’m a tremendously lazy human being. I just can’t get my head wrapped around the idea of waiting in all those lines, filling out all those papers. Besides, if the rest of America doesn’t know who the 23rd president is, then why should I?”
ALSO NOTE: This past year, Ploughshares editor Don Lee published his first short story collection, Yellow, and Gen-Y-er Vickie Nam conceived of and edited Yell-Oh Girls! Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American.
Author profile: “aList 100 | 23. Han Ong: The Literary World’s Latest Darling,” aMagazine: Inside Asian America, December 2001/January 2002
Readers: Adult
Published: 2001