Joyce Hsu
When you meet Joyce Hsu, you are taken aback that this very accomplished person is so petite and mild mannered. But looks are deceiving. Behind that gentle voice and shy smile is a woman of many talents and strengths who knows what she wants to do with her life, and is doing it.
It is no wonder that Joyce has shown her talent as a prolific playwright as she was raised in a family where the literary world was loved and appreciated. Her father, a well respected journalist in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and her mother, a writer herself of plays and books, had a big impact on Joyce Hsu’s life. Although Joyce came to California from Taiwan in 1965 to pursue graduate studies in biochemistry at Caltech, since 1996 she has found her personal satisfactory niche in the field of play writing and cartoons.
Born in China, and native of both Taiwan and Hong Kong, Joyce married her college sweetheart, Ta Lin Hsu, and raised two sons and a daughter living in Silicon Valley. She admits a turning point came into her life in 1996 when she was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. Realizing that cancer was not something many Chinese talked about or knew much about, she became a volunteer with the American Cancer Society’s Northern California Chinese Unit (NCCU) and was elected president in 2001. She edited the group’s newsletter, showing her artistic talent of creating cartoons, and ultimately produced two cartoon books focusing on humor for hospital patients. Titled “The Best Medicine” and “Laugh Along The Way” these paperback books would give any hospital patient a little to laugh at, which was her goal. She had doodled cartoons all her life, she recalls, and thinks humor is her best attribute.
Following a recurrence of cancer in 2005, Joyce is active in the Reach to Recovery program where she continues to support patients and works to enhance cancer awareness among Chinese communities both here and abroad. As she looks back, she recalls that during her recovery period she was able to rekindle her strong interest in the arts, theatre and script writing, something she had enjoyed doing since high school. In high school she produced little comedy skits, saying, “I love making people laugh so all of my works are comedies.” Since 1996, Joyce Hsu has written and produced the following: “Who’s The Winner,” “Date of a Lifetime”, “ His-Shih-The Aching Heart”. “A
Bushel of Love”, “Yin and Yang”, and “It’s Too Much Trouble to Change Your Wife”.
Fei Yue Shi Ji Group
All of her plays have been written and performed in Chinese with English subtitles on a side stage screen large enough to be enjoyed by both non-Chinese literate American Born Chinese and Caucasians alike. One of which – “It’s Too Much Trouble to Change Your Wife” was showcased in Shanghai’s Grand Theatre.
Her latest, “Soaring Over A Century: A Family Saga: will be presented at the San Jose Repertory Theater on August 6-7. The play will be performed on stage with her Hua Hi Performing Arts group. The story is about four generations, beginning with the grandfather telling his two sons about their great grandfather’s role in protecting President Sun Yat Sen’s life by often posing as Mr. Sun himself at times to deflect attention and possible harm to the president. From there, the story line goes from the two sons being separated, one remaining in China while the other son escapes to live in Taiwan. Both join their respective country’s air force and they learn much later that at one time, they could have been fighting each other during an air battle between the two countries.
Director of this three performance show is Hongtong Lin, a nationally renowned screenwriter and director with more than 50 years of teaching experience as professor emeritus of Beijing Film Academy. The play’s actors come from all walks of life, and carry on full time jobs besides rehearsing nightly for the past three months. Joyce says her play has a cast of 30 on stage actors in addition to 20 persons back stage and the 500 seat San Jose Repertory theatre is a nice venue for having this intimate play introducing a part of the family
For more information, visit www. Huayi.org or contact playwright herself at JoyceHsu88@yahoo.com.
Cartoonist – Playwright – Volunteer – Cancer survivor – happy wife, mother and grandmother. She is a little lady, but a bundle of energy and talent in whatever she pursues.
