Clarkstown HS Grad Delivers Minority Experience in Winning Screenplay

Isaac Ho’s writing has earned him many awards and accolades since graduating from Clarkstown High School South in 1985. Ho recently returned to New York, after living in California since 1994, to accept his latest honor.

His screenplay “The Chinese Delivery Man” is the 2013 winner of the Asian American International Screenplay Competition. He was invited to do a reading of the screenplay during the Asian American International Film Festival Special Events program last week.

“Being an American born child of immigrants myself I wanted to use my own experiences being treated like an outsider in my own country to inform this story,” said Ho. “Part of the racial tensions we're experiencing in this country now is from the lack of stories about immigrant and minority families, especially stories told from our point of view.”

The screenplay for “The Chinese Delivery Man” is adapted from his novel with the same title and is inspired by the real life murders of Chinese deliverymen that occurred in New York City about 12 years ago.

“Usually a crime story focuses on the detectives working the case,” said Ho, who has written four novels total. “I wanted to focus the story on the victim's family and see the aftermath of a brutal murder through the eyes of an immigrant family.”

Ho’s experience at Clarkstown High School South contributed to the distinction’s he’s earned while writing his screenplays and novels, which also include “The Repatriation of Henry Chin,” “Death in Chinatown,”  “1,001 Ways to Enjoy the Missionary Position” and “Hell is Full of Strippers.” 

While a student at Clarkstown High School South—Ho, who was an honor student, was active in the drama club and performed in school plays and musicals. He also played the baritone horn and trombone in the high school marching band.

“I credit my ninth grade English teacher Richard de Rosa for inspiring me to write,” said Ho, who has a BFA in Drama from New York University and a MFA in screenwriting from UCLA.

Throughout his career Ho has received the AT&T/Asian American Arts Foundation Grant; the Stephen N. Gershenson Award for Screenwriting; the SF Weekly Black Box Award for Outstanding Play; and was a semi-finalist for the ABC/Disney Writing Fellowship. 

“The experience of white characters is considered ‘universal’ while the experience of minority characters tend to be considered marginal and inaccessible to mainstream culture—or worse, treated like a freak show,” Ho explained. “I wanted to make these characters feel real and impossible to ignore. The first step to changing that is for us to take control of the narrative and tell our own stories. The next step is to get our stories out there so people can have an opportunity through fiction to walk in someone else's shoes.”